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Search results for "obd-ii"

Dealing with the Dreaded CEL

By On February 10, 2012 · 30 Comments · In Automotive, Electronics

The CEL. (That’s what mechanics call the “check engine light.”) The folks over at Lifehacker recently posted a list of “the five most common causes of a check engine light and what you should do about them,” and it’s not a bad list. Check out the article if you wish, but I’ll save you [...]

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Griffin Announces iPhone OBD-II Reader

By On January 7, 2011 · 15 Comments · In Automotive, CES, Electronics, Griffin Tec

We’ve covered OBD-II readers before on Toolmonger, and it’s our experience that they generally fall into two categories: the inexpensive ones which offer a read of instant data only, and the expensive ones which show and record real-time data. It makes sense, as it takes a lot more computing power and design to [...]

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Resetting Your OBD-II Before A Smog Check

By On April 30, 2010 · 2 Comments · In Automotive, Electronics

So you’ve performed a code erase on your OBD-II-equipped vehicle, and now you’re due for an emissions check. But your code reader shows you’re not ready because some of the OBD-II emissions-related tests haven’t completed yet — specifically that the “HAS RUN” flag remains unset. What to do?

Well, you can drive [...]

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Another Reason To Own An OBD-II Code Reader

By On April 27, 2010 · 16 Comments · In Automotive, Electronics

We’ve touted code readers before. If you own an OBD-II-equipped (read: post-1996) vehicle, these little black boxes serve as the skeleton key to the check engine light (CEL) cellar door. But this weekend I was patching my F150 back together after getting it stuck in a friend’s lake of a [...]

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Finds: GM OBD-I Code Scanner

By On November 22, 2006 · 4 Comments · In Actron, Automotive, Electronics

So your check engine light’s on and you have no freakin’ idea what’s wrong.  Is something actually wrong with the engine, or is it just a failed sensor?  If you’re driving an older vehicle — something that’s computerized and built before around 1995 — it’s probably OBD-I, which means two things: 1) You can’t use [...]

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What Does That Check Engine Light Really Mean?

By On August 2, 2006 · 6 Comments · In Automotive, AutoXRay, Electronics

There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing that check engine light come on — or experiencing some other intermittant automotive issue — and having to drop the car off for a day or two at the dealer just so they can hook it up, read the code, and charge you $100 for it.  (Trust us — [...]

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