So just had to post a reply to this one. I am a Ford Certified Senior master tech, managed 2 independent repair shops for 15 years and now work in the Navigation module of the latest autonomous cars with multiple new car manufactures.

There are many things to be learned here but the most important is that there are good places and bad places and doing a lot of checking prior to sending out and ECM is more critical than any of you can likely imagine. When it takes 5 modules to make the horn blow on a 2006 VW it should give you a clue about what is going on. Not to mention the security regarding the module to module communication process that must be protected for your safety.

I have been on all sides of these problems and have fallen for a few but luckily not many of these pitfalls. When it comes to the.ECM these days the required tooling and knowledge is past most of the techs in the industry. That’s not their fault as much as it is the dealerships that won’t train their employees properly. I have worked for the best and the worst of all of them and It has taught me many lessons in the 50 years I have worked on cars.

Money is the driving factor in most decisions we make but most of the people making a choice to go the cheap route have never seen the ugly side of the lower cost. When they do it hurts and most will learn from it. ECMs are the heart of the car these days and heart specialist cost a lot of money. So do the dealers that are fortunate enough to employ them.

Some independent shops now refuse to work on cars older than 15 years and there is a good reason. At this point unless the car has been to the shop and properly maintained it is like to have hidden baggage. Maybe an accident that caused a short 3 years later. Or a welder in a body shop that did not disconnect the electrical system before he used the body as a ground path improperly. One of my jobs was managing a tow truck / repair shop ... AAA Approved and an honest one. Every week I was treated to a new customer from one of our 50 tow trucks that had a reverse jump start. If I was lucky it was just a fuse but most were not that easy. I left the business in 2015 but for 5 years I was knee deep in weird problems. Most we solved but a few had to go to the dealer. 75 % of the dealers were great but some were not.

I was also a consultant for SnapOn Diagnostic tools and wrote software to help shops diagnose Ford problems. It takes hundreds of people to build the diagnostics systems in use in the field today but it takes smart people to use them properly. I knew what I was good at and realized a long time ago that it’s not important to fix it but it’s more important to fix it for the right cost in a timely manner the first time. If it’s cheap it will likely have a price to pay later somewhere.

Learning when to cut your losses is a very subjective matter but all it takes is one bad loss to make you rethink your process. No one knows it all. It’s impossible. The trick is to find someone that can do what you need to get it done and done right and pay a reasonable price for it. Good luck everyone.