[ale] OT: check light diagnostic tool

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 06/12/2013 11:49 AM, neal wrote:
> If you need immediate results, as noted Autozone will do for free.

If they have the time to help you.

> Note that stock ODBC readers will NOT find all manufacturer data, at
> least for Toyota and Mercedes there is a wealth of data ODBC cannot
> access - only dealer computers can.     In many cases the DTC code is
> only an approximation of what is really going on.  You can experiment
> with crowd-sourcing your DTC code against what others have done to
> fix, but, unless it's cheap to try, you might be better off getting
> the dealer to read the real codes. 

All cars export their internal data to standardized codes.  Many shops
use only the codes, because they have a standardized meaning.  The
computers can often report far more than what has been standardized, so
you have the same problem there that you do in the rest of the IT world:
lack of standardization means difficulty for information interchange.

I assure you, however, that P0300 is clear enough to aid you in
troubleshooting.  Hell, P0300 is a lot better than you'd get if you kept
driving an older car only to possibly kill it.  :-)

Most OBDII codes aren't actually hard to translate into something to
confirm (or often something to swap).  Another one that is very common
is P0420, which has a very slim list of possible fixes.

OBDII also allows manufacturers to have vendor-specific codes; most
codes you'll find that have meaning in terms of either performance or
emissions will be in the "P" category.  There are also B, C and U
codes.  Each code type has a "manufacturer specific" range, where the
code meanings are published by the vehicle manufacturer (e.g. Ford,
GM).  Those codes, when received, are opaque until you find the right
documentation, but I have yet to run into something outside of the
category of relatively "easy" (discounting the difficulty of finding
funds!) fixes, though I've only had to pay attention to my car for legal
reasons since I moved here.  :-)  Before I moved here, I hardly worried
about the MIL since my cars always had it on anyway.

    --- Mike

-- 
Naunet Corporation Logo 	Michael B. Trausch

President, *Naunet Corporation*
? (678) 287-0693 x130 or (888) 494-5810 x130

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