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Freeze Frame Data May Help Shops, Insurers, & OEM’s

There may be new information that might just help auto collision shops, auto insurers and OEM’s. Enter Freeze Frame Auto Data. So what is FFAD?

Freeze Frame Auto Data – When an emission related diagnostic code is stored real time data called freeze frame is recorded. It means you can see the actual running parameters of your vehicle when the malfunction occurred. Freeze frame data parameters: Vehicle speed.It can also be used to weed out electronics issues which developed prior to the collision and repair process.

Some vehicles act as a “black box,” providing the technician who scans it details of the date and/or mileage when a particular diagnostic trouble code was triggered. Last month, moderator Mike Anderson of Collision Advice kicked of an OEM-insurer panel on collision repair scanning with two examples in which a body shop was able to show to a customer that their problem dated back before the crash and repair.

In one, a customer said the navigation unit on an Audi Q7 wasn’t working properly following a repair, according to Anderson. By scanning the car, the shop used Audi’s detailed “freeze-frame” data (which includes date, time and mileage) to prove the malfunction occurred seven months before the accident, and the shop saved the insurer more than $1,500, he said.

In another instance, a woman brought back her Volkswagen Beetle on a Friday morning after delivery Thursday afternoon, complaining the radio had ceased working properly. The VW scan’s “freeze-frame” data proved someone had plugged an incompatible USB device into the car Thursday night — after the woman had received the car, he said.

For more on Freeze Frame Data read the article at Repairer Driven News.