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Showing posts from January, 2017

How Does a Car Code Reader Work?

Computer controls started to show up on cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and these systems rapidly grew in complexity. Even very early computer controls included basic “on board diagnostic” functionality, and these early, OEM-specific systems are collectively referred to as OBD-I. In 1995, for the 1996 model year, automakers around the world started transitioning toward the universal OBD-II standard, which has been in use ever since. Both OBD-I and OBD-II systems work in essentially the same way, in that they monitor a variety of sensor inputs and outputs. If the system determines that anything is out of spec, it sets a “ Auto Scanner Tools ” that can be used in diagnostic procedures. Each code corresponds to a specific fault, and there are also different types of codes (i.e. hard, soft) that represent both ongoing and intermittent problems. When a trouble code is set, a special indicator on the dashboard typically lights up. This is the “malfunction indicator lamp” and it essen...