No need to spend several hundred euros at a mechanic to identify a problem with your car. By equipping yourself with an inexpensive device, you can carry out a complete diagnosis yourself.
Gone are the days when you could spot and repair a fault in a car simply by opening its hood and using a few traditional tools. Since electronics have taken precedence over mechanics, all vehicles are full of sensors, computers and other circuits which make it difficult to easily find the origin of a problem. At the slightest problem, especially when a warning light comes on on the dashboard, you must go to a garage or auto center to ask a professional to carry out a diagnosis.
And very often, the mechanic no longer even needs to put his nose into the engine or under the chassis: he just needs to plug an “electronic suitcase” into a special socket (called OBD) to have a complete assessment in a few seconds of the condition of the car, with any defects identified. A simple and quick operation, but which is still billed at a high price (up to 200 euros depending on the brand and the scope of the analysis). Of course, this price only includes the diagnosis and you must also pay for any repairs that may result from the anomalies detected.
The good news is that you do not have to go to a garage to carry out this examination. You can carry out a diagnosis yourself using the appropriate equipment. Certainly, there is no question of buying an electronic suitcase like those used by professionals, this type of device costing several thousand euros, due to the number of brands and vehicles to be treated with the appropriate software.
Indeed, specialists like Carly or iCarsoft offer diagnostic systems which are sufficient to examine the condition of a vehicle. Sold for around 70 euros, the systems are very simple to use. Simply plug the supplied male OBD connector into the female OBD socket located in the car interior, under the steering wheel, in the fuse compartment or near the handbrake, then start the diagnosis using from a special application on a smartphone (Android or iPhone). For around a hundred euros, more sophisticated standalone models, with a reader equipped with a screen and various buttons, give access to more information and functions, and for many brands, they are even found for less than 40 euros on online stores like Amazon or Cdiscount!
Of course, these solutions are less complete than professional suitcases. But they allow you to identify the origin of a malfunction in your vehicle, when a light comes on. So you can erase it from memory to check if it persists. If it disappears permanently, you will avoid paying for an unnecessary diagnosis. And if it comes back, you will then have valuable information to discuss with your mechanic. In any case, you will make big savings on the maintenance of your vehicle!