
Did you know your car has a computer inside it that records a massive amount of data about peformance and economy? Did you know that for a few dollars you could access this information and display it on your smart phone like some futuristic dash display from Knight Rider? Well you can!
You can also learn a lot about your car and how to maintain or repair it, things your local garage mechanic might charge hundreds for!
All cars made after 1996 (in the US – a little later in Europe) should be OBD II compliant, OBD is on board diagnostics and this is what all modern car mechanics use to understand a vast amount of information available from the vehicle, however, without some kind of interface all you will normally see is a warning light on your dash.
Automotive Scan Tools allow you to do this, those that have bluetooth allow you to connect them to an Android Smartphone or a Laptop.
Having the ability to read OBD codes, then translate them into a fault allows you to do a number of things, firstly you can understand the probable severity of the problem and whether it is something you can fix yourself, or allows you to be sure that when taking your car to be repaired you will not be so easily charged for faults that don’t exist.
The other, frankly much cooler aspect, is that the data from the vehicle can be read in real time, on a mobile device running a suitable app such as Torque, this data can show you the speed of the engine (rpm), economy, acceleration, power, torque, 0-60 times, engine and coolant temperatures and many many more stats that you can record, tweet and analyse!
Article Credit :
Chevrolet Silverado Sugarland
Houston Car Dealers