| Diagnostics as Seen
Through WinStar The first
page gives two options: Up to 1997, and 1997 and later. There was a
break in software technology in that year. After 1997 you can scan
much deeper into the vehicle.
There was another technology break in August 2002 for the 220
Chassis.
The WinStar covers all of these changes.
When you begin a scan, you choose “as
of 1997” or “up to 1997”
For this demonstration, we will use a 2001 S430
Click on “as of 1997”
On the left side of the screen you
will see a list of car models from which to choose. The list begins
with the 220, then 221, 215, 210 211, and so on.
The right side of the screen will display a picture of the model you
chose. It will also give you the connector you need to use, with the
location of the plug. As you know, different models of Mercedes have
the diagnostic plugs in different locations. Not every tech knows
the plug locations for every model, but now there will be no guess
work.
Once you have the correct model chosen, click the “Enter”
button to proceed.
As you can see at the top right
corner of the page, the multiplexer automatically reads the engine
model and VIN number.
On the left side of the page, you will see a list of engine sizes.
On the right side of the screen, you will see a red button that
reads “Short Test”. This function will check every component in the
vehicle. It will show stored, current, or active codes.
Below the Short Test button there is a list of the six main
categories of the vehicle. Let’s say you choose “Power Train”.
From this screen you can access all of
the Power Train systems for the 220 Chassis. You will see:
EGS – Electronic Transmission Control
ESM – Electronic Selector Module
DTR – Distronic
ME2-SFI – Motor Electronics
OBDII – On-board Diagnostic II
Let’s choose ME2-SFI – Motor Electronics
The “Motor Electronics” page gives you
all the data of the control unit, the part number, hardware and
software data.
Towards the top of the page, you have
different tabs to choose from. If you click on “Read Trouble Codes”,
the system will check all the engine related components and list all
the trouble codes, whether they are pending, stored, or current.
The left side of the fault box displays the various ECU’s containing
faults. You can click on each ECU and WinStar will take you to that
control unit’s diagnostic page.
You also have the option to erase all
the codes in that area, in this case, Power Train. If you do this,
only the current codes remain.
If you click on “Live Data” the
following page is displayed. It shows real time readings from the
motor electronics.
This is the “Idle Control” page.
This is the “Check Engine” page.
You see that the air mass is reading 16.0.
If you are unsure as to whether or not a
reading is at an acceptable level, all you have to do is move your
cursor over the picture, or double click on the gauge.
If you double click, a box will pop up in the upper right corner of
the screen displaying the acceptable range of values for the
measurement.
This works for many of the important values in WinStar.
The following pages display the
following tabs:
Knock Control
O2 Sensor
Fuel Control
Electronic Accelerator
Cruise Control
If you go to the “Smooth Running” tab,
you see the firing of the 8 cylinders. You will see the rpm 600, you
will see the percentage of engine load 24.5%, and you see how each
separate cylinder runs at idle speed.
If you look at the values under the illustrations, you will see that
the 8 cylinders are not idling evenly. This makes it easy to see
that the car needs spark plugs.
This is the “Fan Control” page.
This is the “Actuation” tab.
This is the “Correction Programming”
tab.
This is the “version coding” tab. You
will see options to activate or deactivate
different technical situations.
It even gives an option to change the fuel quality. As you can see,
you can go very deep in ECU adaptive, correction programming, and
version coding.
These are just a few things that you can do in the ME2-SFI category.
The same complexity is present in all other tabs and windows.
You have already seen the
thoroughness of the WinStar system’s diagnostic ability in the
ME2-SFI section; the following pages illustrate the complexity the
WinStar system has all the way down to the seats and doors.
Here is a short example of how the
AAC system works:
Let’s say your customer tells you the air conditioning does not
always run cold.
You scan the car, and the system immediately sees that the problem
is not in any of the switches or the compressor, but is found right
away in the AAC push button control module.
As you can see, it is a highlighted green dot indicating a stored
code.
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