Do you actually test them or is it an automatic $450?

Rick, I think you have seen my bench tester that I built for that purpose. I use it to do the test. If the test doesn't show an issue I charge 100$ for the test only. I don't want to take advantage of folks believing the DME is the culprit.

However, if the client insists I go as far as re-soldering the unit even if no issues where found during the test and ask the client to check if this fixed his/her problem. And only if it did and if the client is honest enough to admit it will he/she pay the full rebuiding charge.

Unfortunately, there are situations with intermittent problems that are very hard to reproduce. And often it turns out the DME was not defective but one of the sensors was the root cause. For that purpose I offer a loaner DME so potential clients can really rule out other problems. If the known good loaner DME makes the car run there is a very high probability that the orignal DME has a fault.

Ingo

That sounds pretty fair.

What do you rent out the "Golden" DME for. How do you prevent it from being abused?

Same 100$ for the loaner since I need to check it when it comes back and there isn't much I can do to prevent damage. It's a risk I am taking.