The PMM Awards return for 2025, highlighting the standout articles that shaped the year. Read on to see which features earned top honours!
Who, what, where, when and why: Anyone will these are the essentials to building a compelling story. Establish the facts, bring the reader along with you and steadily heighten the drama until you reach a satisfying conclusion which resolves the main source of conflict: bonus points, however, for leaving enough unresolved to provide a sequel. Anyone who has read one of our star diagnostician Ben Johnson’s faultfinding sagas will recognise all of these features, as he brings you along into the chilly depths of Finland to do battle with yet another over-engineered and under-loved BMW. But reading through our top articles from the past year, it’s clear that these five dramatic essentials are as beloved by pro-technicians as by fans of the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, herself.
Every year we reward the contributors of our best articles over the past twelve months with a coveted PMM Award. We come together as a team to crunch the numbers, put forward our own suggestions and hash it out to bring you what we feel are the ten most informative, entertaining and popular articles we’ve had to offer that year.
So scroll on down to discover whodunnit in this year’s PMM Awards!
A1 ADAS GROUP
How to diagnose diesel vehicles
Despite their impending demise, diesel vehicles will become more complex in the next five years. Now, replacing a failed component is no longer the end of the job: In many cases, it’s just the beginning…
To read this article, click here.
AUTODATA
Why was the Toyota C-HR making a strange noise?
Autodata hears from one garage who are sure they’re hearing things… but what?
To read this article, click here.
BOSCH
When is ADAS calibration needed?
At this point in time, ADAS is vitally important in today’s modern-day safety systems. But they are about to get even more so – both for drivers, and for the modern-day car manufacturer…
To read this article, click here.
CARWOOD
What are the common causes of turbo oil leaks?
For a turbo leaking oil you assume the seals are damaged, and the turbo is at fault. That’s where you’d start if an engine was leaking. In contrast, most turbo oil leaks are a symptom of another problem.
To read this article, click here.
BEN JOHNSON
How one sensor brought down a BMW X5 M50d
PMM’s quasher of quandaries, Ben Johnson, rebuffs the naysayers and elects to keep things simple in the swap shop. In this epic, Ben is faced with this “marvel of modern engineering” – well, a marvel until “a seemingly minor issue brings the entire system to its knees”. What brings the most frustration to Ben on a daily basis brings our readers joy, and this was just one of several articles written by him to feature in our shortlist.
Ben is a great fault-finder, not simply because he gets to the root of the issue, but because he takes a holistic approach to problemsolving and is more than happy to share his thoughts and experience with others. In this article, he reminds readers to “go back to basics” sometimes, arguing for a bit of “old-fashioned ingenuity”.
To read this article, click here.
EEC
Why was the Vauxhall Vivaro having DPF issues?
EEC’s technical trainer Stuart Still gets to the bottom of a DPF issue on a Vauxhall van:
“I recently visited one of my distributors who were having an emissions issue with a Vauxhall Vivaro van. It started when their customer limped into his garage with two fault codes DPF070, DPF059 and ‘emissions’ illuminated on the dash. The technician diagnosed a DPF problem and fitted a new EEC DPF, he reset the ECU and removed the fault codes, but did not carry out a forced regeneration as directed in our fitting instructions. His customer collected the van and drove for about 20 miles, then all the same fault codes returned. At this stage he took the van to the Vauxhall dealership, where guess what he said? “It’s an aftermarket DPF, they don’t work; you need to fit an OE DPF”…
To read this article, click here.
CONTITECH
Best practice when changing oil pump timing belt
Timing belt articles continue to be wildly popular with our readers. In this article, Continental offers some best practice advice on changing the oil pump timing belt on certain VAG vehicles.
To read this article, click here.
DELPHI
How to replace a fuel filter on a Kia Sportage
Delphi’s Phil Mitchell will be familiar to many of you. In this article he takes readers through a fuel filter change. A simple job? Well, there might be more to it than you expected!
To read this article, click here.
ECOBAT
What causes a battery to discharge?
Ecobat Battery reminded readers in this article of the importance of discovering the root cause of a problem before proceeding with a replacement. As true for batteries as any other component.
To read this article, click here.
FEBI
Why was the VW Golf V having steering problems?
Febi provides an insight on control units to readers of PMM and highlights a recent case in which a Volkswagen’s battery replacement led to a series of issues affecting the steering, EPC and ESP…
To read this article, click here.
