Car diagnostics for everyone
Plug a cheap OBD-II adapter into your car, press Scan, and TuneGuard tells you what it found, how serious it is, whether you can keep driving, and what to try first. No experience needed.
Early preview. TuneGuard is a Windows app that has only been tested on simulated cars. It has not been tried on a real car yet, and there is nothing to download or buy.
TuneGuard reads your car's computer and explains what it finds. It only reads: it never changes anything.
Reading fault codes and checking sensors...
3 things found, at least one serious.
The cylinder isn't burning its fuel properly, so the engine runs rough.
Can I keep driving? Gently, and get it fixed soon. If the light flashes, stop.
Can I keep driving? Yes. Fuel economy may drop.
Can I keep driving? Yes. It will fail an emissions test.
1. Worn spark plug 2. Failing ignition coil 3. Weak injector
How it works
Three steps, written for someone who has never opened a bonnet. Experts can still see the technical detail behind every answer.
Plug the adapter into the socket under your dashboard and press Scan my car. TuneGuard finds the adapter, connects, and reads the car's computer.
One clear verdict, then every finding in everyday words with a colour for how serious it is and an honest answer to "can I keep driving?".
Why it probably happened, most likely first, and a checklist of things to try in order. You also see who can do the job: you, or a shop.
Your car
Every petrol car sold in the US since 1996 and in the EU since 2001, and every diesel since 2004, has the OBD-II socket TuneGuard talks to.
Misfires, fuel mixture, sensors, catalytic converter, cooling, charging and more, explained the same way on every make.
TuneGuard reads your VIN to spot the make, then explains brand-specific codes and common weak points. If your make isn't covered, it says so rather than guessing.
For enthusiasts
Behind Advanced tools is the original expert dashboard: live logging, log analysis, backups and tune-file editing for the Audi S4 B5 2.7T (Bosch ME7.1). It stays out of the way until you want it.
Safety
You can't break your car by scanning with TuneGuard, because the app is built so that it can't send anything that changes the car.
Every request passes a whitelist. Anything not on the read-only list is blocked before it's even built, and tests sweep every writing request to prove it.
TuneGuard won't wipe your fault codes to hide a problem. After a good repair the warning light normally goes out by itself.
A basic scan sees engine and emissions systems only, not ABS, airbags or most gearbox faults. Every report says so.
If a code isn't one TuneGuard knows for your make, it tells you to look it up instead of making something up.
Status
The honest headline: the scan-and-diagnose flow is built and tested on simulators, but nothing has touched a real car yet.
| Part | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scan, Diagnose and Fix screens | Simulator only | Built and run end to end on demo cars. |
| Plain-English diagnosis engine | Simulator only | Generic codes plus live readings. Covered by automated tests. |
| VIN and make detection | Tests only | Checked against sample VINs, not against a wide range of real cars. |
| VW, Toyota, Ford and GM maker codes | Needs review | Written from commonly published meanings, not yet checked against factory service data. |
| OBD-II adapter connection (ELM327) | Not tried on hardware | The real adapter path is the biggest unknown. |
| Expert tools for the Audi S4 ME7.1 | Real-file tested | Parser, checksum and backups proven on a real stock file; live logging is simulator-only. |
| Writing, flashing, clearing codes | Not built | Deliberately absent. |
What's next
No dates: the order depends on what the first real car shows.
Plug an ELM327 adapter into a real car and check the whole Scan flow. Anything that fails gets fixed from the real trace.
Check every VW, Toyota, Ford and GM entry against service data, and fix or remove anything that doesn't hold up.
Widen the VIN table and the code library, always saying "I don't know" for anything it can't back up.
Tune features unlock per car only after reading and logging are proven on real hardware. Nothing that writes is planned yet.