LUCAS IN HIGH TECH ADVANCE

By Chris Hayles

MOTORTRADER,  March 2I I987

Special training and equipment has provided a number of Lucas workshops with the ability to handle diagnostic and repair work on modern electronically controlled ignition, fuel injection and engine management systems.

Eight of these 'High Tech' workshops have already been established. Eventually, after the completion of a programme of controlled expansion, there will probably be between 20 and 30 in the UK. The availability of expertise of this nature will soon become vital to the trade. The enormous rate of growth of automotive electronics can be judged by considering the size of the UK market for both original equipment and replacement items.

This market, which was virtually non-existent in 1980, is expected to double by the end of the decade. Its value will go up from the current £13 million to £25m.

The parts and service division of Lucas Electrical embarked on the High Tech workshop project about three years ago when, as product marketing manager Steve Davies puts it, Austin Rover made a "quantum leap" by introducing cars with electronically controlled chokes and programmed electronic ignition systems.

Part of the effort has gone into the development of test gear and part into the training of technicians. Important as the equipment is, Lucas stresses that the expertise of the staff is the vital ingredient of a High Tech workshop.

Training of a High Tech technician takes two weeks. The instruction builds on the knowledge imparted during the standard seven-day Lucas courses on ignition and fuel systems. There is considerable emphasis on practical work during the second week.

All candidates for the courses are thoroughly assessed before being accepted: workshops wishing to be considered for the High Tech scheme must employ at least two suitable technicians.

At the moment the courses are open only to personnel from workshops selected for the High Tech scheme. Later on they will be made available to Lucas agents and eventually may be open to other members of the trade.

On the equipment side, a High Tech workshop must have items such as dwell and CO2 meters.

Existing equipment will also usually include a Lucas EPI tester (designed to deal with the fuel systems fitted to Jaguar and Rover SD1 models} and another unit that has been available for some time, an electronic ignition analyser.

To this basic equipment is added a package of nine recently developed items. These are designed to facilitate the testing of all the latest electronic control systems, together with electronic instruments and trip computers. They are all compact units, some small enough to be held in the hand.

The workshop holds comprehensive stock of products covering ail UK applications of Lucas electronic systems and, in the future, will have a growing B90 range of exchange electronic control boxes. These exchange units will offer considerable savings over the cost of new components.

Some examples of the sort of prices that will be asked are: £35 for a choke controller, £60 for a programmed ignition control unit' and £150 for a comprehensive electronic control unit, such as the one fitted to the latest Jaguar models

The eight High Tech workshops already established are A El Butt of Leicester, the Electrodiesel Co in Walsall: Sewell of Leeds, SEAS in Maidstone and the Lucas Service UK branches in Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and Reading.