3 Reasons Why You Should Use an OBD Scanner

3 Reasons Why You Should Use an OBD Scanner

Car is usually one of the most beloved assets of people that they own. And they may go to any extent to keep it maintained, up-to-date and healthy and therefore it is not surprising to see people being extra cautious about its care.

Imagine that even after investing so much time, efforts and money on the health and fitness of your car, when you are a on a long road trip, going towards your long-planned vacation spot and looking forward to a great holiday time – suddenly your car breaks down in the middle of the road and you have no idea whatsoever about what went wrong!

We know that the idea didn’t just scare you to the core but if it ever happens, you would be left frustrated. This is probably a car lover’s worst nightmare.

With cars, you can’t always be sure of what exactly is going wrong. Most of the times, it doesn’t matter if it is brand new or old – problems can occur with any model.

From the malfunctioning of one component of the engine to the any other more serious issue, anything can happen anytime.

Another important factor is that your car might have been warning you by flashing the check engine sign but it mostly happens that we either tend to overlook it or since it doesn’t tell us the precise issue, we are mostly in doubt of what to check.

Eventually, the issue persists and event escalates to something more serious damaging the car’s health even more.

This is when you get to understand the importance of using an OBD Scanner for your car. Keep reading and you will understand its benefits in more detail.

As the name suggests,  OBD Scanner scans and analyses your car thoroughly and all its parts .

It is also a tool that usually is used by automotive parts outlets, mechanics and car manufacturing companies that make a test run of the mechanics and functions of the vehicle by plugging it to the specific cars.

This efficient scanner is designed to give you complete details of the issue as well as tell you how to repair or fix it. Who wouldn’t want something this smart for their cars!

Even if there is no issue with your car, but having this pretty useful OBD scanner device, you can drive with a peace of mind and comfort knowing that your is going to be safe wherever it goes.

With uncertain conditions of the roads and the weather, there is no car issue that can get your stranded in the middle of the road with no help.

Almost all the time, OBD Scanner users are happy of their investment because it comes in handy whenever any problem occurs.

Below are the top 3 reasons why you should own an OBD scanner for your car:

1. Quick and Accurate Car Problem Display

If you are a driving expert and have been driving your car for a while, you must understand the purpose of the check engine light if it is turned on. It immediately means that your car is giving a warning to some problem that it has diagnosed.

The first thing that you should after seeing this indication light is to look for a nearby mechanics shop or any outlet for automotive parts that can help you with fixing your car issue. However, it is not always this easy.

Let’s imagine that you are driving on a highway or you are at a very remote location. This means you wouldn’t have access to any mechanics for miles. In another case, you can be driving on a weekend or at very late hours in the night when you won’t find any service center open.

In such a scenario, if you on driving the car with the fault persisting, you might risk damaging your car even more. There is a possibility that there no major concern with your car and the issue is as simple as gas cap being loosened. However if it is not your lucky day, the issue can be as serious as issues with your spark plugs.

This means that the more you drive, the more you are risking your vehicle and escalating the issue.

On such a day, an OBD Scanner is your savior!

The tool diagnosis whatever the problem be and will tell you exactly where it lies.

It will display you the most accurate information and you can have a look at the error code and read it. This will give you your next action plan as to preparing for your car being towed or leveraging the time that you have to go to a nearby mechanics outlet.

The most critical point to understand here is that your check engine light will not tell you what nature of a problem lies with your car but your OBD Scanner will surely do!

2. Weather Issues

Another issue with driving your car in extreme weather conditions is that when the weather is extremely cold and it hits below the freezing point, there are high chances of a range of car issues to be happening.

Some of the most obvious issues that happen in extremely cold weather may be that the battery dies out or the pressure in the tires get drained out or it is also possible that the gas caps get loosened up.

All these conditions and issues make your check engine light to turn on and that certainly is a clear warning sign of a major issue.

With OBD Scanner is place, your car issue’s diagnostics would be on point and you will know exactly how tackle with this issue with this smart kid that you have now!

In cold weather, it is designed to make a check for warning lights, temperature of the engines, pressure in the fuel system, idle speed, throttle response and the emission level exhaustion or anything else that should be triggering due to the weather.

It is the best approach because you’d know if driving with the displayed issue is even safe or not. IT is also the most viable approach to fix things on the spot.

3. You won’t be robbed off a hefty repair amount every time

Let’s face it that auto repairs are pretty expensive and they rob you off as much as 1.5-1.8% of your annual income.

This means the  auto repair stores make as much as $600 out of each car  when they bring it to their shops for repairing. However, even these figures are just calculated on average and in reality it may be more than that.

Moreover, there are numerous people who drive their old comfortable cars and end up investing so much on repairs each year because their old grumpy cars need more care and fitness.

However what you don’t know is that if you had any idea about the issue itself and how it can be fixed, most of the issues can be solved and managed by yourself at home. You just need the right tools and getting an online video tutorial to help you out with repairing.

Imagine the kind of money you will be able to save after each year that you spend for nothing.

A decent and basic OBD Scanner is as reasonable as $20-$100, which is nothing as compared to the $600 on an average that you spend because you didn’t know what exactly the problem with your car was and how to deal with it.

This is a one-time investment and usually people who love to drive, love taking care of their cars all by themselves too.  They feel a sense of achievement when they do things for their cars.

