Patent ID: 8068951

Claim:
A method of providing vehicle support through analysis of data received from an onboard vehicle computer, the method comprising the steps of: a. receiving a combined set of vehicle diagnostic trouble codes (DTC's) from the onboard vehicle computer, the being received by a handheld automotive diagnostic tool; b. communicating the combined set of received DTC's from the automotive diagnostic tool to a prior experience database having information related to diagnostic solutions associated with combined sets of DTC's stored in the database, the prior experience database being arranged to match the combined set of received DTC's to possible diagnostic solutions; c. prioritizing the possible diagnostic solutions solely in accordance with ranked matches of the combined set of received DTC's to the combined sets of DTC's stored in the prior experience database, the possible diagnostic solution associated with the highest ranked combined set of DTC's stored in the database being identified as the most likely solution; d. identifying vehicle components associated with the most likely solution; and e. configuring the automotive diagnostic tool to log diagnostic data related to the vehicle components associated with the most likely solution.