Engine
Learn About Your Engine
When do Engine diagnostics need to be performed?
Since 1996, all vehicles built to be sold in the United States have on-board diagnostics that monitor engine performance and inform the driver of problems. Your vehicle basically monitors and diagnoses its own performance.
When there is a problem, the system will send a message to your vehicle’s Engine Control Module (ECM). It will inform the driver when something is wrong by storing a fault code in the ECM memory; which in turn, prompts your vehicle’s "Check Engine" light to illuminate on the dashboard. A trained technician can hook up his/her computer to your ECM System to receive the error code and diagnose the problem.