Toronto, Ontario — December 10, 2018 — Ford vehicles built in any model year from 2010 onward must receive a pre-scan during estimation, and a post-scan following any repair procedures, Ford announced on Monday. The decision follows similar announcements delivered throughout the past 18 months from Honda, Kia, General Motors and Toyota.
While the OEM did not specifically mandate anything for earlier vehicle models, it did refer repairers to the Ford/Lincoln Workshop Manual, which describes scanning procedures as a good diagnostic strategy is to resolve all on-demand codes.
“Retrieving all continuous DTCs can also be beneficial to understand historic issues or issues outside of the suspect system that may be affecting your concern. On-demand testing should be done to ensure the fault represented by a continuous DTC is still present.”
For the collision repair community, these OEM repair statements can provide a key resource for repairers who struggle to convince insurers of the need to perform pre- and post-repair scans. Not all members of the collision repair community have welcomed the increasing involvement of OEMs. One concern frequently voiced by the community is that OEMs could begin to mandate the use of certain tools or software, making some brands prohibitively expensive to repair. While widespread, this fear has not yet become a reality.
While Ford recommends the use of Integrated Diagnostic System or Ford Diagnosis and Repair System to repairers, it has not mandated the use of any particular diagnostic system. Likewise, the other major OEMs have made a distinction between the tools and software they recommend, and the procedures they consider obligatory.
