check engine message

[Brucelee]

I appreciate this tip. I have been looking for a good analyzer to use on cars as a pre-purchase tool. Seems the Porsche will yield a "pre-CEL" code that signals something WILL be going bad soon, ie an O2 sensor.

If this tool will read these codes, it is just the ticket for me.

Thanks

[deliriousga]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

If this tool will read these codes, it is just the ticket for me.

If you only want something to read the codes and clear them, there are plenty of code readers on eBay in the $20-$25 range. Save yourself some $$$ unless you're going to do extensive diagnostics. I got one of those earlier, but it was not enough info for me to do diagnostics unless the problem was a sensor that gave a code.

Here's the difference between the two from my previous problem with vacuum. The regular code reader gave me a code of "Fuel Injection Circuit 1" and that's it. All of the injectors were working fine so I bought the AutoTap. With it, I could run the car and record the output of all of the O2 sensors, the fuel mixture and other settings. By watching the different sensor reactions when the car stalled I could see there was one area that was lacking O2 because the sensor after that point was wide open and it still stalled. Traced it back and found a cut in one of the vacuum hoses. Replaced the hose and it's been as good as new.