Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed free across the land (OK - I’m exaggerating a little, but it was 16 years ago!), I had just passed my driving test and bought my first car, a battered old Volkswagen Golf mk1.
I seem to remember that it was silver in colour, although at first glance you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell given that the car appeared to be made up largely of body filler and rust! In hindsight, I probably should have saved up a bit more for something that wasn’t a piece of scrap metal on wheels, but even in those days it was a rare sight on the roads, so I just had to buy it!
But, I digress. The reason why I was bringing up my old banger of a Golf was because the car didn’t actually have any form of warning system to tell me that my car had a serious engine problem, for example. The only dashboard icons that alerted me to any problems were the battery and handbrake icons.
These days, things are very different. It is now possible for all modern cars to effectively self-diagnose themselves, with most giving drivers a simple explanation as to the reason the problem has occurred.
So, just how do today’s cars self-diagnose themselves, and are they useful at doing so? In this blog post, I walk you through the different systems checks that the cars of today perform.
Most cars built today come with service indicators built into them. Car manufacturers are clearly worried about car owners forgetting to bring their cars in for their annual service, so they have decided to incorporate a reminder system which will immediately flag up when it’s time for the owner to book their car in.
These service indicators could be as simple as a dashboard icon, or something more intuitive in a car’s infotainment system.
Tyre pressures
Back in the day when cars had very little in the way of electronics, motorists would have to physically check each single tyre to determine whether they needed to be inflated or not.
But with today’s modern cars, one can simply rely on advanced electronic systems and tyre pressure monitoring systems to tell us how inflated each tyre is without even getting out of the car!
Brake pads
One “consumable” item on cars is its brake pads. These small items fit around brake discs and help us to stop our cars when we need them to. Although you can often see how worn brake pads are by simply looking through the spokes of alloy wheels, it can sometimes be difficult to judge whether they need replacement soon or not.
The only time we would normally find this information out is when we book our cars in to be serviced. According to Ian from www.easternwestern.co.uk, most cars on the road these days have brake pad sensors which can alert us when these small, but useful safety items need replacement.
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