Subject: [Shop-talk] engine diagnostics

From: "Matt" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 13:51:56 GMT

When I got my first relatively inexpensive code reader, I thought "great, now
I can peer into the control systems and maintain all my cars!"  It didn't take
long before I realized that wasn't necessarily the case.  OBD was reasonable
regulation attempting to standardize trouble reporting and while us shadetree
folks made out well, the justification for guvment monkeying with the private
enterprise of auto manufacturing was emissions.  Beyond a common interface and
the mandated basic tuning/emissions requirements, there was no attempt to
standardize the rest of how your car's computer operated & reported. While you
can get basic code readers out of Asia for under $30, the growth of software
in automotive function and control reveals that there is a whole lot more
going on than what basic trouble codes reveal.  I think the answer will be
(is) an OBD to USB cable and instead of a dedicated reader, the secret sauce
will be the softwware that runs on your laptop.  That is what I had to get for
my VWs and it is called VAG-COM.  The capability/flexibility afforded by this
set up is amazing but it isn't cheap - yet.  Certainly cheaper than a big
brand specific diagnostic machine that garages had to buy in the "olden" days.
To combat the eventuality of a $20 cable and bootlegged software, they are
placing a chip in the cable and the full-capability, supported software looks
for the chip before it will work.  I guess it is simply too much to ask for
all car manufacturers to use common or open source programming for their
products.  With no incentive, why would they? MB
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