As God is my witness, I will never buy Volkswagen again!
Every six months, it seems, Sue's Passat "check engine" light goes on. We can't just ignore it because you need to get a safety/smog inspection every year here in Wake County, North Carolina. (Who would have thought smog inspections would be more stringent here than the every-other-year in California?)
It's bad enough that new cars have computers built into them which are essentially designed to snitch on you to the state, and report any little fault it detects with the car's operation, even if it has nothing to do with safety or emissions. However, what I can't accept is that they built this computer in such a way as to make it difficult (and cost $80) to access. The VW technician implies it's quite a job to "pull the codes off the computer" -- as if he has to wrestle with it somehow to get it to give up its secrets. Why can't he just plug a serial cable into some adapter next to the cigarette lighter or in the hood?
We've already sunk a lot of money into this car, which has been a pretty big disappointment over all. Now in the market for a new car--possibly a small SUV or minivan. Leave your suggestions and endorsements here.
posted by Chris @ 7:12 AM
2 Comments:
Why can't he just plug a serial cable into some adapter next to the cigarette lighter or in the hood?Why not indeed? According to this website, the car is required by law to have the OBD2 connector within three feet of the driver and accessible without tools.
Also, I have seen handheld OBD2 scanners in Sears for circa $100. No doubt one can spend more on fancier scanners which extract more proprietary vehicle manufacturers' data. Still, it might be interesting to see if you can "pull the codes off the computer" yourself. I admit I haven't actually tried this myself.
See also another website.
Found this:
The VW 2000 New Beetle,Passat,Golf,Jetta connector is positioned on the underside of the instrument panel between the steering column and the driver's side passenger door. The connector has no cover.Don't know what year your Passat is, but this would likely be fairly stable across model years...
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