203: The Everyday Carry Of A Mobile Diagnostician

Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources and hear from experts in the automotive field.

This podcast is brought to you by Jarhead Diagnostics.

Jarhead Diagnostics manufactures in-house diagnostic equipment and storage solutions, as well as distributes for companies like Pico, ats and Topdion.

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Hey, what's going on?

Automotive World.

Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

My name is Sean Dipping.

I'll be your host once again for today's episode.

Thank you for joining me Today on the show.

I'm going to share something with you.

This was an idea from a listener of the show that reached out to me, and he asked me actually, the way you put it, he's like do you have EDC that you could share with me?

And I didn't know what that was at first.

I had Google it to see, I was like I don't know what this acronym stands for, but EDC is Everyday Carry, and the reference to this is stuff that you would carry on your person every day to be prepared for a lot of different situations, and so if you Google it and you look, there's a whole bunch of stuff out there, but it's things like wallet, keys, cell phone, maybe some sort of utility

knife or pocket knife, maybe a pen, a flashlight, whatever it is that you would put on your person.

There's a lot of variation of what people can do here, depending on what you do for a career or what you do in your normal life.

But as a diagnostic technician, I actually thought this was a really good idea to share this with everybody, because now, granted, I have my van that I go everywhere with, so, technically, I got all my stuff there, and if you're in a shop, you have your toolbox where you're gonna have most of your stuff there, but Do you have something that contains a lot of really useful tools that you use on a regular basis?

And I do.

I even really consider it the everyday carry.

I didn't know that term before today when I heard it, but I do have a bag with a bunch of stuff that solves 90% of my electrical diagnosis, and so I'm, today, just gonna go through what's in that bag, what tools, because I grab this.

If I'm doing an electrical diet, I grab this little bag and I take it with me and that's almost everything I need.

Again, there are certain situations Okay, I gotta grab out the pico here for this particular diagnosis, but Boy, for most stuff that takes care of it, and it is loaded with some really useful stuff, a Few things that you might expect and maybe a few things that you wouldn't, and so I'm gonna share it with you.

I'm just gonna go through this list and I'll touch on the items and then, if you got any questions later on where to find this stuff, let me know.

You might have a bunch of these already, but there might be a few things that you're unaware of.

So what is Sean tippings everyday carry for doing mobile diagnostics?

Here we go.

The first thing I actually I'm gonna start with isn't even the bag.

It is what I carry on my person when I'm working every day.

Okay, so in my pockets you will find please don't go in my pockets, but trust me, it's there In my pockets you will find a pocket screwdriver.

This is probably, is and always has been one of my most important and favorite tools.

I know Paul Daner is a big pocket screwdriver guy too.

Whenever I would start class in the fall at century, I would give all my students a pocket screwdriver, said this is most important tool you'll ever own.

And it is.

It's so versatile, it's so useful.

I pull this thing out for all kinds of different things and actually rarely use it as a screwdriver.

It's a pick and a pry bar, a conductor, it's all kinds of different things.

I think Paul Daner used it like a mass air flow sensor cleaner.

There's a ton of different uses for this thing, but I always have a pocket screwdriver.

There's different variations that you can have.

Most of them the end is a flat blade.

You can have one that doubles as a small Phillips on the other side.

I like the ones that have the magnet on the end, because it is useful to have a magnet for variety of reasons the tool that you dropped, the Hall effect or Magneto resistive sensor that you want to trigger, anything like that.

It's really, really helpful.

So pocket screwdriver is in my pocket.

I have just a small folding blade.

I wouldn't even call it a knife.

It's just a small blade, always helpful for a variety of reasons, and I Usually to have that on me anyways, even if I'm not, you know, on the job.

It's just helpful to have a knife for a variety of reasons.

I have my phone in my pocket and I bring that up.

Most people have their phones in their pocket.

I get it, but it is a really useful tool, right?

You have a unit converter, you have the calculator, you have access to the internet Flashlight if you need it although I'm not a big fan of the phone flashlights, I'd rather use a real flashlight but it is there just in a pinch if I need it.

And then, finally, I also have a fuse polar in my pocket at all times, and this is really, really helpful because I'm doing electrical Diagnostics and it is nice just to grab that thing, yank a fuse out when I need to.

Now, obviously, there's a variety of fuses, but this one covers the Big fuses and the mini fuses.

I can yank them out really easy, even if there's not a fuse polar in the fuse panel I'm working on, which is the case a lot of the times.

