Just bought this truck, drove about 1000 miles and the light went on. Truck still drives and runs great. gas cap is on, thought I left it off, Should I buy a scanner/reader? if so, how much should I spend on a reader? 99 XLT w/ 71000 miles, 4.0 V6
Just curious. DR

 

Before you buy anything like that, bring it to autozone. They will scan it for you for free.

 

X2

 

Autozone is down the street, Thanks dr

 

My local AutoZone doesn't loan out OBDII scanners for free anymore. The AutoZone employees said there's a new California law that makes OBDII scanner loaning illegal because it takes money away from mechanics. They're still happy to sell you a scanner though, lol.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by 05Edge-04GT View Post
Before you buy anything like that, bring it to autozone. They will scan it for you for free.

x3

they wont even hook it up to see what the code is. Thats stupid in my opinion. They should at least tell you what could be wrong with it according to the code causing the CEL.

 

And it's still cheaper to buy a scanner at Harbor Freight than it is to pay a mechanic check the code...kind of a gap in the logic there, lol.

 

whats the difference, i am used to motorcycle efi diagnostic. i see scanners and i see scanner/readers which cost more. dr

 

You can clear the codes by disconnecting the battery, turning on the headlights, turn them off, and then reconnect.

Now.. there are many different levels of scanners / readers / or whatever they are called.

To go cheap.. buy a cheap OBD2 "reader" and use the batt dis-connect method to clear it.
If you want to be able to clear the codes with the unit itself.. go with something like this ACTRON READER

 

The guy at our autozone had no clue how to use it, (couldn't even turn it on) so he just said our truck's computer must be bad. We went down the road to advanced auto, and they even gave us a print-out of all the recent codes.

 

Started the truck this morning and the light was out, the night before i checked the tps sensor, air mass, temp sensor, idle air sensor.
i found the idle air sensor air filters clogged with dirt, after cleaning last nite the cel was still on but now its off, dr
i

 

There are some things that will make the CEL go out after a certian amount of restarts. Get it scanned and the codes should still be there... unless the battery gets disconnected.

Rich