Mr F's Stagnant Stilo

Hello faithful readers and welcome to another week of adventures from the KAM team. We have been very busy this week as you continue to heed the call and more and more of your cars are being restored to perfect health. You can leave your comments, questions and queries at www.twitter.com/dr_kev.
This week we received a call from Mr F who had got himself into a pickle and was in need of the KAM team’s help. It was a bright sunny morning at our depot in Bulwell but Mr F was far from happy. “I really don’t understand…. I mean how could this happen… What am I going to do?” came the concerned voice of Mr F from the other end of the phone. After I had calmed Mr F down he explained that his car was in a less than desirable shape and that he needed the KAM team to fix a mysterious fault in his car, “It won’t start Kev I just had it serviced at the dealer 2 weeks ago and now it won’t start. Please say you can help.” The car in question was a Fiat Stilo and Mr F was especially annoyed, as he had to be at work at the Queen’s Medical Centre. “I’m a nurse at the hospital Kev and I need to be in soon. I went to start it this morning and nothing, just lifeless.” Mr F was sounding increasingly worried and so we reassured him that KAM would fix the fault and that no more inconvenience would be caused to him. Tasmanian Trev went out in the ‘twuck wid da fwashin lights’ to retrieve Mr F’s car. He also dropped one of our courtesy cars off to him so that he could get to work. With all the details taken we promised to keep Mr F updated on all the car’s developments and as soon as the car arrived at the garage we got to work.
“I’ll take it Kev.” Said Benjamin Button, who had been eyeing the car from afar and was eager to find the mysterious fault. First the car was hooked up to our state of the art diagnostic machines and the fault finding commenced. As we waited the results we perused the car’s history and saw that the car had undergone a service two weeks ago by a reputable dealer and so we wondered how they could have missed such a fault? The results were in and it appeared that the problem did not lie in the car but in the key. “I’ve got it Kev.” Came the resounding voice of Benjamin Button. It so transpired that a sensor within the key had ceased to work. So when Mr F had put the keys into the car and it did not ignite, it was because there was no signal being sent to the computer of the car also known as the engine control unit (ECU). We called Mr F to tell him the good news and he was relived to hear that there was a not a deeper problem lying in the car. We also enquired about the key and asked whether he had dropped the key or if it had been anywhere near water. All were possible explanations for why the key wouldn’t work. “Well its funny you should ask because I did drop it yesterday while I was taking my washing out of the drier. We explained that the faulty sensor could have come from the tumble drier itself as the static from the clothes could have transferred to the key therefore damaging the chip inside and rendering it faulty. We called our fantastic suppliers and they arrived promptly as all that was needed was a new key. We then recoded the spare key, which had also stopped working and all that remained was to test it. The boys waited anxiously as Ben went to inset the key into the car and after a few seconds the car jolted back to life followed by a gentle purring of the engine. A smile adorned Ben’s face and we called Mr F with the good news. He arrived later and was ecstatic at how quickly and cost efficiently the car had been fixed. “ Thanks Kev, I did some research and your prices are half what I had been quoted at other places. You really do have the best price in the Midlands.”
Remember faithful reader, our team of dedicated and hard working staff at the branches in Sutton and Long Eaton, and Belper along with our bodywork shop are open ever day of the week, EXCLUDING Sunday’s, while the lads at our Sawley and Heanor workshops and Sutton car sales are at your service seven days a week, keeping your car where it belongs. ON THE ROAD.