Car Engine Fault Diagnosis
Most car drivers are not very knowledgeable when it comes to understanding how their cars work. When something goes wrong with a car an experienced mechanic is needed to identify what is wrong. As experienced or expert mechanics are not as widespread as we would like, expert systems have been created. The necessary rules and data have been collected from mechanics and knowledge bases have been developed. There are two forms of such a system. One is the usual question-and-answer session, where the system asks the mechanic questions about what is wrong with the car and then suggests possible causes. The mechanic can then decide which of the suggestions are most likely. This choice can be fed into the expert system so that it has extra rules and facts on which to base future diagnoses. The second system is an expert fault diagnosis system of the type fitted to many modern cars and connected to the engine management system. When the car owner sees a particular symbol light up on the dashboard this is a warning that there is a possible fault with the engine. The car is then driven to the garage where a mechanic inserts a connector from the portable expert system into a special socket. This enables the portable computer system to interrogate the engine management system. From this the system is able to suggest probable faults. An experienced mechanic is able to select the most likely fault and suggest corrective treatment.