[rescue] LCD monitor diagnosis

[Don Y]

wa2egp at att.net wrote:
>>    Woah, you *paid* for one? I took my sick car to the local Auto Zone
>> store the other night. The goatee'd teen behind the counter ran out to
>> the parking lot and read off the code (and full text!) from a
>> Fluke-looking handheld. He read it twice more when he saw me frantically
>> scribbling it down on my hand, too. :7)
>>
>>     I found the explanation on the net, tried the gas-cap trick despite
>> their advice, and the light went off the next day.
>>
>>    Now, to find a dealer who wants to give too much for it in
>> trade-in...
> 
> There's a cheaper one that just gives the codes but not for the whole system.

Aren't these just some variant of serial ports?  Surely (?)
there has to be some documentation available to hack together
a hardware interface that would let it talk to a laptop...  (?)

> The local garages charge for the analysis and since my wife's car has been
> a PITA, it has already paid for itself.  It also mkes repair jobs cheaper 
> when you tell them what's wrong rather than them checking (and possibly
> adding non-existant problems to the repair bill).  And if you have a car
> with a failed sensor, you can clear the code before inspection (ha! ha!)

In my case, "counting blinks" with a shop manual handy has
helped me keep my car *out* of the shop.

"Hmmm...  code 23... 'Shorted coolant sensor'... Ah, OK.
A bit of shrink wrap tubing on the connector pins to compensate
for the deteriorated plastic in the connector shell..."