I let the ex-mechanic talk me into using a later Engine Management Unit on the van, one that supported On Board Diagostics Version II (OBDII). With OBDI, you only got a single LED and had to count flashes and patterns to figure out what it's trying to tell you. Kinda like charades.:laughing: I bought a Bluetooth dongle for twenty bux, and spent five bux on an app, and I can read all the error codes and reset them, and a lot more, too. The dealer uses the same port with more sophisticated hardware and software to run diagnostics and exercise various systems. I have an older version of a tester from AutoEnginuity that approaches that level of functionality, but it's no longer supported by the company and was too sophisticated for me to ever really figure out. But it would record data and generate plots on a laptop in real time so you could look at things like O2 sensors, throttle position, RPM, and various temperatures. The little app I use now does a lot of the same thing, and it runs on an iPhone or iPad. Heck, for twenty bux at HF you can get a dedicated reader that does some of that, and for several grand Snap-On will sell you one that's as good as or better than the ones from the factory. Swinging doors and turning keys went out in '94 when most manufacturers switched over to OBDII. I guess it's good they left the monkey motion in the system in case an owner is a die hard do-it-yourselfer, or maybe I'm mistaken and that's really the only way to do that reset? If so, it is another sign of the approaching Apocalypse.:laughing:
