Honda Civic "check system"

jaymoe

I have a 2006 Honda Civic and to be honest we haven't had the best of times together. In fact it has cost me a blimming lot of money and time with one fault or another and now I have another.
Driving to work yesterday I heard the dreaded ping and looked on the dash and there was an image that says Check System.
There doesn't appear to be any obvious fault but does anyone know what could be the problem.


Also, when I go to a garage they always say they want to put it on their diagnostic machine and want to charge £40-£60 a time. Can I actually buy one of these and diagnose it myself and get the codes. I've just moved house so want to try and spend as little as possible.

foxy-stoat

You can diagnose it for nothing if you have some tin foil in your kitchen!

jaymoe

OK so I am waiting for either the punchline or a stroke of genius. What is it foxy-stoat lol

foxy-stoat

http://www.civinfo.com/forum/how/7044-read-clear-diagnostic-error-codes-no-special-tools.html

Assuming yours is 8th gen, you may need to register to see the photos. If your keeping the car though its a good forum and lots of helpful folk !

Picking one up tomorrow, first Honda for me!

facade

Foxy-stoat means you can make the car reveal the fault by linking two terminals with a paperclip/piece of wire/twisted foil- it is a simple google search.

I'd spend £10-£12 on one of the Chinese fault code reader/reset tools, I have one of the Autel clones, ms309 UK suppliers have them for about £12.
It just plugs in, tells you any error codes, and what they mean, then you can reset them and hope they don't come back.
It also reads exciting things like engine temperature.

They only read & reset engine codes though, ABS needs more expensive readers.

jaymoe

Façade where do you get one of these readers from I have no idea what I am looking for (can't you tell). I think its safer than messing about as I am the Frank Spencer of all things DIY and cars and i'll probably end up needing a new car!!

daivid

You certainly can diagnose yourself. Readers are available from various online retailers (Amazon included), starting at about £30 pounds I think. The readers will give a code and tables to interpret these are freely available online.
I don't know which of the readers are good or bad as I was able to use a friend of a friends that was a more professional and probably much more expensive. For what it's worth the fault with my civic turned out to be a coolant temperature sensor, very simple to replace (once you accessed it!) and total cost of about £30 (£20 for the sensor and £10 for new coolant).

jaymoe

Was hoping Halfords did them as I have a big one near me and was going to pop in there and see what I can find, just wanted to go in there armed with some idea of what I am looking for. Might look into Amazon but don't know if I am risking something driving around until the device comes through.

daivid

Have you checked halfords online catalogue? They may well have them in store or to click and collect.

AdrianC

Getting the fault codes alone isn't very useful. You need to know what they mean, and they may not be explicit about the root cause of the problem.

Garages charge for diagnostics because they have a LARGE investment in their diagnostic equipment (they don't use the tenner-from-eBay ones), and they use their time to read the codes and then follow them up.

Marktheshark

most OBDii code readers will give the same code from a £10 one to a 5K snap on one.

What differers is the database stored in the unit and the software built in to integrate other areas.

You may find a reset and it stays off.
In the wrong hands they can be expensive mistake making machines.

One friend spent nearly a thousand pound changing sensors to get up one morning to a flat battery and find that it was his battery that was dying and the low start up voltage was throwing random sensors in to reading errors.

Hence why you start with a volt meter and if it is below 12.5 volts before starting you look at the battery first and give it a good charge, reset the codes and see if they come back in the test run.