Posted on 11/25/2014 11:06:02 AM PST by Eric Pode of Croydon
Edited on 11/25/2014 11:43:23 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
It happened on Thursday night. I went out to my car. I climbed inside. I turned the key in the ignition. And
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
Your owner’s manual should tell you how to reset that light. My 2007 4Runner manual does.
/johnny
Thanks!
Now THAT is pretty danged cool. Too bad I don’t have, nor would own, a smartphone.
In addition to OBD II scanners being able to read the codes, they're also able to clear them.
An OBD II scanner costs about $50.
Imagine how much money your hubby would be saved by buying his own OBD II scanner and then clearing the codes himself?
Few adults feel the need to put in a custom stereo.
Yep code readers are a must. Even if you can’t do the repair you can take it in the shop and tell them the codes so that they can’t charge $40 for doing the same 1 minute test. Truly it took me one minute to determine it was time for a new gas cap last month. And just last Sunday one more minute to determine it’s time for some new spark plugs / coil Packs for my Mazda 6.
Do a google search on car stereo shops in your city and tell me that again. Out here in reality lots of people replace their stereo, certainly a high enough percentage to make turning the stereo into the check engine light a bad idea.
That can save people hundreds of dollars instead of going to the dealer for a random misfire or a bad gas cap.
Since 1997 Corvettes have a driver information center (DIC) that can display/clear the error codes eliminating the need for an OBD II scanner.
Hope it works.
In my county... no inspection pass for that.
I only work on machines that have carburetors and 2 cylinders or less.
I remember ‘California emissions’ being touted as desirable standard equipment on cars offered as prizes on The Price Is Right.
In reality, it meant exhaust passing through a pinhole thereby robbing the engine of power.
The check engine light is a good diagnostic tool for technically inclined people with vehicles like Jeeps. But like most other tools, it’s not so useful for those who are not technically inclined.
If the owner’s manual doesn’t say google your make, model, year and “check engine” and somebody in the interwebs will have figured it out.
You are just determined not to have a digital display, aren’t you? Then fine, don’t. Keep your idiot light and pay a mechanic $50 to tell you what it means.
-— I can fix 90% of my car problems with electrical tape or by turning up the radio volume -—
That worked for everything in high school... Except for the broken fuel gauge. Sometimes I forgot to check my mileage after filling up.
But I toughed it out until the car croaked. It sucked though, the time I ran out of gas in Boston at 2 a.m. on a 15 degree night. I spent 5 hours drinking coffee at HoJos. I was pretty wired at 7 a.m.
No reason to get all uptight about things. I’m just pointing out that your “obvious solution” has drawbacks. All solutions do, the real world of consumer goods is about picking your poison. For something that spends 99.9% of its life turned off a bland simple light gets the job done. And I don’t pay a mechanic to tell me what it means, I learned my car’s konami code and can find out what the light is complaining about just sitting in the parking lot. Of course my light doesn’t turn on very often, I take care of things.
I have a 1994 Olds Cutlass. Runs great - 110,000 miles. If I go over 50, the “Service engine soon” light comes on. Had it checked - no one knows why that happens.
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