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Automakers to Make Diagnostic Codes Available
Rubbersoul writes "As reported on /. a few months ago independent auto repair shops are a bit tense about not having access to car computer diagnostic codes. Well it seems that now the auto makers will share these codes after all. According to an article at CNN the codes will be available to all professional mechanics as well as amateurs working out of their garage at home. Good to see the auto makers came around on this one, even if it did take Congress to help a bit."
This means a number of major changes in the industry including the right for independent motor dealers to buy directly from manufacturers (as franchise dealers do now), and for them to have the right to the information required to service these vehicles at a fair price.
Some more info on this is available here.
What is new about this? The OBD and OBD II standards have been around for a long time... you can go out and buy a tool that will interface with your car and show you the codes... You can even get a cable that lets you hookup a laptop the sensor port.
The OBD-II Homepage
OBD-II Codes
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
These are Diag Codes not Source Code. These will not give you information to put Linux on your car. They give information like Code 2453 Means Sencor 4 is malfunctioning. So opening the code help the machanics not the hacker. They are not saying how the Onboad computer is working just giving you the information on what is wrong. It is like a help book for windows error messages. With know all the window error message numbers it helps you possible fix the problem with the Os but not nessarly hack the OS.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
From the article The fault or diagnostic codes, which appear on a handheld computer that the mechanic attaches to the vehicle to designate the source of trouble...
:-) Planning on hooking up a decoder to an old Grid PalmPad and using one of the programs on SourceForge to continuously display the data and log it to the network I am adding to my '96 Jeep Cherokee.
This is describing the OBD-II (onboard diagnostics) codes. OBD-II is required on all new vehicles sold in the US since 1996. The protocol is open, but manufacturers would add additional information that they did not disclose to outsiders. Throttle position, fuel flow, intake temp, etc were all easy to decode but other codes were proprietary.
And, yes, I am one of the people interested in this
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Diagnostic trouble Code so called DTC are avil online for long time. check out http://www.autotap.com for detail on their software and OBDII codes. Autotap is not just for Trouble Codes, you can use it to monitor 1000's of parameters in Real time!! from how much air/fuel your car consuming, how far you have your throttle down, what gear are you in, what's your temptures etc etc.
:)
I have all the Codes for my Grand Prix GTP.
Yes A lot of people mod their cars, reprogramming the PCM or ECU can give you more HP and remove speed limiter etc.
I'm one of those guy who tweak on the cars, i'll be setting DTC's left and right, i just use autotap and look up the code and do the necessary correction to fix the problem.
Sometime friend who have Service Engine Soon light on their late model car I tap in and check out the code (Which cost $75 at the shop) so we'll get idea on the problem with the car before we take it to the shop.
There are palm size code readers and scan tools also.
Look for multiline, serial gauges that coming out in a few month that let you monitor various parameters of your OBD II car and they're reprogrammable too with serial interface.
On Board Diagnostics is a tool. You can read the codes with the tool.
What the codes mean is the point.
That has nothing to do with this. You know the Check Engine light that people never have checked out? Thats the car's internal diagnostic system giving you a heads up that something's fscked up.
Believe it or not, that actually has a good bearing on if something is wrong with your car. People who fix their cars at home (or the car tuner) actually likes to look up what caused that Orange Light of Death, but from most car companies (most being the American ones) the code it displays is kept secret from small garages or individuals.
This allows the do-it-yourselfer or the entrepreneur garage to repair their vehicle with the aid of the vehicle. Score one for the little guys.
RTFA, the codes have been avalible to dealerships, this means your local chain (quaker, jiffy lube) or your local mechanic still didn't have acess to them, so you'd either have to go the the dealership and pay their higher prices, or go to your local mechanic and pay more because it would take longer to figure out what was wrong, btw, IMO going to a dealership is throwing your money away ussually, free estimate, they told me it would cost $115 (parts and labor) to replace a seatbelt and a window roller handle thingy, i went to a junkyard, payed the guy about $20 and took the half an hour to replace them myself
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Agreed: the biggest advantage will be a general price reduction, hopefully.
While the codes are generally useless to a good mechanic, the ability to reset them on many models is the tough part. Among others, BMW was notorious for this. I haven't worked on one for a while, but the "service reset tool" was DOD expensive, and a total scam.
uhhh, what you get with a commercial tool is almost always the international standard codes, occasionally manufacturer-specific drivetrain codes. with very few ($2000 and up range) exceptions do you get the "chassis codes" for traction enhancement controls, transmission/engine crosstalk codes, and so on.
you still are not going to get them free, but they will be availiable in updates some day before we all die to professional test readers.
presumably this will also include the equivalent to the "mode 4" international code for the wacko ones. "mode 4" is also known as "reset," turns out the $$$ light on the dash.
wanna check out scanners, including build-your-own, try
http://www.batauto.com/technical/scaninfo.shtml
and for code lists for specific cars, try
http://www.batauto.com/technical/
and click what you want. as usual, you get what you pay for, no deposit no return, use at your own risk, etc. etc.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Do you understand? This is huge. Huge, huge. This is indeed the "opening" of the closed information source. It's as if MS agreed to open *all* proprietary informational resources (private KBs, training, diag tools, etc.) that were previously used only by their premier tech support reps.
Now will most mechanics avail themselves of this? Heck no. Most don't know or care how to truly troubleshoot; there are easier ways to flag hours that don't involve trying to convince a skeptical customer that you're not ripping them off.
But to those who love troubleshooting, this is manna from heaven. Take codes for example. An earlier poster said they were useless. If all you had was the description of the code, that's a correct statement.
However, if you also knew the exact criteria the PCM needed to see before throwing a code (this knowledge will be one of the takeaways from this act), you could then use your understanding of the proprietary system (a second takeaway) to straightforwardly troubleshoot and fix it.
Make sense? This is a hallmark day for savvy techs (or rather, August 31, 2003 will be <grin>).
Cheers,
-jm
As someone who works in the industry on the fleet mechanic side I have to disagree.
The OBD-II codes have been around and they are helpful for the most part. What has been needed are the non-standard manufacturer specific codes.
I wish I could purchase a good scan tool that would work on the major brands for $300. With software, leads, and adapters for domestic only I think our Mastertech package was over $2,800. That's domestic only, no imports, and it is never current. I'm just now getting updated for 2002 model year vehicles.
You are correct that it still takes a good mechanic to find the problem. A good mechanic stays current with his training. Todays mechanic is not a programmer, but he is a technician.
Using the scan tool to read diagnostic codes won't tell the mechanic exactly where the problem is. He has to know the systems well enough to understand what the on board computer is telling him. The ability to read the real time data stream is important too, maybe even more important than knowing waht the diagnostic codes mean.
It is important to understand how the on board computer arrived at the diagnostic code. You have to know what test is run, how it is run, and what the conditions for the test are. If you don't have that information then you are correct, the codes will be misleading.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.