Monday 21 May 2018

Here Is How A Automotive Scan Tool Can Save Your Car And Money

Since the OBD-II cars have come out of production lines, diagnosis and maintenance of cars has undergone a sea change. The dumb Check Engine Light in the OBD-I variant cars has given way to error codes for every part of the car. These cars have sensors on every part be it in the engine, in each part of the transmission system such as in the gear box or clutch etc, in the suspension system, in the fuel supply system etc. So whenever there is a problem or shortcoming in one or the other part of the car it comes up as an error code in the ECU. Say for example, if the oil filter in the engine is dirty and is not experiencing a smooth flow of oil, it will come up as an error code in the ECU. Similarly, if there is a problem with a suspension in one wheel it will come up as an error code. The range, effectiveness and utility of these error codes is exemplary. Take for example a suspension problem. If there is a suspension problem in one wheel and it goes undetected, it is very likely that the tire in that wheel will degrade faster than other cars. If such a condition continues for miles the tire will wear out fast and that will pressure wheel leading to change of alignment. So you will feel a pull to one side during driving. Slowly this will degrade the other tires too and the other suspensions would also get affected. Slowly, the other wheels too will go out of alignment and driving would be too risky. You need to rectify the alignment of all the wheels and also repair the suspension. With a single error message the ECU would save you a substantial sum of money. But how do you read the error codes? How do you know which error code means what? Without this knowledge, every time there is an error message you would be hard pressed to run to the nearest workshop. Yet, with a automotive scan tool you need not do so. These are tools that can read all the error codes sent by various parts of the car and lay bare the problem before you. So how do you use them? Let us see.

Using Automotive Scan Tool

Using these devices is not that complicated. Most of these tools come with a tablet computer or a hand held palm size data reader with a connector cable. You need to connect it to the OBD-II port. The OBD-II port is mostly located under the dash, mostly in the place where your knees are in the diving seat. Once you have connected it, you need to power on the device. Some of these devices are powered by their own batteries while some others rely on the car power system. So if you have one that relies on the car power system, you need to port it to the power system as well and switch on. Mostly these tools show the standard OBD-II error codes. Such a automotive diagnostic scanner can also be configured to show the manufacturer specific error codes too, which are somewhat different from the OBD-II codes. But being a novice you need not venture out there.

The Diagnosis

To diagnose the problem you need to key in the car. As soon as the car is keyed in, the check engine light shows up dash. Since the automotive diagnostic scanner is already ported to the dash or the OBD-II, it starts talking to the ECU. Within just few seconds, the automotive scan tool comes up with an error code. But you are not conversant with error codes, right? You need not be. You have to select the error code and see for yourself what that particular error code stands for. There is a verity of error codes with a variety of significance. It may just be a minor problem or a major problem. If it is just a minor problem you may yourself attend to it. Even if it is not within your reach, it will save you tons of money since as you know – a stitch in time saves nine.

Conclusion

So using a automotive diagnostic scanner is good for your car and for your pocket. Get one today, but while doing so make sure that it is fully compatible with the make and model of your car.

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