today's cars are jam-packed with many computers electronics and sensors and
any of these systems can have problems as the car ages and sometimes even when
fairly new. when that happens how can you tell what happened or even start to
decode what's going on. most of the time we need to bring our cars in and have a
mechanic decode things for us when the check engine light on the dash lights up.
though there are tools out there that allow us to read diagnostic codes from
the car's ECU, they tend to be expensive. from the cheaper forty dollar units to
the more expensive ones that cost hundreds of dollars it doesn't make
sense to pay so much when there is a better and less expensive solution. I
will show you how this Android app can allow you to read your car's diagnostic
trouble codes, clear them and much more.\ for a very affordable price. before we
start, I would also like to mention that as companies and people get greedy or
nowadays we are also hearing more and more reports that many businesses are
taking advantage of everyday consumers. we're talking about businesses ranging
from banks to car repair shops that charge you for services that you don't
really need. as a consumer we have to stay informed and not let that happen.
let's take a look at how this app can help us help ourselves. when it comes to
our cars all you will need to spend is about $25 Canadian and this tool will
pay for itself in more ways than one. if you ever have to deal with check
engine or malfunction indicator lights, buying a used car, racing your car on a
track, calculating fuel economy or just are a gadget geek then continuing
watching to find out more. now we get to the most useful part of this video, the
torque app, the check engine light and more. the check engine warning light
tells you that one of the ECU systems or sensors is not working properly and
should be checked. cars that are manufactured after 1996 are required to
have the obd2 system. the check engine light is part of that system and the
obd2 port allows mechanics to read trouble codes and better pinpoint issues.
one thing to note is that the codes don't specifically tell you what is wrong as
often times different system issues can lead to similar trouble codes so some
investigation will be needed along with the codes you retrieve. watch on to see
where to check for solutions. all you need is an obd2 adapter, an Android phone
or tablet and the torque Pro app. buy the obd2 adapter online for about $20
Canadian and the app for about $5 and you have yourself a fully functional obd2
scan tool. see the video description for links to where to buy both the
adapter and the app. so now that you have the tool what do you do when you have
the check engine light on. first is to determine how important the warning is.
if the check engine light is solidly lit then it is not as severe, but you should
get the issue looked into. secondly if the light is flashing then it is serious
and you need to pull off the road safely and turn off the car. further driving it
in this condition will cause serious damage to your car. once you scan for the
diagnostic trouble codes you can start doing research into it. aside from just
Google, I found that car forums are a great place to get information on
solutions often times people with the same vehicles have the same problems and
already have a solution for it. so look for a forum specific to your make and
model, take the time to research and that will give you a starting point. whether
you decide to fix the problem yourself or take it into a mechanic, at least you
will have an idea and it will be a little harder for bad mechanics to trick
you into getting more work done than you need. sometimes the problem can be as
simple as a loosely closed gas cap so using this tool and a bit of your time,
you can definitely save some money. this tool can also be used to clear these
trouble codes easily, but note that the codes will eventually come back if the
issue hasn't been resolved.
I, myself have repaired my car and my family's cars using this tool and have
been able to diagnose and repair by correctly replacing parts from oxygen
sensors to ignition coils to simply cleaning the mass air sensor. the tool
has more than paid off for itself. also if you're looking to buy a used car you
can use this to scan for some of the existing issues. note that these codes
are not the only things you should look for but can be a starting point. be aware
that the existing codes can also be easily cleared by the seller. you can at
least scan for the codes after you test-drive the car as some of the codes
can come back within the short distance of driving, but know that other codes
will only show up after longer durations of driving. in some cases as you can see
here the cars computer makes available the distance driven with and without the
check engine light on so this can be a useful hint as to if the seller has
cleared any codes. if you are a car enthusiast you can also set up the tools
dashboard to show you live readings from the different sensors in your car
ranging from rpm, boost pressure, vacuum fuel economy to coolant temperatures and
much more. note that this will be dependent on the sensors available in
your car and whether the manufacturer has made these readings available. make
sure to buy a quality adapter and one that uses bluetooth. I have used ones
that use Wi-Fi but those are susceptible to interference from the many Wi-Fi
access points in my neighborhood, so I would recommend Bluetooth ones. also for
usability don't buy the physically long adapters short ones like the one I'm
using are out of the way when connected to the car and don't stick out. well I
hope you found this video useful. help support this channel if you did. sharing
it or clicking on the ads that you are interested in that you see while
watching this video will definitely help. thanks again for watching and see you
next time. Thanks from FRAKKING CREATIONS!