FordTechCA

i used it again today but used the need to talk to a person option, filled out the online form, submitted it and got an instant contact ID to call. so now it just ads a few extra minutes to doing it the old way. actually i think my call got answered faster then normal today

yeah i saw that too but havent had a chance to try it out, im knee deep in a 7.3L replacing all the injector cups. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif

umm on the 03 motor with the round egr cooler the last 4 ive done ive twisted the hose and slide it back just enough to clear the housing it attaches too then slowly pry up on the pipe from the cooler just enough to slide off the hose and slide on the new hose, push down on the pipe to re-attach. charge it out normal and you just made a butt load of time /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rockon.gif havent had one leak yet. key is to pry slowly. yes the pipe bends with ease

i had my first expirance with the new hotline procedure. cant say i like it or dont like it yet. took just as long to get a response as it would of waiting on hold and talking to someone yet i dont think they really looked over the report i filed as i got the no matching concerns but feel free to call us if you still need to reply

well ive only had 5 surveys returned in the last 12 months. FIRTFT score was 100 and the lengeth of time to repair score was 90%. kinda inacurate anyways seeing very few customers actually return the surveys. the sucky thing about this is i wasnt eligible to qualify for the cruise drawing for the senior masters that continued to stay certified because the shop didnt meet the FIRTFT scores we had to meet.

i still read there, dont post much anymore. was starting to get tired of the same old rants and noticed there is alot of members but very few posting anything usefull. i also avoid IATN, tried to be helpful there but quickly saw they beat to their own tune there too.

we have been down that road too. self audit, then i guess it would be the next level audit we have also gone through with some minor charge backs and the auditor left with a few hints of things he saw that could cause future audits. right now we are high in transmissions and probably diesels. the boss came out the other day and said we need to repair more transmissions then replacing them like we have been doing. the 3 of us that do trans work just looked at him and asked what happens if we start reparing some that were boarderline and they end up coming back, whould that increase our numbers in repeat repairs? we have a hard enough time doing repairs on trans with the low cost caps and our warranty labor rate to Ford is $105 a hour. as for diesels, of course we are going to be high, we have 5 fully certified diesel techs and 1 thats only engine certified(he let his driveability cert lapse). at any given time we have enough 6.0L work to keep 3 of us busy 40 hours a week while the rest pick up the extra. i think we do more diesel work then alot of other dealers near us including dealers that are bigger then us, we only have 16 techs total so the reason our 6.0L numbers are higher. our problem is visiting owners, its a nice problem for us but hurts the numbers in the end as we are still very busy right now booking a week out. i would say 2/3's of the vehicles we service are bought from other dealers. another funny thing to add to this topic, the person that did our audit from ford is now our FSE. i wonder how much he really knows when it comes to repairing vehicles. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shrug.gif

we have been waiting over a month now at our dealer for a vcm. rumor i heard before ids was released, ford only ordered so many vcm's from their supplier and as we can see it wasnt enough

bumping this thread. posted this week, web based class should be availible 12-15-06 which is needed to attend the 3 day hands beginning a few weeks later. techs have to complete the web class by march 31st 2007 or have diesel certification expired. also must complete the hands on by the end of 2007 or also lose diesel certification

ive heard rumors VCM supplies are low and have been since IDS was released. my advice is to try and get just the VCM and cables if you can and supply your own laptop that meets the minimum specs. the VMM part of IDS is used very rarely, i'd say less then 5% of the time so buy that later. i try and ask for a PDS kit instead of IDS. the IDS and PDS software comes on the same disk anyways then buy the 2 cables need for IDS if you can. maybe that might work better then asking for an IDS kit. my dealer just ordered an VCM for IDS. the cables showed up in less the a week and we are still waiting on the VCM

piece of advice on IDS, dont throw away the disk you loaded IDS with or your most recent IDS disk. from what ive heard they are getting away from sending disks out and all updates will be from the web. so if for some reason you need to reload IDS the only way to get the calibration part of the IDS program is off your most recent disk. as for updating IDS, during the beta testing i found i had the least amount of trouble updating if all antivirus programs were disabled or turned off. just incase your not doing that now.

yeah it works ok. basicly if IDS is connected when you click on the quick start button on the pts site it pulls the vin if it can plus pulls pcm codes too. you dont have to have IDS running just have the VCM connected. it still need tweaking like its a work in progress but they gave us access to what they have as of now.

lol need any techs /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif seriously though once you get your IDS up and running youll be like i was, how did we go this long on the slow old WDS.

you can just buy the cables if you have access to a VCM. the software can be downloaded. has to be run on XP pro, home will not work wireless to the VCM doesnt work yet, no word if it will ever work. a desktop will work if it meets the minimum specs.

yes theres a cable to connect the VDR and convert it for use with IDS. i have had it for a few months now but havent had to use the VDR in awhile. seeing my dealer still hasnt bought an IDS im not going to use the shop VDR with the beta IDS package i have. my dealer is dragging his feet on IDS but we keep reminding him he doesnt have much time before WDS is no longer updated

hey guys, yes the same IDS VCM will also work with PDS. only thing you need is the different cable to connect to a pocketpc or connect to a laptop. if you have IDS already and a VCM just order the NGS+ to PDS conversion kit, $165 last time i looked. it has the cable to connect to the pocketpc cable and a shorter OBD2 cable. if you have a PDS and want to have your own cheeper IDS just get the cable that connects the VCM to the laptop. if you get your PDS software update by DVD you already know that the IDS software is included on it, last i knew. if not then you probably know that the IDS software can be downloaded on the PTS website, if your a ford tech, under the rotunda/ids section. hope this helps.

