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FIXD Lets You Diagnose a Car for Yourself - Check Engine Light Meanings

Along with emissions standards and the OBD port came the much feared “Check Engine” dashboard light. Most people panic when it lights up because they don’t know what’s wrong with their car and how much it will cost to repair. Thankfully, there’s a useful app for that now, called FIXD.
FIXD system 1 photo
Photo: Kickstarter/edited by autoevolution
Why you shouldn’t panic
Here’s the main thing about the check engine light - the warning signal was not designed specifically to warn you about an imminent engine failure. Its job is to warn the driver a component of the engine is not doing its job properly and the car emits more nasty gases and particles through the pipe.

For example, an engine could work rather fine but it’s exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system might be down so it will consume more fuel and emit more than it was intended to.

So because automakers couldn’t create a dashboard that warns you about every single system malfunction, they created the “check engine” warning light. Normally, when it pops up the dash, you panic, go to the service and the technicians plug a special device in the OBD port to read all the errors. Operation that you’ll usually have to pay for...

FIXD

Unless you get the system for yourself. Until modern smartphones came by, the way to do it yourself was to buy an expensive OBD reader similar to those at the service, or make one using an OBD plug, a laptop and a special software.

All those have been shrunk now to a small plug-in device and a smartphone app. There are multiple companies to choose from but the FIXD solution comes with some helpful extra features.

FIXD, created by a group of Georgia Tech students, comes in the shape of a plug-in dongle that connects to your car’s OBD and a downloadable app for your phone.

Working principle

As simple as it gets. You plug the device in, connect your smartphone to it via Bluetooth using the downloaded app and you’ll see details about the car’s parameters as well as recorded errors.

The app works both with Android and iOS devices starting November and March, respectively.

The difference

While most of the gear out there will only display you the error code and a brief translation, FIXD will also assess and tell you how bad the problem is, even make an estimate repair cost according to your car model. Further features can also create a schedule for regular maintenance and keep track of multiple cars.

Of course, the system will diagnose any other malfunction the car can develop and will work with most vehicles made after 1996 using the OBD-II (On Board Diagnostics-II) standard.
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