So that's on my body, that's what I have on me sometimes a pen to, I guess, but I've gone to all digital invoicing so I actually don't need a pen that often anymore.

Alright, so I do have a bag too, and so I'm gonna go through this bag and what's in there.

I grabbed this again for every single electrical diagnosis that I do, and what is in here takes care of 90% of the electrical diagnostics that I do, and you could probably get everything.

I didn't total everything up, but I would imagine you could have this same bag for less than $300.

Like the stuff in here is not crazy expensive and I damn near run a business doing diagnostics off of what's in this bag.

Okay, so really useful Equipment that is used on a regular basis, very effective equipment, and it's all contained within a small container.

So Within here I do have a full-size flashlight.

It's really good to be able to see what you're doing.

That might sound stupid, but get a good flashlight.

If you don't have one, I don't think I have to preach that to anybody here, but I have a flashlight in there.

It's rechargeable.

I have a couple different batteries for it so I can swap them out.

Led, it's about it.

Flashlights are important.

You know that I'm not gonna spend too much time on that.

I have a small plastic case in there.

I think I bought it with some back probes and jumper leads originally, but I've rearranged what's in this small little case.

It's just smaller stuff that I don't want bouncing around Within the bag, so it's just a plastic case that flips open and inside of here I have a few spare fuses although I do have more fuses in the van, just because there's such a big variety but I have a few of the Mini and full-size fuses.

Those are the most common ones that I see.

That is changing with newer vehicles, but anyways there's a few small fuses that I can pop in to place if I need to real quick.

I got back probes in there with banana jacks on them that will hook up to most of my equipment Measuring tools like I'll.

I'll talk about some of those here.

I have alligator clips, which same thing connect to most of my measuring equipment with banana jacks on them.

I have some small jumper cables, one set that has banana jacks on them, one set that has alligator clips on them.

I use these all the time.

I know a lot of people do like use fused ones and I guess I'd recommend that, but I like to live on the edge a Little bit and if it starts smoking I just get that thing off there real quick.

But I do have some jumper leads, because you jump circuits all the time.

I have T pins.

T pins are fantastic for so many different reasons.

Obviously for back probing, but I use those all the time of circuit testing in conjunction with a test light or alligator clips or whatever.

But T pins are awesome.

You can get a whole box of them for like a dollar from the craft section of whatever store you go to.

So get some T pins.

I Also have this one's a little different, I will know.

I will mention some tools here that maybe you didn't think of.

I have an Electrical buzzer, okay, and this is small, it's about the size of a quarter.

It's got two leads coming off of it power and ground and when 12 volts is connected to it it makes a piercingly loud electric buzzing noise.

Okay, why is this important?

Well, I can connect this up to a circuit in question and let's say I hook up one side to ground, put the other side to the circuit in question.

Once that circuit is power, this thing's gonna buzz, right.

So if I've got Maybe an intermittent circuit that I'm tracking down.

I'm wiggling the wire.

I can use this thing real quick and it have an audible sound when the circuit makes connection right.

Or maybe it's a short to ground on the circuit that's popping a fuse.

I could use this thing.

It's gonna buzz once I get a you know a ground on that circuit after wiggling the harness.

And the first time I bought this I was working on a flatbed tow truck and it was by myself and I couldn't see up at the fuse panel.

But I had to go all the way back underneath the truck and wiggle the harness and I realized there's other ways to do this.

But I was like, boy, it'd be nice if I could just hear something, because I can't see up at that fuse panel to see if the light bulb lights up.

That's usually my way of I'm tracking down a short.

But I was like, well, if I had a buzzer I could hear.

So I bought some of these buzzers.

They're, again, ridiculously cheap.

If you order them off of Amazon you can get a pack of 10 for like five bucks.

And it's just another method.

I have to confirm a circuit because it's really loud and there's no mistaking once that's connected to power and ground and you can Use your imagination and use it in a variety of different situations.

Just handy to have another way to verify a circuit or confirm power and ground.

Not needed but useful in some cases.

So that's in that little smaller case which is within the bag.

I also have one of the Uni-T amp clamps.

That's the size of a snicker bar.

I use this all the time for parasitic draws, for measuring amperage.

It doubles as a voltmeter, but not very well.

It's meant for measuring millivolts more than anything, but there's an oh meter function on it.

It's meant for the amp clamp function most of the time but it's really, really handy.

