Patent ID: 8897953

Claim:
A system for managing fault codes associated with a vehicle, the system comprising: a memory storing a plurality of parameters and a plurality of fault codes, wherein each parameter is associated with a fault code and said plurality of parameters comprise: an upper limit and a lower limit associated with a particular fault code, the upper limit and lower limit defining a range of a number of times the particular fault code is generated during a predefined time period the vehicle was in operation; and a threshold value and a consecutive value associated with the particular fault code, the threshold value defining a threshold number of times the particular fault code is generated during the predefined time period the vehicle was in operation and the consecutive value defining a number of consecutive predefined time periods during which the threshold value was met or exceeded; and one or more computer processors configured to: receive fault code information retrieved from the vehicle, the fault code information comprising one or more of said plurality of fault codes, the one or more fault codes generated during a particular time period the vehicle was in operation; retrieve parameters stored in the memory associated with the one or more fault codes; analyze the fault code information to identify each of the one or more fault codes signaling failure or potential failure of one or more components or sub-systems of the vehicle based at least in part on the parameters associated with the one or more fault codes in the fault code information; and set a state for each identified fault code, based at least in part on the parameters associated with each identified fault code, the state indicating a level of action associated with the identified fault code, wherein the state for the particular fault code is set by the processors in response to the fault code information showing that the particular fault code was generated a number of times within the range defined by the upper limit and lower limit during the predefined time period, and wherein the state for the particular fault code is also set by the processors in response to the fault code information showing that the particular fault code was generated a number of times meeting or exceeding the threshold value during a number of consecutive time periods meeting or exceeding the consecutive value.