stingray454 wrote:
Thats why I wish car companies would put a simple little LCD panel on the dash or under the hood that would display the error code that is causing the CEL to come on. How much could one of those displays cost? $2.00? All that would be needed is a display like the stereo or clock has. To me, that's what ON-BOARD Diagnostics should be.
  My mechanic was once showing me this nineteen-eighty-something Cadillac he was working on.  It has a display over on the left side of the dashboard which normally displays an estimate of how many miles per gallon the car is getting.  But by pressing some unusual combinations of buttons, we was able to get this display to show him troublecodes, sensor readons, and all other such stuff as one would normally be able to get from a modern car by way of a good OBD?II scanner.  No additional hardware or equipment was required here, though ? just knowing which combinations of buttons to press.

  If there's anything in the world that could induce me to become an infidel ? to buy some heathen non-Ford vehicle ? it would be a feature like this.

{I do hate spam, but that isn't really part of my email address.  Remove the string ?HatesSpam? from the email address ?BobHatesSpam@blaylock.to? to email me.  No advertisements.  Spammers will be dealt with very harshly!}
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Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX.  No mods. (Well, OK, one mod.  Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios.  I liked the Tempo's radio better.  That counts as a mod, doesn't it?  I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare.  I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars.  Does this count as a mod?  If so, I guess I have two mods.  Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)