Anyone else ever see that on their car and wonder what the problem might be? Everything seems to be running fine, no weird noises on unexpected smoke coming from anywhere.
Last weekend I changed the front brakes on our mini-van. I really simple task that I recommend anyone do themselves instead of paying someplace $80+ to do it. If you don't know how to do it, or don't care to learn, and happen to live in the Indy area, let me know. I'll be more than happy to charge significantly less than a car shop and take care of it for you.
Anyway, changed the brakes last weekend, this weekend got the oil changed and car washed and everything seems to be going fine now. My wife is complaining about some kind of noise still, but I don't ever hear it when I'm driving, so we've got to figure out what that's all about.
The Cool Tools blog just shared a nugget of joy for those interested in the inner workings of our automobiles. It's called the CarChip E/X.
Basically it works like a little black box for your car. You can plug it into an interior port on most cars and just let it collect information. Some of which includes the error codes that generate the various lights on your dash like the "Check Engine Soon".
Other items of information it will collect include:
- each trip time and date
- distance
- speed
- hard accelerations and braking
- engine diagnostic trouble codes
- RPM's
- engine coolant temperature
- throttle positions
- fuel pressure
- battery voltage
The other really cool thing is that it just plugs into the USB port on your computer and downloads all the data into log files you can use to keep tabs on how your car or cars are doing. The only problem I have is that it will set you back a little more than $150 at Amazon.com. I don't have an extra $150 laying around either.
Tim says
Dude, I could have used this on my trip back from King's Canyon. 5 hours from home and the Check Engine light comes on.
Check Engine.
Is there anything more nebulous.
Could be spark plugs misfiring (which it was). Could be my engine is about to self-combust.
Problem is, I need to read the codes while still in the car on a Sunday and hundreds of miles away from home…
Tim says
Dude, I could have used this on my trip back from King’s Canyon. 5 hours from home and the Check Engine light comes on.
Check Engine.
Is there anything more nebulous.
Could be spark plugs misfiring (which it was). Could be my engine is about to self-combust.
Problem is, I need to read the codes while still in the car on a Sunday and hundreds of miles away from home…