Daily adventures of the Average Joe Driver road warrior

I bought this device back when I owned my 1998 Dodge Dakota….just so I could have a little insight as to why I would get check engine lights. I also didn’t want some shop or mechanic feeding me a line of bull because its hard finding a mechanic you can trust. If you have one out there, dont lose them.
I also got to use it ONCE in the 2 years I owned the 2008 Mustang. I got a check engine light and thought “oh great, take the car in for servicing and lets see, my luck it’ll be a non-warranty repair that will cost 100s of dollars. I ran the diagnostic device and got a P0455. I looked that up in the book and it said “P0455 – EVAP Emission Control System Leak (Large)”. Ok. WHAT THE HECK does that mean?!? I have a huge leak in my fuel system? I asked a cousin of mine, whom I dont normally speak much to, so I can imagine his surprise to hear from me only when I have a FORD question. You see, he works as a technician at a Ford dealer and I figured he would have some insight. Sure enough he said that code is the gas cap leak code. I thought “what does he mean my gas cap has a leak?!” Well apparently if you dont tighten your gas cap enough, some vacuum or seal is not correct and an error is returned. Sure enough I opened and reclosed the gas cap and after a while of driving it went away. The days of just gas up and go are over. There are more sensors on our vehicles than we will ever know. Figuring out what triggers what errors or how things are connected is why we need technicians instead of mechanics to work on our vehicles.
I at least find that having this kind of gadget can come in handy in having any idea of whats going on. You can find the Actron CP9125 PocketScan Code Reader on Amazon.com but I didnt pay that much for it. Sometimes they go on sale as seen on dealspl.us website

Actron CP9125 PocketScan Code Reader