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TPMS was/is a government mandate. Another item that adds to the cost of a new vehicle.
Exactly.. Another item that adds to the cost of the vehicle and to the repair or diagnosis cost for no real reason....
Government mandates and manufacturers ideas are like hemorrhoids.... They hurt, you know you will have them forever, you will have to spend money on the temporary treatment and they have nothing to do with helping your body maintain itself...
Maybe I am among the few BUT I always check my tires and under the hood and do look arounds of my car periodically.... I don't leave it to a device that can and does malfunction...
Your post starts as if you're a genius for telling everyone they can go to parts stores to have codes read. Then in to a rant about most issues being emissions related, but your BMW was ignition coils. WTF does ignition have to do with emissions? Did we not have ignition prior to any emissions.
It becomes an emissions issue however when all that unburned fuel from the dead cylinder goes out through the exhaust.
The smart thing for a manufacturer to do would be to simply use one of the vehicle's computer displays to actually show the code AND the short description of that code(s) so that the driver could make a decision about whether to immediately stop or continue on safely to a repair facility.
The smart thing for a manufacturer to do would be to simply use one of the vehicle's computer displays to actually show the code AND the short description of that code(s) so that the driver could make a decision about whether to immediately stop or continue on safely to a repair facility.
Based on some of the responses in this thread, I'm not sure some people should be trusted with that kind of decision making.
Around the late 1960s to early 1980s, some Ford cars had a red "Engine" warning light in the instrument cluster, but it wasn't the same as the Check Engine warning indicator on modern vehicles. It was a combined oil/temperature warning light that indicated either low oil pressure or high engine temperature - you figure out which one it is.
I had a Ford years ago with an Engine light, and when it came on one time, I immediately switched on the heater, and it went out. That suggested it was overheating, and it turned out to be a stuck thermostat. In the 1980s, I was driving a rented LTD II, and the Engine light came on. Turned out that one was overheating, too. The culprit was a pin hole near the top of the radiator, that would start misting coolant when the engine heated up.
Funny thing - any vehicle equipped with a temperature guage I've ever owned or driven, has never overheated on me.
It COULD be done. But then you'd have more DIY'ers fixing their own cars, and less people who need to "bring the car in" to get a diagnosis. Translation - less people coming into the service department and paying $110 per hour for labor. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
As I stated before the code does not always mean its a sensor. I worked at a Dodge dealer for the last 24 years before I retired on disability and I did electrical and diagnosis work. Not only would I get cars to fix after the owner had but 3 or 4 parts on it and still did not fix it but I also got cars from other garages when they could not fix it. Its not always a simple part but sometimes it can be.
These cars can be very complicated and the average Joe will have no idea what to do if its more then just a part he or she can replace. All the cars now have buss systems on them so all the computers can talk to each other and a problem in the communication system can set all kind of crazy codes and drive a tech nuts.
I was the only tech in my shop who knew how to use out Mopar data recorder as it was great for intermitant problems I could hook it up and drive the car until it acts up and then record all the sensors when it does its problem. I would download the recording to our in house shop computer and study the readings to find the problem. Had one once that would buck and cut out everytime it started to pick up speed. Only it did not set a code. But the recorder hepled me fix it as it had a speed sensor that would spike and say the car was hitting 500 mph. Course it was not but the computer on the Caravan would kill the fuel injectors at 118 mph and the computer thought the car was going faster then 118 and cut the eng out.
I had a garage send me a car as it set a (TPS voltage code) and they replaced the TPS and the connector and could not fix it as it still set the code. The service station tech called me to find out how the "clockspring" I replace under the steering wheel fixed a TPS code. Ron
Agree that the gas cap is the first place to go. When I had the code read one time, I was convinced is was the gas sensor. That time I actually tried "replacing" the cap on the older car before taking the plunge on a repair - - and it worked.
The Chryslers had that for years now. The computers on the car are smart enough now to know if the car was just filled with gas as they moniter the fuel tank unit and if it fails an Evap test right after that it assumes the gas cap was left loose and will turn on a Check gas cap lite in the speedo area on the dash. Ron
People here have been singing the praises of CEL and the wonders it does. Just today, my low beam went out. I did not know it until I saw myself in the plate glass of a store as I was making a turn. No CEL, no warning light, no nothing. The one time I could use a warning light it was nowhere to be found.
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