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Coming Soon

Coming Soon. I started down this path over a year ago. I bought a cheap 100 dollar ebay setup with some good reviews... but there are some things you need to know. Cheap units are great if you want to have to spend time learning every single option in the freeware programs that these machines come with through trial and error. It would make you a true source of knowledge on forums for these things but at the end of the day you need to remember that you only have so much f

This will be simple. I have a lot of apocryphon to get up and only so much time in the day for this. This is in response to the Autel feature removal issue that has angered many people. Xhorse has a sweet mobile app that allows for easy lookup that is ideal for quoting jobs and researching new situations you have not been in before outside of having to open up your tool crates. I spent over 5k so far on my tool knowledge and it will reflect here. Must have's: KM100 (post

Car came in the shop the other day needing brakes all the way around. It was a high mileage, for the year, 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe with electronic rear parking brakes. For those of you who don't know electronic parking brakes require being placed into service mode in order for you to be able to change the brake pads. Some vehicles you can do this through the radio in the car but a great many require a updated/newer style diagnostic computer in order to enter this mode. Some

The internet has existed for decades and its only taught people to ignore the value in what it has to offer them. Every day people ask me should I buy this car or that and I am getting tired of giving advice no one listens to. I see it all as a service manager albeit informed by the cars that come through my door. Here are some stories I have shared with people whose own families provided the data I gave them... which was summarily ignored. The people who still want to bu

This is coming oh so soon. I hope to have my own modification parts available for these budget machines to make them comparable to the 1500+ dollar machines everyone says you will need to even begin to cut keys. Given I can have cut keys at a local lock smith for less then 3 dollars a key it does not make sense to spend thousands on machines when you will need thousands in key blanks/remotes to even make a go of all this... Lets break down what I have purchased. Above is

I was loathed to find out that my new Autel IM508 tool did not have the features that made the tool as popular as it is today. It should be noted that any American based tool will eventually lose its value due to lawsuits and future NASTF registration requirements. That being said... there are not a lot of Chinese options immune to these regulations that are even on the same level as the Autel tools. Many require tokens and fees based on every single car or even every sing

I cannot even begin to review all the different types of travel router products made by this company. Given my budget for this project and its fabled value to begin with (this is all a pursuit of some rumors that have been floating around the internet) I bought what I saw as the diamond in the ruff. Not only that it shipped out via amazon even though I purchased directly through their website with a 10 dollar off coupon! First start: the instructions are not super straight

I WISH I did not have so much time and effort into trying to figure out what keys I need to stock to do all vehicles. Fobik and bladed keys throw a huge monkey wrench into the whole operation. For these two specific keys you most likely will need to stock keys that have FCCID codes already programmed into them... which is sad for us here in the aftermarket. There is a lot of money to be maid even at 1/3 the price the OEM charges but stocking keys is the largest singular ex

Coming soon Am I really about to try to update my Autel tools in order to add functionality of newer updates at the risk of losing the features I already have in regards to All Keys Lost? I have watched a couple of videos explaining how backing up your tools before hand can allow you to copy back the files you lost in order to retain that functionality... but does it really work? In that regard I LOVE blogs over silly videos on YouTube. There are many fools who discount r

I was excited to order my IM508... finally nearing the end of a long list of tools you need in order to do automotive keys in the present world. They say you should never update Autel tools and you should listen to them. But what if you get a tool that has been made after an update removes features? Can you get them back? Well, lets try some of "fixes" I have seen online with an assist to Nord VPN and something sneaky labelled a "travel VPN router".... one of the best prop

This is something I almost hate to mention but there are situations where it cannot be avoided. No one likes to hear "sorry but we have to wait until the problem gets worse to be able to prove what is wrong with your car" in this day and age: they expect quick results with a reasonable cost. If you have every had to fix a vehicle struck by lightening you would understand how time consuming diagnostics can really be. It is hard to relate such an experience to a customer whe

I saw this tool used in a YouTube video and thought it was pretty sick. While it is not the most modern option for Short Finding it is pretty cool to have old tools handy that still have a place in this modern automotive world. This is another tool not mentioned by name in a video that required me to use the snipping tool and do a google image source to locate. The gauge shows a direction of current flow when you hold it close to a wire harness that somewhere along the lin

Coming Soon But AI said.... Corvette oil pan story 2024 bronco story

I watch ALOT of videos these days. If you want to know something, depending on the subject, there can be hundreds of videos on YouTube for you to educate yourself with. Whether its reviews on tools you are interested in buying, diagnostic videos that can open your mind and help you refine your diagnostic process or even how to do keys on this vehicle or that vehicle... There is a great wealth of information available to you. After all, this entire blog is dedicated to the

Coming Soon! You guys are going to love this.... KeyDIY Phone As Key Xhorse Watch

I have used many different jump packs over the years starting with a conventional Snap On jump pack I bought when I started my career even though I literally never used it. Surprising isn't it? A tech that never needed to jump start a battery... To be honest I owned jumper cables that I never even used. Batteries just were not as critical when I started driving and working on cars as they are now a days. Let us go through some information you should know about buying a ju

Another shop came to me to clone a PCM for another ford 6.2L truck. I was excited, obviously, another satisfied customer spreading to everyone they know the value I provided them. I know I covered my basis with the customer when we talked about doing this: you can get a bad used computer, you might not even need a computer/lets diagnose it, here are the options new/used/repair that you have before you, worse case scenario you have a spare computer for down the road.  It wa

There is a little bit of a story here. For thousands of years stories were how people learned the knowledge their people had accumulated over the years. We have lost that in this day and age where we have unlimited data at our finger tips. It can be a huge benefit but it can weigh you down. Lets see if we can find some truth hidden in the mass of data about diagnostics. Enter a new customer with a Prius that does not move under its own power with a "service hybrid syste

I have to wonder.... With "vibrations that can cause nerve damage if driven a full race distance" and the only way to fix it is a complete redesign... I am looking forward to seeing how this is regulated. Manufacturers are allowed a certain amount of redesign based on their competitiveness but a complete replacement of the engine is almost an infinite amount of redesign. How can they make this fair for other teams? They would have to let everyone have a second take based