By David Ponce
God, that headline reads like an infomercial. But whatever, the CarMD actually sounds like something useful. When the “Check Engine” light on your car’s dashboard comes on, and doesn’t go off after a few kicks on the tires, it usually means your wallet will bleed whatever amount your mechanic deems appropriate to charge you for hooking it up to a computer. It takes two minutes, yet somehow ends up costing an arm.
Well, no more. With the CarMD, you can figure out what’s wrong all on your own. Just hook it up to one of the nine OBD2 (On-Board Diagnostic 2, for cars 1996 and newer) ports located throughout your car (the most commonly used is under the steering wheel) and in no time the device will tell you what’s wrong.
Of course, there’s still a good likelihood you won’t be able to fix the problem on your own, but technology can only take you so far. At least, if your mechanic tries to scam you, you’ll know.
It’s $90.
[CarMD] VIA [Gizmologia]
I?ve been using Davis? CarChip for nearly a year now. From the site: ( http://www.davisnet.com/drive/products/carchip_products.asp )
CarChipE/X with 300 hours of trip details. (The actual number of hours will vary, depending on how frequently you log data. When full, CarChipE/X ?rolls over? and begins to overwrite the oldest data with the newest.) All the details of standard CarChip, plus an accident log and the ability to monitor any 4 out of 23 user-selectable engine parameters.