Does drift after a while.

It's not 100% accurate, but I do most of my parasitic draw testing Not diagnosis completely, but for testing to see if there is a parasitic draw with this thing.

Super helpful.

There's ways you can go in and alter the way that these things operate with the e-prom that's on the board.

I haven't done that myself but I've talked to some people that have and you can change the functions and settings of it.

Google it and you can find a bunch of information on it.

But the Uni-T amp clamp goes up to 100 amps.

That's in there.

Use that thing all the time.

I have a jumper reel that has 10 foot leads and there's three different circuits on there.

You can extend or reel in these jumper wires.

Basically these aren't fused either.

So be aware, there is a rating for coiled and uncoiled as far as the amperage that you should send through these things.

What I'd really like to use this for is I'll hook up one end to the battery or two where I know I have good power and ground.

If I'm testing under the dash or under the vehicle and I don't know, can I get a good ground here?

Can I get a good power source?

Maybe there's nowhere to reference a good power source while I can use this reel to do it.

I use it all the freaking time.

It is so awesome just to have good power and ground.

If you have a power probe, that's probably the way you go and that serves this purpose for you because it's got the big long leads that go up to the battery.

For me, I like this method because I usually use a test light.

Here's another way that you can use this reel.

If you're by yourself, like me, and you're testing for spark on a vehicle, you want to know if there's spark.

Here's what you do with this reel.

It's got alligator clips on both ends.

You take one alligator clip, take the coil off in question, shove that alligator clip into the end of the coil where the spark plug would go.

Then you're going to reel the rest of it into the vehicle.

You're going to connect the other end of that alligator clip to your test light not an LED test light, make sure it's an incandescent To a test light.

You're going to hold that test light up to the bolt on the door jam.

This is usually where I go.

There's the door check for the driver's door.

Inside the door jam there's a bolt that's not painted.

It's both cars.

If it's painted you'll have to find a different ground, but I hold the test light up to there.

I crank the vehicle.

You'll see spark jump from the end of your test light to that bolt if there's spark.

If you're by yourself and you want to test spark, that's my quick way to do it with this reel.

It doubles as that.

Again, this is mobile life.

If you're in a shop, that might not be very useful to you, but that's how I check spark most of the time when I'm by myself Again, if I need to get real detailed on what the spark looks like Pico and other tools like that but I just want to know is there spark?

It's a quick way to check, all right, but those jumper reels are fantastic.

I love having that tool.

So that's in there.

I got a roll of electrical tape.

You use that for various reasons.

I don't have to explain that much, but it's handy.

I have my test light, incandescent test light.

I do have a few different variations in the van, but the one that I carry here pulls about a quarter of an amp and it is important to know the amount of amperage that your test light pulls.

I have one that pulls about a full amp and I do have an LED one which I use for a few different things.

Those are in the van, but the one I carry in this bag is about a quarter of an amp and it is useful in loading circuits.

Enough to say, hey, can this circuit carry some current?

They're not four amps.

I'm going to use a headlight bulb for that, but can this circuit carry some current?

I use my incandescent test light to solve most of my electrical problems.

It really is probably my favorite tool when it comes to electrical diagnostics and incredibly useful.

Love my test light.

It is in there 100% of the time.

In addition to that, I do have a headlight bulb and I use the holder that Brandon Dills makes Jarhead diagnostics.

That holds the headlight bulb in place and kind of protects it so you don't melt whatever the headlight is laying on, because it's a 9,000 series and it gets really hot.

But it's got a couple jumper leads on it.

You can utilize it with the Whatever has banana jacks on it to connect to a circuit.

So if I'm testing a power on ground to a module or something that I know takes more current than what my test light is going to be able to simulate, okay, let's get the 4 amp headlight out and see if it lights up brightly.

So that's in there.

I Do have my meter in there.

So this is a multi meter.

It's got voltage functions, ohm functions.

It's got an amp meter function, which I don't ever use, but I do use the voltmeter fairly often and I do use the ohm meter a lot too, and you know there's a lot of people that you know poo, poo and ohm meter for various reasons.

So it doesn't load the circuit.

It doesn't load the circuit.

And you're right, it doesn't.

But that doesn't mean it's not useful, right?

I use it in canvas diagnostics all the time.

I want to know what the resistance of the network is.

On a GM particularly, but also Chrysler's I've been finding on some of them it's been really helpful to know the resistance of the circuit and see if there's an open or short in the circuit somewhere.

