Tech Tip: The importance of pre-scans and post-scans

For both the customer and the repair shop, performing pre-scans and post-scans on a vehicle is a smart play. It’s not only good for the customer to understand the baseline health of the vehicle but also good for the shop to check all the boxes. It’s beneficial to all parties involved, making it worth the time invested.

For example, if the customer comes in with two or three different issues with warning lights on the dash, the technician can actually embed a picture of that into the pre-scan report with the scan tool, which then helps further the documentation and helps connect the dots for the customer. Anything that helps with customer communication is a plus.

Of course, when doing scans, stable voltage is important. Make sure the battery is being maintained while retrieving all codes. If the battery is in poor health or the voltage falls too low, there is always the chance that some of the network will get shut off by design. That can lead to not retrieving all codes that are potentially stored in a vehicle.