February 2022

www.aftermarketonline.net FEBRUARY 2022 AFTERMARKET 3 CONTENTS BUSINESS 8 Big issue: Mind the gap 14 Neil Pattemore: A secure future 16 Rebecca Pullan: Parallel universe TOP TECHNICIAN/TOP GARAGE 18 Top Technician 2022 TECHNICAL 20 GEA: Vehicle lifts part 1 24 LKQ Euro Car Parts: Winter brake checks 26 Andrew Marsh: BMW 28 Frank Massey: Diesel emissions: Part two 30 Snap-on: Renault ignition coils 34 Kevin Toms: Enter the Matrix 36 Ryan Colley: Plugged into the network 38 Mike Duncan: Brake life IN FOCUS 39 Batteries and chargers 42 MOT 44 Oils and lubes 46 Brakes 48 Diesel 51 Competition & General products PLUS... 53 On the road: IAAF Annual Conference 56 Garage visit: Jackson & Philips Automotive 58 EVs and hybrids 60 Training update 64 Recruitment 66 Teabreak MAJOR ISSUES Editor | Alex Wells alex@aftermarket.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 345 Sales: ryan.fuller@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Contributors Damien Coleman | Colin Cottrell | Mike Duncan | Andrew Marsh | Frank Massey | Neil Pattemore | Rebecca Pullan | Kevin Toms Managing Director | Ryan Fuller ryan.fuller@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 | Caren Brown caren.brown@dfamedia.co.uk | +44 (0) 1732 370 340 Chief Executive | 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 2021 18,265 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 2022. F ebruary eh? It’s a long, slow climb back to the sun from here, but we’ve got plenty of work to keep us busy right? Considering how short-handed many businesses feel right now, that is probably an understatement. The Motor Ombudsman recently published a survey that found that staff shortages were the biggest worry for garages last year. With COVID-19, more vacancies than applicants in the general job market, and our pre-existing skills shortage, this could be a major crunch point for the sector as we move into 2022. The IMI is continuing to look at ways of diversifying the intake into the industry, and there are other plans afoot too. You can read about this in news, as well as in Big Issue on pages 8-13. When you do get a spare moment, remember that if you want to be in with a chance of winning Top Technician 2022, you need to have entered and completed the initial quiz before the first round closes on 27 February. You can read more about that on page 18. We’ve got a number of fresh contributors and sections for you, starting in this issue. On page 20, the GEA have begun a new series on vehicle lifts, while on pages 34-35 we have the first article from Top Technician 2021 winner Kevin Toms. Also new from this issue is Ryan Colley from Elite Automotive Diagnostics. You can find his first piece on pages 36-37. There is more, so leaf forward to see what’s new. It’s not all new faces though. Andrew Marsh from Auto Industry Consulting has brought us the first in a new series of wry looks at all things automotive. That is on page 26. Meanwhile, on the legislative side, many of you will be delighted by the return of Neil Pattemore, who on pages 14-15 is looking at access to data. We also have Frank Massey on pages 28-29 with the second part of his look at diesel emissions, as well as Snap-on’s Damien Coleman who is looking at Renault ignition coils on pages 30-33. If that is not enough for you, we visit Top Garage 2021 winners Jackson and Philips Automotive Services, see what went on at the IAAF Annual Conference, and you can even win a beanie hat courtesy of TRICO. Lastly, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of Aftermarket, a fact we will be commemorating later in the year. A tangentially-related milestone we won’t be mentioning ever again after this is that it will also be <gulps> 30 years since I left school in June. I found myself driving past the old place recently, and I was surprised to see that the staid 1950s edifice had been entirely demolished, and replaced with an incongruous glass-and-steel monstrosity that looked to me to be based on Rudge Park School from sitcom The Inbetweeners. Once the shock had worn off, I mused that the kind of education I received there would not work in today’s world, and that you probably need a more up-to-date facility to deliver this. Apply this logic to what this sector is looking to be dealing with, such as electric cars that can in theory book themselves in for a service, and then park themselves when they arrive. If you had said this back in 1992, in the heady days of peak John Major and illegal raves, people would have thought you were mad, but here we are.