Here’s Why Every Car Owner Should Get an OBD-II Scanner

You may not know how to actually fix a car, but you need one of these nifty little OBD-II scanners in your vehicle.

Working on a car isn’t easy. It’s time consuming, frustrating, and, depending on your level of knowledge, difficult. But everyone’s had that moment where the car’s running poorly and the only piece of advice that points towards something being wrong is an illuminated “check-engine light.” And while owning an extensive toolbox full of specialized instruments may seem unnecessary, every single car owner should at least have one of these tools in their glove box.

In the video above, Mercedessource provides a detailed look at why an OBD-II reader is one of the most important tools an automobile owner can have. In the video, Mercedessource’s vehicle, which looks to be a Smart Car, is running poorly, and has an illuminated engine light. Before even opening the hood and trying to diagnose the issue, the host plugs his OBD-II scanner into the appropriate plug-in, which is usually under the dash.

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After following the proper directions for his specific scanner, the tool comes up with a code that points him towards an open circuit on the number one fuel injector. Some OBD-II scanners won’t spell out what’s exactly wrong with your car, but instead, will spit out a code that you will have to look up online. Either way, our host opens the hood to see that a mouse has eaten some of his wires. That’s a simple enough fix, but the reasoning behind owning an OBD-II scanner is all the same.

Getting a vehicle diagnosed at the dealership can be an expensive venture. As the video claims, it could cost upwards of $200 to $300. And even if you don’t know how to fix a car, an OBD-II reader can let you know what’s wrong with it. So when and if you do take it to someone else to get fixed, you have a rough idea of what needs to be changed.

If you’re still on the fence about grabbing an OBD-II reader after watching the video, think about it this way. You could spend a little bit of money – you don’t need a fancy, do-everything scanner – on an easy-to-use tool, or go to the dealership where you’ll pay a large amount of money for someone else to use the same tool on your car.

via [Mercedessource]