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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Nowhere, Nevada
Posts: 639
Real Name: Dave
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Nowhere, Nevada
Posts: 639
Real Name: Dave
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I bought the least expensive unit that could reset codes from Carquest about 2016. If I remember, it cost less than $50 retail. It gives little or no info on the code obtained, you have to look online for that. I'm not a mechanic, I only wanted/needed something to reset the car.
I bought it after I was about 200 miles from home and driving my '12 Subaru Outback. On a lonely desert two lane, 100 degrees outside, my car's cruise control kicked off, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. I pulled over, kept my engine running and pulled the owner's manual for an answer that wasn't there. After about a half hour, the engine still running as if nothing happened, I continued home, with a non functioning cruise control and with the dash lit up.
I was working for Carquest in my small town and pulled in and bought the reader, getting an employee discount. While at the store, I checked the code on the store's computers and found it to be an evaporative system code. I reset the code, clicked the gas cap a couple times. The lights were out and the cruise worked again. I only had that happen once since, on the Outback. It happened both times about 250 miles after gassing up and I didn't double click the gas cap. Never has happened on my '18 T4R.
An online search revealed to me that manufacturers have started disabling creature comforts when the check engine light comes on because owners are ignoring the light more often. It's also profitable - dealers check the code, tighten the gas cap, reset the light, charge $125.
I've never gotten a code on any check engine light equipped vehicle that I've owned in the last few decades except the Subaru. If I ever get something other than an evap system code, I'll call my mechanic. Otherwise the reader has been happily hibernating in its case and in my workbench drawer since I bought it. I did scan a friends 2006 Ram with a Cummins diesel once and reset his with it. With that, I've only used it three times.
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Dave
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.
2018 4Runner SR5
2012 Subaru Outback Premium
Last edited by DAW89446; 02-13-2024 at 12:10 PM.
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