Your car can speak; listen to her the geeky way
Did you know that there’s a secret feature in your car that lets you talk to it, look inside its engine and figure out what’s broken and keeps it running at peak performance without getting your hands greasy? It’s a feature that your service centre or your mechanic has tried to keep a secret. But not anymore.
While older cars used cryptic lights to tell you something was wrong, modern cars have something called On Board Diagnostics-II. It lets you hack into your car’s computer by using an engine scanner. These OBD scanners are small enough to fit your pocket and cost anywhere between `450 to `10,000. These scanners can be plugged into the OBD-II port, which is usually placed under the dashboard or behind a trim panel, and monitor engine parameters such as speed, temperature, voltage and other vital data and relay them to your phone via Bluetooth, giving you a chance to diagnose a problem even before it occurs.
How does it work? Every time the car’s on-board computer senses that something isn’t quite right, it stores a fault code before turning on the engine-check light. An OBD-II scanner can then dig and find these codes from the computer and let you know what’s going on under the bonnet. For example, if your car’s engine is suffering from a rough idle, the OBD-II scanner can find out if it’s because of a vacuum leak or an issue with the catalytic converter or something else entirely. It can also extract fault codes that indicate if your engine has been misfiring or if it has an issue with the fuel injectors or coolant temperature. When such issues arise, it’s best to take your car to the mechanic.
Other instances where an OBD-II scanner comes in handy is while buying a used car. You can simply connect the device to the car that you are interested in buying and check if all engine parameters are working in perfect condition and save yourself from footing a large repair bill. If you are chauffeur-driven or let your family and friends drive the car regularly, you can keep the scanner connected and check the car’s speed and other data like if it’s been accelerated or braked hard, giving you a good idea of how safe they are behind the wheel of your car. Some scanners even let you find out if the car has ever been involved in an accident. But the best part of having a scanner is that you no longer need a calculator to check your car’s fuel efficiency as the scanner can give you an accurate reading of both real-time and average fuel efficiency in an instant.
An OBD-II scanner is today’s equivalent of must-have tools, like a tachometer, a Dwell meter or a timing light. These scanners are no longer sold exclusively to professional mechanics giving more control over your car’s health
—ZIGWHEELS.COM