And the ohm meter is the tool for that one.

Right, it's just like any other tool, right?

Or people say, well, I only use voltage drop, I'll never do an open circuit measurement.

Or you know, I only do this or only do that, and that's fine, do whatever Works for you.

But I think the key really lies in do you understand what the test is telling you, or what it means and what it doesn't mean?

Right, if you can understand that about any test, it's going to become incredibly more valuable to you if you get what it means and what it doesn't mean.

And I think that's very true of Using an ohm meter or using voltage drop, right?

I used to do this with the students.

Imagine you had a circuit B plus going to a headlight bulb and then ground on the other side of the headlight bulb.

Okay, that's your circuit in the car and you need to test this thing.

Let's say the headlights not working Okay, it doesn't light up, all right, I need power and ground so you can do some voltage drop testing.

You can voltage drop the positive wire from B plus all the way to the point where the B plus wire connects to the headlight.

Okay, and let's say you measure, you measure zero.

Now, if it's a full zero, okay, we can determine.

We can maybe infer that there's no current flowing through there, because you would expect to see maybe a Tenth of a volt, but you're gonna see a very low number, right, pretty close to zero.

You could do the same thing on the ground side side of the circuit and you see pretty close to zero If the circuit's functioning or even if it's not.

Now, here's the thing you could go across the headlight bulb from Positive terminal to negative terminal and you'd measure battery voltage here.

But the headlights not working.

So what does that mean?

Now, if you're savvy you've been doing this for a while You're like well, the headlight bulbs probably open, but students would miss this a lot, right, they'd see.

Well, there's voltage drop across the headlight bulb.

Right, I'm going across the headlight bulb, we're measuring 12 volts.

But if the headlight bulb is open, you're gonna measure 12 volts there too.

Right, and that goes back again too.

I'm not saying voltage drops not useful, but you have to understand what it means and what it doesn't and what the possibilities are.

And same things true for all meter as it is for voltage drop testing.

So anyways, it's not an electrical class.

I'm just pointing out the fact that it's important to know on these test methods.

So I like my meter.

I use it all the time.

But in addition to that meter I've got a u-scope in there, which is another one of my favorite tools and I wouldn't go anywhere without it.

That thing solves so many issues for me.

I use it in a bunch of stuff when it comes to communication and network testing or circuits that have rapidly changing Voltages, for whatever reason.

It is the tool.

I love this thing.

I've talked about the case, the brand and makes for it.

I got that on there.

That things awesome.

You can connect it to BNC lead jumper or bananas Jack style leads Fantastic tool.

Get yourself a u-scope if you don't have one.

That's in there With a couple leads that I can use with it.

I've got piercing probes in there.

Yes, I do pierce wires.

There is a time and place for that.

Fix it when you're done or don't, depends on where it is.

If it's under the dash, and I'm not, I'm not destroying the installation.

I'm not too worried about it.

I'm gonna pierce those wires and test it that way.

There's a time and place for that.

Sometimes back rowing doesn't make sense or it's not possible.

So there's the.

I think it's Pomona style.

They're yellow, there's a black and a red.

They twist it really really helpful for tapping into a circuit.

I've got a handful of those with me.

I Got a wire stripper, slash, crimper, pliers, cutter right, it's all built into one.

Probably use it the least for the crimping function, but sometimes it's helpful to snip a wire, cut back a wire, use the Pliers functions, you know, even to pull out a relay, something like that.

Pretty handy to have in there.

I've got an ampound If you haven't used one of these really helpful measures the voltage drop across Fuses in order to help you identify if there's a parasitic draw.

It does have settings for the mini fuses, the regular size fuses and the maxi fuses.

I've actually used it across the I don't know what you'd call them, the case style fuses.

I'm sure there's a name of it, I'm just not thinking of it right now, but they have a little clear plastic top over the top of the fuse and you can actually pop that off and you can measure the voltage drop across those as well.

Now, will it give you an accurate measurement of the amperage draw?

Yeah, I don't know, but it'll tell you if something's there and you can still lead you down the right path so you can use it even if the fuse application isn't listed.

But that's a huge tool.

Once I have identified that I have a parasitic draw, which I do with the amp clamp, then I'm going to use this to determine, okay, what circuit has the current going through it.

So I use this thing every day, but it's an essential tool if I'm doing parasitic draws.

