March 2021

www.aftermarketonline.net MARCH 2021 AFTERMARKET 3 CONTENTS BUSINESS 8 Big issue: Taking stock of the situation 12 Altelium: Light at the end of the tunnel? 14 Rebecca Pullan: Furlough can you go? TECHNICAL 18 Andrew Marsh: Automotive soup 20 Gareth Banks: Cold comfort 22 Frank Massey: Setting the bar high: Part two IN FOCUS 24 Bearings 26 Vehicle electronics and engine management 28 Ignition 30 EVs and hybrids 32 Turbo PLUS... 36 Snap-on: Thermal imager 39 General products/Competition 40 Garage visit: CT Cars 42 Coronavirus round-up 46 Training update 48 Recruitment 50 Teabreak LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS... Editor | Alex Wells alex@aftermarket.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 345 Contributors Gareth Banks | Charlie Grimston | Andrew Marsh | Frank Massey | Rebecca Pullan Sales Manager | Daniella Gavin Daniella@aftermarket.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 349 Commercial Director | Ryan Fuller ryan.fuller@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Operations Manager | Ewa Hodden ewa.hodden@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Project Liaison Manager | Emma Floyd emma.floyd@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Finance Manager | Clare Jackson clare.jackson@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Publishing Director | Ian Atkinson ian.atkinson@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Published by | DFA Media Ltd 192 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1BE Alex Wells, Editor Average net circulation July 2019 to June 2020 23,616 aftermarketmagazine @aftermarket01 ISSN 2516-9149 Aftermarket is published 10 times a year and is sent free of charge to applicants meeting the publisher’s criteria. All others may subscribe at £60 per anum, £120 Europe and £150 rest of the world. While every care is taken to provide accurate information, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or ommisions, no matter how caused. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher. The views of contributors do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher. Copyright: DFA MEDIA LTD 2021. A wise man once said, “It’s been emotional.” Well over the last 12 months I expect most of you have run through the whole spectrum, from joy to despair and back again over the impact of Coronavirus on your business. A year ago, we found ourselves in the first national lockdown. As the March issue of Aftermarket went to press, we were in our third round. I suspect many of us are being worn down by sheer routine more than anything else, but there is a psychological toll being built up. You will feel it. However, while responsible people will always be affected by their emotions, you can’t be ruled by them. You need to keep moving forward. There are causes for optimism as you will see in our article on pages 12-13 from Altelium, but when you’ve been staring down the barrel of bankruptcy, only to survive and go on, you’d be one hard man or woman if you didn’t have a slight wobble. The best thing to do is to try and build up, and maybe see where the shortcomings are in your business, and come back stronger. The devil is in the detail and all that, and in the detail, you may find a lot of extra funding you never knew you had, if you can stop it flying out the door by accident that is. With this in mind, in Big Issue this month, we look at how a couple of garages are handling the issue of whether to keep stock under your own roof, and if so how much. One of them had a nasty stock-shock recently. Turn to pages 8-11 to find out more. On the business side, on pages 14-15, we have the first of the graduates from The Garage Inspector programme run by the man himself, Andy Savva. He opened up the floor last month, and now Rebecca Pullan from Carmaster in Harrogate is showing how the Furlough may come back to bite the unwary. On the technical front, Andrew Marsh has returned on pages 18-19, and he has bought a steaming pot of automotive soup with him. When those pesky VMs work together, the result can be all sorts of crazy gumbo that garages have to somehow understand. He has stuck his ladle in to see if he can get to the bottom of it all. Following him, Gareth Banks is back on page 20, looking at issues around cooling. Spring is just around the corner you know. Then we have Frank Massey on pages 22-23, where he is in the second part of an ongoing deep dive into the highly problematic Audi S3. This one is set to run and run, unlike the car, until Frank can fix it. We also have features on bearings, vehicle electronics and engine management, ignition, turbos and EVs and hybrids. There is also a great competition with TMD Friction on page 39, as well as a visit to Surrey-based CT Cars. What more can you ask for? Lastly, exciting news. Top Technician/Top Garage 2021 has announced Motul will be joining the team of prestige sponsors. Turn to page 7 to find out more!