Ready Or Not Ready: That Is The Question

by Auto on February 26, 2010

Modern day automobiles manufactured in 1996 or after are controlled by on-board computer systems referred to as the emissions control unit (ECU). Data access to these computer systems have a standardized access port named OBDII. Every time the on-board ECU identifies a fault with the vehicle’s operating conditions, information about the problem can be read from the OBDII data port utilizing a diagnostic scan tool. Once the problem is diagnosed, a professional service technician can quickly repair the vehicle.

But, these repairs typically cause the emissions control system computer’s memory to be cleared. When the ECU’s memory is cleared, the vehicle must go through a drive cycle to allow the ECU time to accomplish a series of internal checks to be certain the repairs were successful. While the vehicle is undergoing this testing drive cycle, the computer’s diagnostic status is know as “Not Ready” because the ECU is waiting for all readiness monitors to become ready. This drive cycle hold up causes a significant difficulty because a vehicle in the Not Ready state will not be acceptable for any state dictated emissions check. The length of time that a vehicle is in the Not Ready state ranges by a wide margin and is not very predictable. This can lead to much lost time and frustration to both the motorist and the repair technician.

To get the vehicle ready for the state mandated emissions testing, the repair technician must operate the vehicle on city streets to complete the drive cycle. This is not cost effective because the repair technician’s precious time could better be spent working on other vehicles in the shop. If instead the motorist is instructed to drive the vehicle around to get the monitors ready, the motorist would have no idea when the Not Ready drive cycle has finished. Either the motorist would come back to the shop too early with monitors still not ready or keep driving around needlessly far after the vehicle became ready for emissions testing. This guessing game is a terrible situation that could hurt the customer’s happiness with the repair shop’s service.

Fortunately, there is a simple remedy to the Not Ready drive cycle predicament. A simple device known as the Ready or Not Test Tool can easily indicate to either the repair technician or motorist when the vehicle is ready for emissions testing. The repair shop can place the device on the OBDII diagnostic port and ask the motorist to drive the vehicle about. The Ready or Not device has easy to read indicator lights in addition to an audio announcement that will tell the motorist when the vehicle is ready to be returned to the shop for emissions testing.

In addition to the drive cycle readiness indication use, the Ready or Not Scan Tool can also be used by the repair technician as a diagnostic scan tool with the included cable and PC software. No repair shop should be without at least a couple of these convenient devices.

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