[AT] O/T Tow truck OBD II question

[charlie hill]

Henry,  also I forgot this.  Software updates are free for as long as I own 
this stuff.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henry Miller" <hank at millerfarm.com>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] O/T Tow truck OBD II question


> Most of what you asked has been covered already, so I'll just add some 
> general
> info that may be of interest to those thinking about getting a tool like
> this.
>
> I work for a company that makes these things (not the one you bought - 
> ours
> doesn't interface to your computer, and costs about 40 times more
> $$$).   As a general rule I recommend you not buy one of these things 
> unless
> you like the gadget.   They can tell you a lot of interesting things, but
> standards change all the time.  Sure your tool will work with your current
> cars, but will it work with a 2010 car?  If yours doesn't cover CAN it 
> won't
> work with some 2003 cars, otherwise I'd guess it will work for about 10 
> more
> years - but that is just a guess.  After that you can assume the 
> electronics
> are different enough that it won't work.  (So far new tools all work with 
> old
> cars - we have had to ship non-road worth cars in to we can test our tools
> only time will tell if this trend continues)
>
> If you just want to fix your car the best thing to do is borrow the tool 
> from
> your local auto parts store.   That way you are sure the tool is up to 
> date,
> and it may be a higher end model that can diagnose your specific car, and 
> not
> just the generic OBDII (generic OBDII covers about 90% of what you need to
> fix the car, but if you are curious about the car in general it is about 
> 15%
> of what you you can get).   If your local auto parts store doesn't have a
> reasonable policy for borrowing tools find a different store - nearly all
> will read the codes for free, and just require a deposit to borrow the 
> tool.
> (For that matter, any good auto parts store will let you use a lot of 
> other
> tools as well - they want you to buy parts)
>
> That said, they are cool to have, and there is nothing wrong with buying 
> one.
> In fact for your specific case it may be a good idea just because you can
> have someone drive around while you watch things in real time, and 
> hopefully
> you can see exactly what was happening when something went wrong. 
> However
> don't get your hopes up, you have to be looking at the right time.
>
> Before doing anything, remember you are still dealing with a standard 4 
> cycle
> engine.  Even though there are now computers and fuel injection involved,
> there is no fundamental difference between your modern car and your 
> antique
> tractor.   The only difference is often in your favor - the computer can
> often (but not always as most of us have learned the hard way) diagnose
> problems that you would let slide on a tractor as too hard to understand.
>
> One danger you can run into with these tools is reading codes and not 
> checking
> to see if it is a real problem, or a one time thing.  Often the computer 
> will
> set "pending codes", which means the computer saw something that looked
> wrong, but it isn't sure.   If the problem continues for a while the 
> computer
> will turn on the check engine light, otherwise it will clear the code. 
> If
> you read the codes all the time, you can see the pending codes and think
> something is wrong when all is well.  (Of course if you can tell there is 
> a
> problem the pending code may lead you to the cause before the computer is
> sure.   All I'm saying is be careful about doing something unneeded)
>
> To understand the data in general, the best place to look is in the 
> factory
> service manual.   I'm not sure how much is in them (generally they cover 
> more
> how to rebuild the parts and less diagnostics), but nobody should work on 
> a
> car without the factory manual.   Don't cheap out with the Chilton or 
> Haynes
> manuals, get the OEM book.
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at