The recent OEM position statements have raised awareness of the need for scanning and calibration in collision repair, but Jason Bartanen of I-CAR asserts that there’s still a lot of confusion regarding the terminology.

In a new Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) video, “Scanning, Diagnostics and Calibration,” Bartanen and other collision repairers talk about the process of scanning for and clearing diagnostic trouble codes, as well as the definitions.

Bartanen notes that many shops tend to use the terms pre-repair scanning, post-repair scanning and post-repair calibration interchangeably – when, in reality, they are separate procedures.

“Pre-scanning [is] part of that blueprinting/damage analysis process, to identify what might be wrong with the car both related and unrelated to the collision,” Bartanen explains. “Post-scanning [is] … to make sure that before we hand the keys back to the customer, the codes that we were able to identify have been cleared, and that might entail a test drive of the vehicle as well.

“And then post-repair calibration is the area that we need to start spending more time talking about, because all these advanced driver-assist systems like collision mitigation, lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control all have specific procedures related to post-repair calibration that’s not just as simple as the post-scanning part of it.”

Filmed at the SEMA Garage in October 2016, the video features SCRS Secretary Bruce Halcro, owner of Capital Collision Center in Helena, Mont.; Bartanen, director of industry technical relations at I-CAR; Toby Chess of Chicago-based Kent Automotive; and Barry Dorn, owner of Dorn’s Body & Paint in Mechanicsville, Va.