Sign the petition to ban the "Check Engine" light!

[sportyaccordy]

I'm going to assume that any body with enough skills to get the information from the car's computer and actually tackle the problem would also have enough snap to know when they should turn it over to the professionals.

For example, the light came on on the Buick (come buy this car, please).  Autozone ran the code and gave me a printout of the most likely causes starting with the most likely (loose, missing or bad gas cap) them moving on to more difficult items.  malfunctioning charcoal cannister.  Like I said, anyone with any snap could know to check the easy stuff they could handle and go to the shop for the harder stuff.  Dealers, of course, would like you to come in for everything.

I think you have an overly positive view of the typical car owner.

I did a short bid in automotive service and saw so many Monday night mechanics. I can only imagine it being that much worse now with the recession...

[hounddog]

What is the difference between a Monday night mechanic, and a Sunday shade tree mechanic?

[Byteme]

I think you have an overly positive view of the typical car owner.

I did a short bid in automotive service and saw so many Monday night mechanics. I can only imagine it being that much worse now with the recession...

No, I thnk the typical owner will be intimidated and take it to the dealer.  the ones that are curious enough to figure out what the problem actually may be aren't typical.

I'll agree though that you will always have some yahoo who thinks they can change sparkplugs with a pipewrench.

[SVT666]

I get a Check Engine light on my Focus every 6 months or so.  I plug my tuner in and the code comes up, immediately followed with "Common on vehicles with an aftermarket tune", and then I clear it and unplug.

[hounddog]

If we are to be ridding ourselves of needless items, lets please start with the tire pressure sensors.

I had my tires changed and they ruined a sensor, and now it continually tells me the pressure is too low, yet, it is set to factory specs.

I clear it once or twice a week, yet it immediately returns.  Damn these nannies, damn them all to hell!

[93JC]

What is the difference between a Monday night mechanic, and a Sunday shade tree mechanic?

A Sunday mechanic gets the job done on Sunday. A Monday night mechanic is so hapless the job spills over from the weekend to Monday night.

[MX793]

If we are to be ridding ourselves of needless items, lets please start with the tire pressure sensors.

I had my tires changed and they ruined a sensor, and now it continually tells me the pressure is too low, yet, it is set to factory specs.

I clear it once or twice a week, yet it immediately returns.  Damn these nannies, damn them all to hell!

Thank your local congressman.  TPMS is required by law.

[S204STi]

TPMS sensors are actually a good idea, IMO, since most car owners are barely competent to fill the fuel tank, let alone check the fucking tire pressure on their own.

[S204STi]

LOL at this thread. Code P0171. System too lean Bank 1. A very common generic code.

What's wrong with it?

I'd say vacuum leak, if it were a GM small-block.  But only because I worked in the industry.  Most DIYers couldn't find their own ass with both hands, let alone figure this out.

[S204STi]

In case you didn't notice, I have a very low view of the overall automotive diagnostic capabilities of the majority of drivers.

[Raza]

TPMS sensors are actually a good idea, IMO, since most car owners are barely competent to fill the fuel tank, let alone check the fucking tire pressure on their own.

I love mine.  And after seeing the number of underinflated tires I see on a daily basis, I think that should be federally mandated, not stability control.

[VTEC_Inside]

More examples of why its a bad idea.

Buddy with a 325xi had two different lean codes triggered only in cold weather. Fortunately he knows little about cars.

Result after 30min of troubleshooting? Vacuum line to the air injection pump had become brittle and cracked causing it to leak when called upon and at the same time effectively disabling the pump. Shitty crankcase vent design also clogged up.

Get there from the generic code.


Another buddy who likes to think he knows a little about cars wanted to replace the coolant temp sensor on his parents car 2sec after my code reader spit out "coolant temp below threshold"..

[VTEC_Inside]

If we are to be ridding ourselves of needless items, lets please start with the tire pressure sensors.

I had my tires changed and they ruined a sensor, and now it continually tells me the pressure is too low, yet, it is set to factory specs.

I clear it once or twice a week, yet it immediately returns.  Damn these nannies, damn them all to hell!

Id like to see them go as well even though they arent mandatory here, yet. They can be neat, but are yet another device to take responsibility away from the driver. Not suggesting in the slightest that Im infallable here. Im pretty sure I screwed up the front left tire on my CSX by taking a 50min drive once with realizing it was at like 2psi. My bad, but I did notice something looked off when I walked back to the car. Tire looked fine height wise, but had indications of wear a little far over the sidewall.

