With the complexity of modern vehicles growing by the day, many independent workshops are looking for effective and convenient solutions to diagnostic and electronic issues they encounter where they may sometimes lack the expert knowledge and equipment to tackle the problem. One organisation that provides assistance from a unique perspective is Grafton Motors and its sister operation Grafton Diagnostics, which works with independent garages all over Ireland to tackle everything from common to complex problems and get cars back on the road.

The Grafton Motors workshop in Limerick was set up by Joe Everitt and Dane Laubser. With their  mechanical, engineering and electronics experience they set about creating a specialist independent garage to provide a high level of diagnostic expertise specially targeted at German marques such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes and VW.

Joe comments, “The aftermarket is increasingly moving towards electronic repairs and expert diagnostics, so we wanted to make the most of the knowledge and expertise we have developed. By investing the right equipment and training WE have been able to our service to a level of expertise where we are not only assisting motorists, but also independent garages and even dealer workshops.”

Services offered to other trade businesses include, electronic repairs, dealing with emission, EGR, DPF and cooling issues and tackling problems related to the Ad Blue, something Joe says will be a major issue for garages in the coming years. He comments, “We have the expertise and the diagnostic equipment to solve problems quickly and effectively in terms of diagnosis repairs and resets.” He adds, “We can also carry out remapping, where we create our own software files unlike many other providers who pass the files to a 3rd party we provide full technical back-up to the workshops who have purchased equipment from us.”

The company’s expertise in diagnostics has also brought about a strong working relationship with global equipment manufacturer Topdon, where it has become its sole Irish distributor. Under the banner of Grafton Diagnostics the team can supply a wide range of diagnostic tools and equipment which includes everything from a battery tester, to scanner tools, ECU programming tools and complete professional diagnostics systems for all makes and models. Prices are competitive and flexible finance is available.    

Joe comments, “We have used many diagnostics tools over the years and always found Topdon to be excellent. They offer innovative, easy to use equipment that quickly gets results, so it seemed a natural progression for us to offer them to other progressive workshops. The beauty is that these are tools that we are using every day, so we can share our experience with the businesses that invest in them and provide full technical back-up based on practical experience.”

Joe says that later in 2021 they hope to have their training classes for ECU Programming, Eeprom basics and many diagnostic sessions back up running.