I was driving my 2001 Nissan Maxima home from work when the "check engine" light came on. The car was running great so there were no signs of anything going wrong, but there it was "Check Engine."
I pulled over as soon as I could to check the easy stuff, like oil, coolant, and anything obviously wrong under the hood and found nothing wrong.
Several friends and one mechanic said that they were sure it was the computer, a $600.00 part. I didn't really want to spend so much money on getting the check engine light to reset, because the $600,00 didn't even include labor.
After looking into several possibilities causing the problem I decided to get a OBD II scanner to see what the trouble code was that had caused the check engine light to come on. With the scanner we found that the problem was caused by the O2 sensor giving erratic signals to the engine computer. We found that the electrical connector going to the O2 sensor was corroded and once it was cleaned the signal was normal.
Fixing this problem, with the scanner, didn't take very long at all. If I had to take the car to the shop it would have cost me at least five hundred dollars not to mention the time I would have to spend in a dealers waiting room.
Buying a OBD II scanner for 1996 and newer cars, or an OBD 1 scanner for 1995 and older cars, is a wise investment to help save you money on car repairs.
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US $65.98
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