Then you'll also have people like my mom that just keep pushing the reset button and drive around on a near flat tire anyway.

[MX793]

I love mine.  And after seeing the number of underinflated tires I see on a daily basis, I think that should be federally mandated, not stability control.

TPMS has been federally mandated in all new cars since 2007 in the US.

[giant_mtb]

The TPMS system on the A4 is kind of stupid/annoying.  It doesn't actually monitor the pressure, it just asks you to set a baseline and then it (I'm guessing) determines if the tire is over/under inflated by monitoring number of rotations.  And it can't/doesn't/won't single out a single tire...it just says "Tire Underinflated" or whatever so you have to go around and check each one. 

...but I keep my tires properly inflated, so it's not really an issue anyway, but still.

[TurboDan]

Mines been on for the last 8 years or so...I just ignore it .

The issue is, in some states, you can't. If there's an MIL on, they will not allow you to pass inspection and if your car is not re-inspected (and passes) with 30 days or 60 days (forget which) you can get a ticket. You'll also have an overdue inspection sticker on your car until it's fixed, so you'll keep getting ticket after ticket. The problem is big -- one person I know who had a Ford, had nothing wrong with the car except a a malfunction that kept the physical light in the MIL on. Because a new ECU would've cost so much, this poor person had to buy a new car rather than "fix" a car that worked perfectly fine except for a little light being on.

Now, I don't know why some people are getting their panties in a bunch over this. My car can decipher a data stream from a satellite in space and turn it into Howard Stern's voice. It can connect to my phone via Bluetooth. It can give me pinpoint directions to anywhere in North America just by my typing in an address. But you're saying it will raise the cost to put like two lines of text (that's already saved in the car's ECU anyway) up on the display screen? Come on...

I'm not sure it should be a LAW that the manufacturers have to do this, but it would be a nice feature in a car. Personally, I own an OBDII scanner, but it'd be nice to be able to look at it without getting under there and hooking it up. Although I'd still use the scanner to turn off phantom codes that sometimes pop up. Count me among the people who like to get at the low-hanging fruit before taking to a mechanic or (shudder) the stealership. For the record, a code did once pop up that (coincidentally) led me to visually inspect and clean the MAF sensor. Guess what - it worked! Cars are complicated, but it is not complicated at all to change an O2 sensor, the cause of the majority of these recurring codes.

If people got to know their cars just a little bit – enough to fix some basic, relatively cheap issues – they'd save a lot of money. But I'm guessing anyone apt to do that kind of thing already has a scanner.

[ifcar]

The TPMS system on the A4 is kind of stupid/annoying.  It doesn't actually monitor the pressure, it just asks you to set a baseline and then it (I'm guessing) determines if the tire is over/under inflated by monitoring number of rotations.  And it can't/doesn't/won't single out a single tire...it just says "Tire Underinflated" or whatever so you have to go around and check each one. 

...but I keep my tires properly inflated, so it's not really an issue anyway, but still.

A lot of the systems aren't even on a set baseline -- it's often just whether one tire is significantly different from the others.

[FoMoJo]

Down here that's an automatic annual inspection fail. 

We have emission inspections every 2 years.  If I disconnect and reconnect the battery, it will stay off for a few days.  However, it's always passed with good numbers.  Whatever the problem is, I initially assumed it was the gas cap, it has no effect on the overall performance.

[JWC]

NC's state inspection computer will tell if the battery has been disconnected within a certain number of miles.

When I left the dealership in 2008, we were not using scan tools any longer.  The systems were complicated enough that laptops were needed and they would run tests on different components to check if their functions were within spec.   I'm sure Shp4man uses the Panasonic Toughbook shipped by Ford.

Usually people using code readers just want to argue about what is wrong with their car regardless of what the tests show.  It comes from people on the internet telling them to run by Advance for a free scan.

[AutobahnSHO]

MOST cars have sneaky ways you can check the codes without a reader. You just have to dig to find it.

I found online how to even check the auto tranny on my Subaru- you put the transmission into a (seemingly random) sequence of shifts..

I say they just make it mandatory to tell consumers in the owner's manual how to check the codes without paying the dealer to do it..