Hey Scotty,
Instead of using scanners, why can't the car manufacturers just display the codes in the today's in-car display(s). If the car can turn on the check engine light and output a code to an ODB scanner, clearly the car knows what the problems are. Why not just display it to me instead of me relying on a third party scanner which may or may not be even that good. I'd get the information straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
Matt (Mariusz)
It's not cost effective, and there's no incentive to do it.
The equipment required to FULLY interface the car computer costs tens of thousands of dollars (not including development costs, software etc.). On top of that, the software required to run them is now stored on the net. Car software is downloaded the same as a program for your home computer. Those same devices also have other functions unrelated to OBD. There is no way they are going to integrate such a device into each vehicle. That means dealers and other mechanics will always have dedicated diagnostic devices, so THEY don't need the car to have it. It doesn't benefit them.
The only reason for putting diagnostic readouts would be for the consumer's benefit. And I think that the majority of consumers don't care enough to want to shell out for it. If there was money in it, car makers would already be doing it. Personally, I can say that if I was shopping for a car, and one of them had the ability to show trouble codes, it would barely affect my buying decision, if at all. And they know this. (I would prefer the car that never has problems in the first place)
The aftermarket already does a pretty good job of providing for the enthusiasts, so auto makers don't have to worry about it. I picked up a scanner online for $2. It does read codes. I'm also willing to bet that more than half of the people who look at those codes aren't qualified to evaluate them, and may actually use them to do more damage.
Yesx1000. I always have "that customer" that comes in and tells me what I need to do to fix code whatever. They present themselves like a person who knows cars, so I'll ask "well what did the live data say? What were your short term/long term fuel percentages on each bank?" And they look at me like I'm an alien and say, "That stuff doesn't matter. You just need the code, right?". No. No, actually that is just one part of the puzzle.
$$$
Yes, that is literally the only thing I can think of.
Part of it is they want you to go to the dealer and service is where dealer really makes their money. In fact you won’t even get all the data from a normal scan tool, need to spend a lot more money to get a tool that can scan the parameters from all the onboard computer models. Even some programming only the dealer can do.
The new Tesla Model S has 10 teraFLOPS of computing power, they have the power to self-diagnose. If they allowed for the display of codes, one could search the net for the codes and attempt it yourself, or take it to a mechanic and the codes are right there for them. This can be done, not sure if I'm missing some glaring flaw. However, seems to be very much like the anti-virus companies complaining that they will be out of business because Microsoft started using a firewall and included a basic form of antivirus in the form of Windows Defender. Maybe that could be the case for all those diagnostic tool companies. They may have to cater to a older and niche market.
It’s all about the money. They don’t want the consumer to know what is wrong with their cars necessarily. They want to make it a little harder for you to diagnose. The unknowing will just take their vehicle to the dealer every time their CEL goes on or a code is thrown, and that’s where they can make money for diagnosing and other services (include up selling).
Dealerships make most of their money on service. The biggest reason they do not offer data to owners is simply money.
As @mountainmanjoe said, there are also a lot of people who buy a good scanner but do not know how to read the data. And then those people start pushing buttons and making changes that could have a catastrophic result.
I actually like the current setup because if you do not want to touch your car, you can take it to the dealer and have it fixed. If you are a weekend DIY person, you can buy a really decent scanner for a few hundred bucks and repair your own issues. And if you are a dealer, you can purchase the top end tools and get the latest and greatest tech to help you fix the car. So it is a nice tiered system.
At my shop, I've got $25k scan tools we use on Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. But personally for my own use I have a $500 Autel scanner that does everything I need to work on all the cars we have at our house. That being said, it all comes back to whether or not the data is Greek to you or if you know what you are looking at.
Which Autel scanner do you use at home?
I use an Autel AutoLink AL619.
https://www.autel.com/c/www/mk1/3242.jhtml
I've had it a while so I'm sure it is much cheaper now.