Checking out a few forums on cars the other day I noticed a lot of people complaining about having to pay for diagnostic work. Also , apparently a large amount of folks drive around with the check engine light on until the engine fails. Let me say this, cars do communicate with you. You have to know how to hear what your car says..
Cars can’t talk. Dogs don’t talk. Yet both of the things I just mentioned have ways of communicating with you. In fact they can communicate very effectively with you if you pay attention to them. Your car communicates with you through the check engine light.
To put it in simple terms. Ignoring your check engine light is like ignoring a crying baby. If the check engine light come on, it is time to call a qualified engine shop and pay a fair price to have a competent mechanic hook up a scan tool or a hand held scanner in order to extract a code.
A professional scanner which obviously can scan a car for trouble code costs a lot of money. These particular breed of scanners generally cost at least $4000.00, up to $10000.00 and perform every test to your automotive product that the dealer can. Except with more accuracy and detail. It is not a realistic tool for a home owner to afford or for that matter, spend tremendous amounts of time being trained and practicing how to use it.
That being said, it is absolutely worth the price of an hours worth of labor to pay a qualified repair shop to do that. They may deduct the cost if you repair the car at their shop. The bottom line is that getting an honest diagnosis saves money. Especially if you are in the habit of replacing parts to fix the problem. This ain’t the old days, you have computers and all sorts of expensive components to deal with nowadays. How can spending $500.00 on a computer and still have the same problem be better than spending $80.00 bucks on a diagnosis and having to only have a $175.00 repair?
The point of the article is this. If the Check engine light comes on, get your car diagnosed by a professional asap. Stop crying and whining about having to pay for a diagnosis. You go to a doctor and pay him for a diagnosis. Then you pay him to fix you. Excellent mechanics have every bit the smarts and physical skills of a surgeon. I rebuilt transmissions for 30 plus years.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it…
Cars are as complicated as humans beings now. GotEngines.com Blog realizes the value of information that helps keep some money in your pocket. Enjoy
[...] tighten your gas cap and the light will turn off? It’s not quite that simple. In fact, that Check Engine light has enough quirks that I’ll make that the topic of next weeks [...]
[...] you have a fuel injected car and the check engine light is on you may have a problem that is costing you a lot of extra fuel. The car will then be running [...]
[...] unknown. You will lose power and fuel economy will suffer at the very least. You might also see a Check Engine light with misfire codes. It’s a bad idea all around. You gain nothing and you risk damaging the [...]