Patent ID: 6941203

Claim:
A method of diagnosing a vehicle having an onboard computer for generating diagnostic trouble code signals, the diagnostic trouble code signals being related to a passed or problem status of the vehicle, the method comprising: (a) connecting a handheld code reader to the onboard computer; (b) downloading diagnostic trouble code signals from the onboard computer to the code reader; (c) generating a visual output signal in the handheld code reader, the visual output signal being representative of passed/failed/inconclusive status of the vehicle as determined from the diagnostic trouble code signals by the code reader, independent of resources external to the handheld code reader; (d) disconnecting the code reader from the on-board computer and uploading the diagnostic trouble code signals from the code reader to a personal computer configured to correlate the diagnostic trouble code signals to problem description data for diagnosing the vehicle; and (e) uploading the diagnostic trouble code signals from the personal computer to a remote computer, the remote computer being configured to correlate the diagnostic trouble code signals to problem description data for diagnosing the vehicle: (f) wherein the steps of connecting, downloading and generating a visual output signal proceed independent of user interaction with a code reader visual interface.