Alright, a couple other tools here that I have that are handy for what I do and maybe a little less common.

There is a wire loom insertion tool and what this is.

If anybody wants a link, I can send this to them, but it allows you to basically insert a set of wires into a loom.

Okay, and why this is necessary is for testing.

A lot of times I pull the wires out of one of the electrical looms and if you've ever tried to put one back in with your fingers especially if it's multiple wires it sucks, and so you can get these for really cheap again on Amazon and you basically run it along the loom and it inserts the wire as it goes and it makes your life way easier and there's different sizes depending on the loom, but it works really well.

So I have that in there so I can put things back together after I test them.

The other thing that I have and this was, I want to say I want to give credit to Cody Gaddy.

I think he was the one who suggested this.

He can correct me if he's wrong or if I'm wrong on that, but I have a set of seam rippers.

Okay, so you can get these probably in the same aisle that you buy the T-pins from, because it's a sewing device, but it's a little handheld tool with a small hook-shaped blade on the end of it and it's got a little red plastic dot on one end of the blade and then it's a pointy blade on the other and what this is meant to do is basically make a insertion.

It's to rip a seam for I don't know doing fabric.

I know nothing about that stuff, but what I use it for is I poke it into a wire harness that I need to open up and it's wrapped in electrical tape and basically what you do is you just run this up that wire loom and it cuts the tape as you go and there's a little plastic dot on the blade that goes in, so you don't cut any of the wires.

Now you still can if you're aggressive, and I have.

So be careful, but it's gonna allow you to split that electrical tape open really, really simply Right Now.

Of course you're gonna have to put that back together and that's why I have some electrical tape with me, but it makes accessing inside of a harness really easy if you need to.

So I have a series of seam rippers again super cheap, but they're really really handy to open up those wire looms if they're taped up.

So that's it for the bag that I have there.

That's everything that I go and that solves most of my electrical problems Right.

So even if you didn't want to put in a bag, all that stuff's really useful and I suggest getting some of that stuff.

A couple other things I just can't leave out that I would bring to most vehicles that I'm doing stuff on.

I do have like a bigger carrying case that has this stuff in it, the ASC U-Test terminal kit.

I can't leave that out of there.

That is so incredibly helpful and I use that thing all the time.

But it doesn't fit in the bag that I mentioned here, so it's its own separate bag and, again, easy enough to grab out of the van.

But that thing gets used just about as much as everything else and we've gone over that before.

What's all in that kit?

Some of that stuff is doubled up on here, but it's really really helpful so I don't want to exclude that.

And then the other thing is, of course, a scan tool and a laptop.

It's going to be really really helpful.

You know I have an Autel and I have a Topdon and those are with me just about every car that I go to.

I use the Topdon because it does the pre and post scan super easy and of course a laptop so I can have diagrams.

But if you're in a shop, again that changes things a little bit because maybe you have a computer, you know, up at your toolbox or wherever it is in the vehicle.

I will say this I got a tablet.

I got an iPad for my employee and he really likes that thing, and I need to get one for myself.

But having a tablet just for diagrams the purpose of diagrams right, we're talking about electrical dyag and having that tablet in front of you really, really handy.

So I kind of want to get one of those myself.

I have been pulling diagrams up on my phone a lot and that works pretty well too, but the bigger screen obviously makes it easier.

So that's it.

That's my everyday carry.

That's what goes with me to pretty much every electrical diagnostic that I do.

And again, outside of a few oddballs, I don't really have to go beyond that set of testing equipment that takes care of most of my stuff.

And again, as long as you don't include the secondary stuff like the ASC, the scan tools and the laptop, all that other stuff, 300 bucks you got all of it and you can solve most electrical problems.

Of course, the knowledge is the piece that's probably going to cost you more than $300 as far as time and effort and training, but the tooling itself you can get by pretty inexpensively and make this stuff happen.

So that's what I got.

Hey, what do you carry with you?

What I forget?

What should I add to mine?

Reach out to me.

Post in the Facebook group.

Love to hear about it.

I think this is a really interesting topic.

So thank you to the gentleman who suggested this.

He was just asking me.

He didn't suggest it as a show idea, but I thought it would be a great show idea.

So thank you, appreciate it and appreciate everyone else out there for listening.

That's all I got for you today.

So let's get out there, start fixing the world, one car at a time.

203: The Everyday Carry Of A Mobile Diagnostician

Buick Century

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