Need to pull codes.
 

I was driving home tonight and my check engine light came on. I swung by the dealer, because it was on the way. They decide that they need to keep the car overnight. I'm thinking, "is this a hospital?" or something?

I figure I'm going to end up paying for an hour of labor so they can tell me I knocked my intake air temp gauge while I was changing the wires.

This needs to not happen again, so I want to buy a computer to pull my codes, and a book to know what they mean. Anyone have one of these, or know where to come up with one?

I have a Scan Tool made by OTC, called the MindReader. It was only OBDI when I bought it 6 years ago, but I spent another $400 and got a new chip for it, as well as a ton more cables, and it now reads OBDII as well. The best part is that now I can run a live data stream on older OBDI Fords, which wasn't possible before. It's kinda cool watching the input values from all the sensors at the same time, live.

Anyway, my Mindreader is by no means the best, but it's decent. I've got close to $900 into it so far, which is nothing. You, however, can buy a new one for less than $500.

OTC Mindreader

These guys are good. I have done business with them many times.

You will still need a book or two to understand everything, but this is an excellent start.

Take care,
~Chris

Do you have Auto Zone stores out there? They will run a code check for free, at least they do here. Or, maybe some other parts places may do it free.

I took my van to an independent shop last year for a code check, and those suckers wanted $129.95! Can you believe that? I told him he was nuts.