Seeing your vehicle's check-engine light come on can throw a wrench in your travel plans. It can also feel a little scary: Does it mean your ride is headed for the scrapyard? Or is there a simple fix?

Modern cars generate mountains of diagnostic data, and choosing the right OBD-II scanner can make the difference between guesswork and real fixes.

Once upon a time, you could diagnose the culprit of your Mazda MX-5 Miata's check engine light with a paperclip. We now use ...

We named this one of the best Bluetooth options in our recent comparison test because it takes the headache out of diagnostics in a compact device. It pairs deep scanning capabilities with an app that ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. If you've ever connected a standard OBD-II scanner to your motorcycle only to find it doesn't work as expected, you're not alone. Unlike cars, ...

Antuan started out in the automotive industry the old-fashioned way, by turning wrenches in a driveway and picking up speeding tickets. He now has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience behind ...

In the January issue, we discussed the history of OBD. This time we are going to investigate some of the technology required to meet OBD II standards. To give an idea of the magnitude of technological ...

This article was updated in November 2025 with new information. You know you’ve earned your DIY stripes when you can stay calm the moment something goes wrong. And with cars, that moment usually ...

Seeing your vehicle's check-engine light come on can throw a wrench in your travel plans. It can also feel a little scary: Does it mean your ride is headed for the scrapyard? Or is there a simple fix?