CarMD: Take Two Aspirins and Call Your Mechanic

They don't call them idiot lights without good reason. When your dashboard's "Check Engine" light comes on, you could freeze like a deer in headlights, or you could use CarMD, a new gadget that connects through your car's DLC (Data Link Connector) to its On Board Diagnostic 2 (OBD2) to give you some important diagnostic information about your car.

What? You've been driving all these years and never heard of OBD2? All cars manufactured since 1996 have this feature mandated; it's the same connector mechanics at the shop use to hook up your car to run their diagnostics.

It couldn't be easier to use. You plug the CarMD into the OBD port in the car and take a reading. You'll get a green check mark if your car passes CarMD's diagnostics, a yellow question mark if it finds a problem, and a red X if the vehicle needs service.

When you plug the device into your PC via a USB connector and go to CarMD's web site, you'll receive a full status report on your car's indicator lights. You can get three reports a month on three different cars and you can use the green/yellow/red report as often as you'd like.

The $90 device is similar to others that attach to the OBD connector. Chris Null pointed to some others in a earlier report.

Some say that these gadgets are not very useful because they diagnose, but don't fix, a problem. Others caution that it won't diagnose every problem you'll have with your car, just the ones connected to the "Check Engine" light. Still, you gotta believe that in the complex world of cars, the more knowledgeable you are, the better off you'll be.