Autozone’s ODB scanner can’t read my truck

True...we have people come in here all the time from AZ or oriellys...they checked it and said my alternators not charging..not knowing that these new systems have a battery sensor...they work alot differently than the normal systems

 

That’s hard on the alternator
Every alternator I ever sold came with a verbal warning. “Charge the battery BEFORE starting the car.” Parts store alternators are bad enough, let’s not work the shit out of first thing

 

You can hear the new alternator whistling when trying to charge a dead battery. No bueno..

 

The new alt has a turbo?

 

Lol. I have to admit.
I was young and only 19 when I started my “Automotive” career at AutoZone.
I got the job because I knew more than the other people that had applied.
I had just rebuilt a 1979 TransAm and knew the basics.

I knew absolutely NOTHING about electronic controlled cars. So I was kind of an AutoZone “Know Nothing Kid”.
But I never sold any parts based of the scanner. My manager told us not to suggest anything. He had already been down that road and didn’t want to fight with customers anymore.

And believe it or not, women customers were the best. They could take “I don’t know what it could be” better than men.
I have been cussed multiple times over the stupid scanner. Evidently some guys can take “I don’t know” for an answer.

 

Couple minutes of that and it'll need an intercooler too

 

It’ll be fine. Just pour some oil in the alternator and all is good.


Please, tell me you were here for that thread?

 

Tragic! You should tell her to try to get her OEM alternator back. Strange the BF can’t swap it but not realize the battery is the problem. Those symptoms make it pretty obvious.
Those Vatozone guys aren’t supposed to say shot like that. Just give the customer the damn code, and that’s it

 

I know plenty of people that can not figure stuff out when it comes to automotive.
My family, for the most part, are all doctors, lawyer, or bankers.
(I’m kind of the black sheep. I followed in my fathers foot steps)

Anyways, it’s probably better the boyfriend doesn’t work on the car anymore.
No need in making a bad problem worse.
There plenty of thing I don’t work on automotively.

I just work on stuff because I don’t like paying other people to do it for me.
At times, I wish I had did like the rest of the family, got a better education and made more money.
Then I could let other people do the work for me.

 

Shit well all the ones in stores are $100+ but I’ll order that thing right now lol

 

Or maybe an Ultragauge, I think they're under $100 and do pul codes plus has the stream of your engine

 

That right there. Codes don't say "this bad, replace this". Codes say "there's something in these values that's outside what's expected, find out why". That's why pinpoint tests exist. And laziness is why "replace _____ with known good _____" pinpoint tests exist... even the guy what made the system doesn't know how to reasonably prove or disprove some components.

Guess what? The parts guy ain't prodding your vehicle physically or electrically. And you're not paying him to. And you almost universally wouldn't want to, either. I work with (shudder at saying this) some above-average parts peeps... and I wouldn't want almost any of them trying to diagnose much of anything.

And guess what? The overlap of people who can competently diagnose most issues, and who don't own anything to check codes, is like... nil. There's a few codes that are pretty easy to take fairly accurate educated guesses on, but aside from those... if you can figure it out, it's basically guaranteed you didn't need to bum a code reader.