Here’s Why The Check Engine Light Is A Horrible, Terrible Thing

Jalopnik ^ | 24 Nov 2014 | Doug DeMuro

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

It happened on Thursday night. I went out to my car. I climbed inside. I turned the key in the ignition. And

[JoeFromSidney]

I agree completely. It doesn't matter whether it's a door not latched properly, or the car is going to blow up and you have 30 seconds to get out, you get the same warning light, or worse yet, just a beep. Voice chips are cheap. There's no reason your car shouldn't be able to tell you just what the problem is. Which door. Which tire. Gas cap. Or whatever.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Yep. Same here. The good thing about pulling the codes manually is that I can also clear them manually.

I will clear it once, drive and see if it comes on again. If it doesn’t, I assume it was a gas cap thing or other hiccup. If it happens again, I will take the time to count all of the flashes. 9 times out of 10 it is a minor issue I can fix cheaply. I hate for the mark up & labor when I can either do it myself or buy the part & have a mechanic friend do it.

Went to have breaks done last week. After “inspecting” for issues, mechanic said I needed new calipers. He quoted something like 650 for the front calipers and 200 for labor. Told him no thanks, calipers would have to wait. ( nothing wrong with them)

For giggles & grins I looked the price at autozone. I could buy the exact brand he would have used for 69/pair. I love it when they assume 60 year old grandma doesn’t know anything about a car. :)

[Nateman]

Just out of curiosity I tried to find out what California's rules about OBD's were. What a can of worms! If you really want to know the answer to this check out this link, there is no way I'm going to dig through all this!

[right way right]

Wiki is pretty good at explaining OBD.
The Fed compliance has happened way back in regards to it, OBD systems came about so that the automotive companies could collect their sanity and benefit from standardization to deal with the EPA and CARB and all the horror.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

I think you can OWN an OBD . If you are a business you can’t lend it. I can’t point you to the statue but I have experienced the problem first hand. The extreme example I can relate happened in Laughlin Nevada.It’s on the border with California. On the California side the Auto Zone could not lend me their OBD. So I drove to an Auto zone on the Nevada side where I was able to borrow it and then fix the problem myself. Try getting rid of used Anti-freeze in most states. That sucks too. I wonder how many people have dumped the stuff illegally because it is so difficult to do so legally.

I believe you're confusing a business's policy vs. state law.

Many automotive businesses won't loan out tools and the OBD II scanner is just another tool.

Here in California we have places where we can drop off all kinds of household hazardous wastes, including antifreeze, car batteries, motor oil, etc. It's free. You just drive up and they unload it from your car. You can drop off up to 15 gallons or 125 Lbs. per vehicle per visit.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Just out of curiosity I tried to find out what California's rules about OBD's were. What a can of worms! If you really want to know the answer to this check out this link, there is no way I'm going to dig through all this!

That link you posted concerns the OBD II installation on cars, not the regulations governing the scanner designed to read the OBD II, in short, because there are no laws against owning a scanner.

It makes no sense that retail establishments would sell in a state a tool that violates that state's laws.

FWIW, I downloaded the 2013 document and searched it and in the 151 pages it contains, the word 'scanner' does not appear once.

[doorgunner69]

You will find that mystery filter buried in your intake track. Dunno how your Taco is set up,

Look for a large clamshell type connection like for the airfilter. When you pop that off, you may see a large, flat black mesh looking thing.

That is the "hydrocarbon" filter. Mine was held on with plastic studs that had been melted over. After popping a few off, the rest gave up easy.

Power? I dunno, but felt better getting it out of there.

[doorgunner69]

You also cannot pass it if you just pulled your battery cable to clear the light. The batards read the codes and see that you have not driven enough "cycles" to complete all checks and will tell you to go away and come back later.

If the codes and light come back on, you are still screwed.

Hawaii has it's many liberal faults, but the CARB smog Nazis have not infiltrated here yet.

[SamAdams76]

Automobiles are amazing machines. They get you to where you want to go 99.99% of the time. But people still like to gripe and complain about them.

[Forty-Niner]

“Why, instead of “check engine”, they can’t put a text message about the problem up, I don’t know.”

They do.......if yoi buy a code reader you can find out exactly what is wrong and get the cost to fix from the internet!

I bought one years ago.......it’s compatible with all makes and models.....

[envisio]

That is if you catch them before they start grinding your rotors.
Even then a rotor (Camry?) is $20 and requires no special tools. Never have rotors turned. They are cheap for most vehicles and the labor of turning them is as much as a new one.
I very rarely turned rotors in my shop. I’d rather sale a new rotor and discount the labor to be even.
“Do you want a new rotor or do you want me to fix your old one? Same price.”
You can cut some time off of that by compressing the caliper before you take it off. Pry bar in between the pad and rotor... about three seconds to compress it.