do you mean IDS tries to update the VCM code? if thats happening all the time when you connect the VCM to the laptop and fire up IDS, make sure your at the latest level of IDS software. the VCM software should only update with a new release of IDS software or the VCM software doesnt match with the level of IDS software your using. we have had that problem in our shop too because one tech wasnt current with his IDS software and everytime he used IDS on his laptop it would try and update the VCM first.

that was one of the things us beta testers tried to get added into IDS, generic OBD2 abilities. that along with wireless connection from the laptop to VCM was the 2 of the biggest requests we had. as you can see it hasnt happened

ill one up that. it would be hard to give up what i have. i make about 60K a year. i get 10-11 payed holidays. i have great medical/dental/vision coverage that covers me, wife and 4 kids at a very minimal cost to me and co-pay for office visits and drugs ar very low. i get 3 weeks payed vacation a year. been at my current dealer for 11+ years now and im fully certified. being hourly, i enjoy my job in that i can worry about fixing the vehicle right the first time without the worries of am i going to make time, even if that means taking longer then what SLTS actually will pay for the job. my additude is take the extra time to make the customer happy, cp or warranty, without customers we dont have jobs. oh btw at my current job i average about 120 hours a month on warranty work and the rest on the rare cp jobs i get. i do anything thats thrown my way, why? i have a family to support, turning down jobs means less then a full pay check

lol yeah Jim im really enjoying the ability to have service info, diagnostic ability and fun stuff all in one machine. in reality you will find that you will want both IDS and PDS. IDS for in the shop diagnosing then switching to PDS when you need to road test. the time to switch tools is very minimal. ive had IDS going on a vehicle, then when the switch was needed for a road test you just unplug the laptop to VCM cable and hook up the pocketpc and attaching cable to the VCM, fire up PDS and your off. the total time to switch tool is about 2 min give or take a minute. you just leave the OBD2 cable and VCM hooked up to the vehicle since the same VCM works for both IDS and PDS. trust me when i say, road testing with a laptop is worse then taking the WDS on a road test. this latest IDS beta release has been a bit more buggy then the last and we have been burning up the phones with problems that have popped up but its been fun finding problems and stumping the guys back at Ford with the problems. once they figure them out they usually call and thanks us for stumping them

well im not sure what being planned in terms of support for different laptops. the early info im hearing for minimum specs, 1.4 pentium m or faster processor, windows xp pro, 60gb hard drive, 512mb of ram, 2 or more usb ports, built in wireless or slot to add in a pc card with wireless, dvd drive, and hopefully high speed internet connection at your work. the beta machines are the panasonic toughbook 18 and dell D600. the supported laptops when IDS is released will be the panasonic and the dell D600/D610. the D610 is what Dell offeres now. im also testing my Dell 600M which is the non-business version of the D600. another beta tester tried his toshiba laptop and had all kinds of trouble but he thinks it was because he was trying to get IDS to run on XP home. as i said from what ive been told the plan for the complete IDS package will include the panasonic laptop. ive also asked the head of the IDS group if they are planning any special discounts for the laptops like they did with the pocket pc's. as of now IDS has been pretty rock solid. the other day i was reprogramming an 03 explorer, surfing the PTS site for info, had yahoo messenger going chatting with my wife and another family member then another tech came to sync his pocketpc for calibration files for PDS. this was all happening on my laptop and IDS never skipped a beat while running in the backround doing the reprogramming. we have been told the next software release we get should be the pre-release beta. meaning if that release is ok then IDS will be a go to the dealers. i would expect that release in october then IDS is planned for December. the only downside to the beta test is i have to send all the IDS stuff back, i cant keep anything

yeah i saw that and let me add a little bit of inside info to that. ive been told that when IDS is released at the end of the year rotunda will be releasing a PDS to IDS conversion kit that will give you the cables(laptop to vcm and longer vcm to obd2 connector cable) and software to have the basic IDS functions. i consider the basic functions being the same stuff you can do on WDS without extra cables. so those of you that have a VCM or have been thinking about buying one for PDS you will be able to upgrade when the time comes. the same VCM will work for PDS and IDS. there will also be a complete IDS package but i expect that to be expensive as from what i hear it will be offered with the panasonic laptop that is being used in the beta testing. i have requested to the IDS group to get the laptop specs posted on the Ford website seeing we are getting close to the expected December release time.

nah on the 6.0L ive been calling them bandaid's.

DiagTek was bought out by Hickock. what Hickock offers is an improved handheld. thy this website, http://www.autoenginuity.com/ i havent used the stuff they offer but i read good things about it. seems pretty reasonable if you need a basic scan tool that pulls codes and need to see some pids.

yeah when it sets the P0488 is pretty wild. the throttle plate used for the EGR starts freaking out. seeing i have IDS what weve done is used IDS to go backwards, because until a few days ago i wasnt getting updated calibrations on IDS so i had the previous calibration when WDS and PDS had the most recent stuff. we would never have done the go backwards trick on the calibrations if we had to use WDS seeing it takes to long to reload WDS.