asTech officials say their remote technicians now ask if repair shops have a seat weight when assisting shops performing calibrations. 

Kennedy Taylor, asTech senior vice president of marketing, said information provided by Mike Reynolds, Mobile Automotive Services Solution president, in a late December video about how asTech does seat weight calibrations was outdated. 

In the December video, Reynolds claims he witnessed an asTech technician assist a shop with a post-scan on a 2019 Honda Pilot. He says that the remote asTech technician never asked the on-site employee to put weights on the seat during the calibration process. 

The incident was raised by Reynolds on the C&C Auto Show with Chris Chesney, Repairify vice president of training and organizational development, on Nov. 

Chesney responded that Reynolds could have witnessed an “outside instance.” 

“Our team is trained to do that properly and guide the placement of the weight,” Chesney said. 

He added that asTech is dependent on its team doing what they are trained to do. 

“Our intent is not to circumvent that at all,” Chesney said. 

Chesney told Reynolds he would like to know more about the incident so it could be corrected. 

Reynolds says in his video posted Dec. 23 that he sent the chat log on the 2019 Honda Pilot to Chesney following the radio program. 

“I have not received any response and I am not aware of any corrective action taken on the process or with that vehicle,” Reynolds said at the time. 

Taylor told Repairer Driven News that asTech didn’t ask about a seat weight previously because the company found most shops don’t have proper seat weights to “do the second part of the calibration.” 

Shops would ask if they could use other items on the seat, such as a jug, Taylor said. She said some OEM procedures specifically request specific weight types. Honda, for example, requests weights to be 22 to 44 pounds, 55 to 75 pounds or any known weight, she said in a follow-up email. 

“Several years ago there was a decision made to not ask that question but we don’t charge for that second part of the calibration and we don’t say that it has been completed with a seat weight,” Taylor said. 

asTech’s reporting and invoice say the calibration on the seat weight was completed without the weight, Taylor said. 

Taylor said asTech changed its policy Nov. 5, after the radio program and before Reynolds’ YouTube video. Remote technicians now ask shops if they have a seat weight, if one is required, she said. 

“We started the question on Nov. 5 2024, regardless of what our understanding of the industry is,” Taylor said. “When a customer is doing a Honda seat weight calibration we will say after they finished the first part of it, ‘Do you have a Honda seat weight?’ If the answer is, ‘no,’ then the calibration at that point is completed. What we are able to control is completed.” 

She clarified after the interview that shops do not need a specific seat weight from Honda.

Representatives for American Honda Motor Co. also confirmed with RDN that the automaker “has no specific seat calibration weight/tool that is called out in our Service Documentation.” The Tooling & Equipment Program site has no record of this specific tool being available for purchase.

Example procedures on a 2023-2025 Honda Accord “front passenger weight sensor output check after a vehicle collision” indicate to “Prepare a weight between 10kg (22 lbs) – 20 kg (44lbs), then measure and note its actual weight (M) with a scale.” The procedure also notes the accuracy of the weight must be within 2 lbs, and the weight must be uniform in shape and size to allow precise placement.

Taylor said in an email that Honda, for example, uses a two-step process:

• • Unweighted calibration
  • Weighted calibration

“Most other brands only require a single step with weight,” Taylor said. “If a shop has the necessary weight, we support them in completing the calibration. If they do not, the seat calibration is not completed. asTech does not document or bill for a calibration that is not completed.” 

Between Nov. 5 and Jan. 8, asTech remote technicians completed more than 9,000 Honda/Acura post scans, Taylor says. She said 211 of the scans were reviewed and found that only 4% of shops had the necessary weights available to complete the scan. 

Taylor added that asTech also offers in-shop programs, which are separate from remote technicians. In-house technicians have been “trained to be prepared with weights so we can complete the job for them.” 

Taylor also said that asTech informs shops that a seat weight is needed to complete the operation to OEM standards.

GEICO announced an agreement with asTech for standardized pricing of its repair scans and calibrations in July.

Per GEICO’s original price sheet, shared with ARX shops in July, it appears it has increased the price it established with asTech for OEM pre-scans with remote support and OEM post-scans with remote support including DTC clear, steering angle sensor, and seat weight sensor. Under scanning the original document states “seat weight sensor and steering angle sensor inlcuded in OEM Remote post scan.”

During a July CIC meeting, Michael Bradshaw, vice president of K&M collision in North Carolina, also noted that the new asTech pricing sheet for scans includes operations such as seat weight and steering angle calibrations, which are often considered additional operations by other scan tools.

Jason Vilardi, asTech insurance and estimatics vice president, responded at that time that those were already included in asTech’s post-scan diagnostics and that it wasn’t a change made with the agreement. He did say there would be some changes to services, including removing some operations.

In an updated GEICO ARX Calibration Update document provided to “Valued ARX Partners” in Decemver, GEICO documents a price for Seat Weight Sensor, but also communicates that it is “included with remote scan pricing if OEM Scan is completed.”

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Photo courtesy of asTech