freakin' dealers...

rickztahone

rickztahone

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so i have a coil that's on it's way out. i think, let me pound the crap out of my LS to get the CEL. i do, it comes up but flashing. when i get on the street it goes away so i'm pissed because i can't read a code when the CEL is not flashing. so i go home, i call auto-zone to ask if they have any OBD-II to lend out. they tell me "we no longer do that do to the fact that dealerships were getting angry that people were getting codes read for free". i say to myself, these mu-tha-freakers....(lol), i swear it's a monopoly going on. i had to vent, sorry. now i'ma get one from ebay and i have to deal with the damn shaking at a stop till it comes in the mail. do any of them work? these are a couple i was looking at

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=220269596945&rd=1

will it work?
 
i would but my range is more like in the 50-100 bucks. will the one i posted work? i just need it to read the misfire
 
Did you try reading them from the trip-odometer?

if I recall...
1)Hold trip and reset buttons,
2)Turn key On-Acc-On-Acc-On
3)press reset to cycle through the menus. You get to DTC codes somewhere in there. I'm not sure if it gives you all the current codes but it's worth a shot.
 
You might be interested in this. It plugs onto the OBDII port and can log codes as they appear. Simply pull it off, plug it into the computer and download the codes out. It's handy for those troublesome CEL's.
 
Go to Walmart and they sell $30-$40 scan tools. I bought a Innova scanner, reads all the codes as the car is running, lets you delete codes, pretty much all the basic stuff you'd need. Great tool to have handy and fairly inexpensive. Mine came in handy when i took the car into the dealer for the coils. I couldnt go more than a mile or so and it would go into failsafe mode, would have to pull over, clear the codes, start back up....repeat. That was a real fun drive.
 
And just a tip. May as well replace all of them at the same time and get it done with.
 
update: I bought a scanner on sunday on ebay. got here yesterday and i read the code which turned out to be misfire from cylinder 6. went and got a ignition coil from autozone, 53.xx w/ taxes and it took me about 20 minutes to change. no more check engine light, no more shaking and from now on i have a scanner instead of paying someone 50 bucks to read it. all in all, i'm happy, now if i can only replace the back window, tint it and re-install my headrests....but that's for another day.
 
rickztahone said:
they tell me "we no longer do that do to the fact that dealerships were getting angry that people were getting codes read for free". i say to myself, these mu-tha-freakers....(lol)
Click to expand...

The AZs around me still read codes. As do the Advance Auto Parts and Carquest. Not all of our parts houses, but some.

Ask yourself: why would AZ care if the dealers were pissed people were getting their codes read?

Actually, when has anybody ever had a code read and then taken their car to a dealer for service? Unless it's a dealer-specific job, most of the folks who will get their codes pulled intend to fix it themselves or use a shadetree or independent mechanic.... which brings me to the last question:

Is it possible it is in fact the local garages (AZ's commercial client base) was getting pissed off that people were coming in with diagnoses? (the correct answer is yes)

And lastly: wouldn't it be worse off for AZ if they gave the wrong diagnosis from a code reading? (the correct answer there is yes as well)

Isn't liability a wonderful thing? Shame the kid you talked to didn't know the full story or fed you a line of BS, but having worked for one of those parts houses and fought the battle on whether or not to pull the codes, we've examined most angles of the discussion and "what the dealers think" wasn't even on our radar. The biggest concern was making sure our garages (who made up 40% of our sales) weren't getting pissed off at us for taking their work.
 
ya a lot of places REQUIRE to get a stupid code reading..even Firestone will force ya to do one or they won't fix anything......even when you KNOW what the problem is.....
 
rickztahone said:
update: I bought a scanner on sunday on ebay. got here yesterday and i read the code which turned out to be misfire from cylinder 6. went and got a ignition coil from autozone, 53.xx w/ taxes and it took me about 20 minutes to change. no more check engine light, no more shaking and from now on i have a scanner instead of paying someone 50 bucks to read it. all in all, i'm happy, now if i can only replace the back window, tint it and re-install my headrests....but that's for another day.
Click to expand...

Did you buy the Motorcraft coil? Team-Ford has them for less than that.
 
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