OT modern vehicle fault diagnosis.

Nov 06, 2008 3 Replies

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Dave Croft 17 years ago

My Skoda Octavia diesel displayed a fault on the dash showing a fault with the pre-heaters. An owed favour gave me an electronic read out saving me a lot of money that the fault was my brake lights. The lights didn't work & a quick test showed that the fuse hadn't blown & the bulbs were OK. I had the switch changed (not easy) & all was OK. I told this to a mechanic I use & he told me he had obtained a small readout that let you read the stored faults for less than £10. As the usual tester costs thousands of pounds this sounds like a usefull purchase. Does anyone know of a supplier of these & how good are they?

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Dave Liquorice 17 years ago

Plenty on eBay or any half reasonable motor factors.

How good they are, not sure. AIUI these cheapies just display a number or possibly just flash a LED that you have count. You then look that up in a table. I believe the basic fault codes are standard across all makes and models of car but once away from that area it gets less reliable.

I suspect google is your friend for finding a tester that matches you car and what the gotchas are with them.

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John 17 years ago

h the pre-heaters.

at the fault was my brake lights.

the bulbs were OK.

out that let you read the stored

Since about 1999, I believe all cars use a common diagnostic port. There are a number of fault readers available that plug into this port. Most of the cheap ones display the fault code by flashing a LED. You count the flashes to get a number. So 4 flashes followed by 7 gives 47. Then you need to know what the number means. That may vary from car to car. Mine are available on the net. Also on my car is a built in fault reader. I connect 2 terminals under the steering wheel, turn on the ignition and the dashboard engine light flashes to give the fault code. A cross reference to a downloaded table and I've got the answer for free (I love that word).

John

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Andy Dingley 17 years ago

pre-heaters.

the fault was my brake lights.

OBD-II (anything newer than my Volvo!) and eighty quid gets you a Bluetooth (wireless) ODB-reader dongle. A Nokia 770 and a free download of Carman

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gives you easier control of anything and everything you've ever wanted. I love this technology - beats the pants off emulsion tubes and Brassoing needles.

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