Patent ID: 8145377

Claim:
A method for determining a work sequence for a vehicle through correlated symptoms, comprising the steps of: storing a diagnostic database including symptoms for a particular vehicle type, the diagnostic database communicatively connected to a diagnostic apparatus; correlating a symptom, a problem, a vehicle type, the work sequence, and a preemptive symptom flag in the diagnostic database to create a grouping; flagging the grouping in the diagnostic database with the preemptive symptom flag to indicate the symptom in the grouping is a preemptive symptom and distinguishing the preemptive symptom from other symptoms; entering vehicle information for the vehicle into the diagnostic apparatus; matching the vehicle information entered in the diagnostic apparatus with the vehicle type in the diagnostic database; identifying the preemptive symptom correlated with the matched vehicle type in the diagnostic database; and presenting a user with the preemptive symptom and the work sequence indicated for the identified preemptive symptom on a display of the diagnostic apparatus.