Repair information provider Mitchell 1 announced it will now offer interactive wiring diagrams. The announcement was made during a press conference at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta.
Comprehensive wiring diagrams are integral to the proper and efficient diagnosis of electrical issues on heavy duty trucks. Often times they are the resource technicians will rely on to both diagnose and verify the repair of an electrical system issue.
Interactive wiring diagrams allow technicians the ability to highlight specific areas of a wiring diagram based on component or system search or via diagnostic trouble codes, for example. Additional features include the ability to toggle highlighting of associated wires for each component without having to click each wire separately, and provide a simplified view highlighting functionality that extends across all the "pages" until the wire reaches its termination point. When performing a deep dive into a wiring diagram, hidden wires appear faded but will not disappear entirely, providing detail while preserving the full picture view. Active links of component names in the diagrams also help connect the user directly to complete component information.
The interactive wiring diagram feature is available on the TruckSeries truck repair software, which is accessible in any shop with internet access. Technicians can utilize the wiring diagrams on any scan tool in the shop. Ben Johnson, director of product management for Mitchell 1, noted that technicians utilizing Snap-on or NEXIQ diagnostic tools will have the added efficiency of accessing vehicle information and diagnostic trouble codes that will automatically transfer to the TruckSeries software to pull up the wiring diagrams automatically.
“As this complexity keeps coming at our technicians, we believe these diagrams are more and more important,” Johnson said.
Historically technicians have relied on their existing knowledge and previous diagnosing experiences to understand a potential vehicle issue.
“It's in their head, it's their experience," Johnson explained. "I grew up as a technician, and I can tell you when I would get into a vehicle, validate the customer's complaint or symptom - whatever that might be - and then drive the vehicle route or try to replicate that symptom, when I brought that vehicle into the bay... I had a pretty good idea [of the vehicle issue].”
Johnson advised this has worked well in the past but with the continued introduction of new vehicle technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), updates to fuel injection control systems, electric propulsion, and others, technicians may be at a loss for finding the correct components or wiring because they won't have the technical diagnostic experience of fixing the system before.
“When you're dealing with these newer technologies that continue to come at us - and they've come at us pretty fast in the last decade or so…the first time a technician hears about a symptom they don't have that history to look back on," Johnson said.
Access to this information is integral during a time when vehicle technology continues to evolve and vehicle system technology has advanced quickly. The electric components and their wiring will continue to increase, and so will the need for diagnostic information on these systems. This is where the interactive wiring diagrams can assist. “With all the technologies that continue to come out, all these things come with new diagrams, new circuits,” Johnson explained.
