New section: what the car is doing
Ten symptoms, from a stumbling engine to a smell of petrol. Each one says what to look at in the live data, so that ten possible causes become two or three.
The site could answer two questions: "a lamp is on" and "I have a code". Both start halfway along the road — when the driver has already plugged in an adapter or seen the dashboard light up. Trouble usually begins earlier and more quietly: the engine stumbles, the idle hunts, consumption creeps up, there is a smell of petrol. The lamp may not be on at all.
The new section holds ten such symptoms, each built the same way:
- How it feels — so you can be sure you are in the right place.
- Whether you can keep driving — the first thing to know, answered straight away.
- What to look at in the live data — the main part. The readings are what cut ten possible causes down to two or three.
- Common causes, cheapest first. The order is not accidental: you check from the top down, rather than starting with the catalytic converter.
- The codes and lamps that go with the symptom, linked to the reference.
We do not diagnose from a symptom
And we say so on every page. The same sign comes from a dozen different causes, and the readings tell them apart, not the feeling. All the section does is shorten the list of what is worth checking, and say what to check it with.
The link works both ways
A code page now also shows how that fault feels behind the wheel. P0171, for instance, has gained a block with five symptoms: stumbling, hunting idle, rising consumption, jerking under acceleration and stalling at idle.
The section is open and free; the app is not needed for it.
