What Car? Q&A - Why can only makers perform diagnostics?

Q: Earlier this week my car's battery went flat. The AA got the car started, but couldn't switch off a warning light.

A call to the manufacturer revealed that I would need a diagnostic reset at a cost of £53. I believe this can't be done by a breakdown service because they don't have, or are not allowed to have, the necessary equipment.

I don't know if this is true for all manufacturers, but it does seem very unfair that the motorist has to meet this cost.
G. Kliman

A: Breakdown services and independent garages are meant to have access to the diagnostic equipment, training, software and fault codes necessary to work on any car sold in Europe.

In practice, however, breakdown services and independent repairers often struggle to get access to the information required.

Even if they have invested in the expensive diagnostic equipment, they might not have the necessary code to reset warning lights such as yours.

The European Commission has written to four companies - DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, General Motors and Toyota - to say it was unhappy with the way they provided access to information like this.

The companies gave written commitment to abide by the rules, but this small step took years.

In any case, independent workshops found that although 'information should be freely available,' it didn't mean 'information should be available free' - so even manufacturers that do provide access can put up big cost barriers. Theses costs are required, manufacturers argue, in the interests of safety.

Independent repairers are now concerned that more and more cars will be covered by even more software codes as electronic complexity increases.

They fear an increasing proportion of cars will essentially be tied to franchised dealerships, because they are the only ones to keep pace with the codes required to do maintenance and repair work.

Independent garages have started a campaign, called Right to Repair, to highlight this problem with the European Commission.

Franchised dealerships have, meanwhile, appointed lawyers to represent their interests in the renegotiation of the 'Block Exemption' regulations which govern sales, service and, as in your case, the repair of cars.

Many motorists, like yourself, are already finding they have to shell out like this to get warning lights switched off, and if the Right to Repair campaign is right, the situation could get worse before it gets better.