Halfords Autocentres has invested £1 million in new fault-finding diagnostic equipment, cementing the ability of its 300 strong garage network to service and repair any make or model of car.

The independent garage business has entered into a five year license agreement with Bosch that will see the vehicle electronics experts’ KTS570 model enter service in Autocentres, alongside new tablet computers running ESI-tronic software, to deliver more accurate fault diagnosis.

The majority of Autocentres will receive the new Bosch units but a proportion of the busiest garages - those handling a high volume of fleet business - will instead benefit from new ‘Launch’ branded engine diagnostic equipment.

Technical training manager Satnam Singh said: “Like all technology, engine diagnostic equipment has a shelf life and it is essential to keep abreast of vehicle and software changes in order to effectively identify and resolve faults first time.

“These high specification units have their respective strengths and will be deployed strategically to provide our expert technicians with the most appropriate tool for the job - minimising the time that vehicles spend off the road for our customers whilst also increasing our capacity.”

Using a combination of the two units throughout its garage network will enable Halfords Autocentres to probe deep within the engine and electronic control systems of the widest possible variety of marques to identify and rectify faults as efficiently as possible.