Just In Time Auto Repairs

 

1. Drew, do those “DO NOT” stickers under the hood of your car have any legal authority outside California?  I mean, it’s your vehicle.  You own it.  So long as you can pass the New Jersey requirements, who gives a fart-in-the-dark what California wants?

   Given NJ’s stance on the check engine light, I can see where you’d want to put matching parts into your own car, so its own computer wouldn’t make the check engine light come on.

   My check engine light finally died in the dash after having been on for 5 years ("Lean fuel/air mixture” code.) :D I fixed that problem by replacing the fuel filter which was rather clogged up.

   Glad you got your brakes fixed… Dang, that was cutting it close, man.

   Posted by Argentium G. Tiger       02/03/2009  at  06:54 PM  



2. JeeeeEEEZZZZZZZZZZZ Drew,

   Your brakes went how long?

   Darn, if you’re gonna be that dare devilish maybe I should compile a large list of tech questions now, just in case.

   That really was cutting it close.  Were you sitting on top of a dog house playing WW1 fighter pilot and wearing a silk scarf?

   Posted by peiper       02/04/2009  at  06:48 AM  



3. I just replaced the front brake pads on my Lincoln LS.  It’s not that hard.

   Posted by bikerbob       02/04/2009  at  06:59 AM  



4. Hey Drew! Would you mind if I take out a life insurance policy on you? It shouldn’t cost me much. About 124,000 miles worth.

   Posted by harleycowboy58       02/04/2009  at  09:16 AM  



5. Hey, the car kept stopping so the brakes still worked. Sure, now the car stops even better, but it was stopping Ok the old way. So I got my money’s worth.

   HOWEVER I think it is a good idea for all of us to keep an eye on our car’s brakes. You should rotate the tires every 5000 miles or at least once a year, and that’s a good time to look. If the pads or rotors seem thin, get a new set. The parts usually aren’t that expensive and it isn’t really hard to do yourself.

   Yes, I let mine go too long. Far too long. BUT in my own defense I have asked the car shops to take a look at them every time the car has been in ... for new tires, for a tire rotation, for an oil change ... and they were always “They’re fine. Got some wear, but you can get some more out of them”. Granted, the last time the car was in for service was about a year ago.

   Posted by Drew458       02/04/2009  at  11:11 AM  



6. Drew in the UK cars have to have an annual inspection. The emissions aspect is fairly rudimentary and is designed to catch cars that are burning oil or as in your case the O₂ sensors are defective. The mechanical aspect is more comprehensive however, and in the case of the brakes if they were as bad as yours the car would fail. It is a hassle every year and is another government tax in all but name but it does help keep some unsafe vehicles off the roads.

   I was interested in the OBD-II problem. A couple of years ago I had the CEL light up on our Mitsubishi. At the time I knew nothing about this so I phoned the stealer. They wanted me to bring it in. Well they seemed a bit keen to me so I looked it up. I found I could get a cheap OBD-II cable and do my own diagnosis. It turned out to be a misfire that had been detected a couple of times. I cleared the fault and all was well. The dealer wanted £90 for this. The cable cost £25. After that I looked into it some more and bought a cable that is specific to VW group cars as our other car was a diesel VW. I got it from these guys.

   http://www.ross-tech.com/

   Not cheap but good tools are not cheap. This will work with generic OBD-II but is primarily designed to access the VW can bus system. For anyone owning a VW or Audi who maintains their own car I strongly recommend getting one.

   I wasn’t aware that the faults are stored after they are “cleared”. AFAIK once the problem is fixed (say a new sensor is fitted) and the fault is cleared the info is erased but maybe the newer OBD-II stores it in non eraseable memory? Seems unlikely to me though.

   I have the “lite” version of this software.

   http://www.digimoto.com/

   I don’t need the full version as my car is a VW and the Ross Tech software covers everything I need but for generic OBD-II I should think this would be a good investment especially considering how much the stealers charge for diagnostics.

   Posted by LyndonB       02/04/2009  at  12:54 PM  



7. After you clear the CEL, the error will stay in the computer until you’ve run the car through a “standard” drive.  This is defined in the service manual for each car, but basically requires some in-town driving and highway driving.  This is done to prevent an owner from clearing the CEL, then going in for an emission test, hoping it doesn’t fail on the trip to the shop.  My Lincoln LS has OBD-II, with a CAN bus, and my old OBD-II reader wouldn’t work with the CAN bus.

   Posted by bikerbob       02/04/2009  at  02:11 PM  

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