Another important factor under this benefit is that if the manufacturer has planned to recall its cars because of some diagnosed fault, the usual process of recalling the car takes a few months.

This means the car is on your disposal until that time and you will be driving it all along.

However, if you have the OBD Scanner with you, it will clearly demonstrate to you if it is alright to drive the car for that long time or it is better to just keep it until the recall times comes so that you can save yourself form a bigger tragedy.

Usually, the recall happens for a range of issues from minor to major. But it is your car and you need to be sure about it before you take it to the roads.

Think of your OBD Scanner as a very viable investment that may just not help you with so many things mentioned above, but the best part is that it gives you a peace of mind and make you expert of your car.

How Do OBD Scanners work?

Let’s analyze how these OBD Scanners work to tell you the exact problem.

Mostly, it comes in three different types so that scope is dependent on the kind of OBD Scanner you have purchased.

Below are the three distinct types of OBD Scanners:

1. Code Readers

They are very affordable and give you all basic information related to the car. This will help you understand the issue with the car. However, it won’t be able to provide you with complete codes that the manufacturer uses.

Since, this is the basic version, mostly small auto stores and engineers use this tool to merely identify the issue while they know what to do next with their expertise and experience.

2. DIY Scanners

These are an advanced version of the former one. They come with some additional features that are more than just identifying the issue. They begin with reading and making analysis of DTC, which is also called Diagnostic Trouble Codes.

Moreover, they tell the car owner the issue with their car as well as a suggested solution as to how to fix the same issue.

It is termed as Do-It-Yourself because once you have the relevant information with the help of the OBD Scanner, you can be your own expert and do the repairing all by yourself.

It is the best approach to build some confidence in you and learn some new tricks and skills.

Moreover, this advanced version also helps you to connect it with your device or laptop so that seamless exchange of information and data can be done.

3. Advanced Scanner

The last one is the most advanced and professional scanner and as the name suggests it has everything that you can ask for in an OBD Scanner.

They have all the manufacturers’ codes embedded in it and will give you quick and accurate results on each with precision.

They also give out a professional level of troubleshooting options.

Since these offer richness in features and services, usually big manufacturing plants make use of this scanner along with huge stores based on automotive. They are good to work with heavy duty trucks however, the other two are not equipped with features to allow you to access data and information on heavy duty truck issues and problems.

Now, coming towards the point of what does an OBD Scanner do – we should understand that its basic function is to read, analyze and clear the codes.

This feature is a part of all the three kinds because this is the scanner’s unique selling proposition.

Moreover, the best part about having OBS Scanners is that some soft codes or pending issues that might not have been raised up to the level of showing the indication on engine lights, can also be shown on these scanners.

This means you can be aware of problems before hand and look for solutions even before the problem actually appears on the screen. The feature of faults getting detected early is probably one of the most valuable and unique advantage of using OBD Scanners.

Some of the scanners also help you with identifying parameter IDs.

You need to get these types of information from the retailer once you are out to buy an OBD Scanner.

Tips to buy the best OBD Scanner for You

The foremost thing to be aware of is the purpose that you’d be using it for. The three types and the nature of those three types clearly explain their objective.

Now, you need to know the type that you want and how you will be suing it. If you are a person who likes to DIY or you have an inner mechanic within you, the DIY is for you!

If you think you have the auto stores nearby and you won’t be driving anywhere farther, than you can always go for the basic version that tells you the exact issues of the car so when you go to the auto expert you know how much it will charge you.

However, if you are dealing with huge trucks, then professional type is for you because no one can deny its huge scope of services and benefits in the scanning domain.

Another important point to consider is to do your thorough research and homework and make sure your due diligence is on point when it comes to OBD Scanners.

You can find online review very easily that will help you give insights of customers who have used each type of the scanners and their merits and demerits. You can always also look around and ask people what they prefer and why and what have their experiences been.

The best part about online reviews is that a lot of platforms provide real time chat features with existing customers who are happy to help prospective customers and give honest reviews and feedback of their experience with the OBD Scanners.

So, the strong research that you carry out and the better you know about the type of the OBD Scanner you require, the more fruitful will be your decision of buying.

Conclusion

Realizing the importance and benefits of OBD Scanners, a lot of car driver have opted to use it and keep it in their cars.

Usually, car lovers have a tendency to keep experimenting things with their cars all by themselves and don’t like other people be it mechanic or a car dealer to work on it.

However, a few things that you should be cautious about while doing these things on your own is to wear the necessary preventive suiting and gears including goggles and gloves so that you can prevent any kind of mishap from being happening.

The next most important thing is to have read the product manual well because that is kind of holier than thou when it comes to using technical car tools to avoid injuries.

So, if you are looking for the maximum efficiency and performance of your car, OBD Scanners are a must-have tool!

3 Reasons Why You Should Use an OBD Scanner
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2 Responses to 3 Reasons Why You Should Use an OBD Scanner

  1. Another good reason to use obd scanner is it doesn’t allow cheap auto workshops to invest false reasons for car’s problems and recommend what is not needed for repair/maintenance.

  2. Why use obd scanner? For example took our BMW 3x this year to mechanic. On each bill, they put $250 to just scan the car faults. This means scanner can save you $500 in a single year.

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