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U p against the biggest names in OE steering, Shaftec’s USP is on the price benefits of offering remanufactured parts; Matching OE quality, matching software ability and tested beyond OEM expectations, but at a fraction of the cost of a new OE unit. Furthermore, in a clever nod to the future, Shaftec has long been investigating the opportunities offered by Flex- Ray, the technology used to read parts prior to remanufacture. Fundamentals In 2021 you would be hard-pushed to find a vehicle rolling off the production line without electric power steering (EPS) fitted as standard. In line with industry trends, this makes perfect sense as the components are lighter in weight and more durable, require less maintenance, give a better response at different speeds and necessitate less fuel consumption. Because the numbers have been ramping up over the past couple of decades, most vehicles which fall into the aftermarket sphere for service and repair are fitted with EPS parts, and yet, there still seems to be a lack of knowledge in across the industry in how to deal with them effectively. Add to this a lack of investment within the independent garage arena in the technology needed to programme the parts and independents could be missing out on a large chunk of the available income stream. If they don’t know which particular parts need specialist equipment in order to reprogram them, and then find they don’t have the correct equipment, they may have to call in the expensive services of the main dealer, clearly increasing cost. This means they make less on the job than they anticipated, or worse still, have to explain to their customer that the job will be more expensive and take longer than they had quoted. On the fundamentals of ensuring you protect the integrity of the part by careful removal and storage, protect your surcharge by making sure cables are not cut and EPS motors remain intact and undamaged. Failure to comply with this will result in full rejection. Once the EPS part remanufacture processes are dealt with – you move into the realms of software and programming - lots of programming. Stringent process At Shaftec we have a stringent process of formatting the software on the EPS units so that when they are removed from the box they are oven-ready to work in another vehicle. We make this crystal clear by adding a Tamper label to the box to prove this has been done. In the 40 AFTERMARKET NOVEMBER 2021 TECHNICAL www.aftermarketonline.net SHAFTEC: FLEX TO THE FUTURE Shaftec’s Joe Toakley offers Aftermarket readers an insight into the latest EPS developments unlikely scenario of a garage receiving a component with a damaged/broken label, they should source a replacement from their local motor factor. The part will then be returned directly to us and we will check the product thoroughly to ensure it complies. We are also expanding our core management/sourcing team to accommodate for the expansion we are seeing in steering to ensure, as always, that our availability is above and beyond market expectations. This is only part of the job though. The bit we cannot physically do for our customers when it comes to EPS is the actual reprogramming, because this has to be done when the part has been fitted to the vehicle. Some parts can be reprogrammed using generic diagnostic tools, which garages really should invest in if they want to capture market opportunities. Certain steering systems, however, BY Joe Toakley, Marketing Manager, Shaftec