Methods for equipment monitoring are traditionally constructed from specific sensors and/or knowledge collected prior to implementation on the equipment. A different approach is presented here that builds up knowledge over time by exploratory search among the signals available on the internal field-bus system and comparing the observed signal relationships among a group of equipment that perform similar tasks. The approach is developed for the purpose of increasing vehicle uptime, and is therefore demonstrated in the case of a city bus and a heavy duty truck. However, it also works fine for smaller mechatronic systems like computer hard-drives. The approach builds on an onboard self-organized search for models that capture relations among signal values on the vehicles’ data buses, combined with a limited bandwidth telematics gateway and an off-line server application where the parameters of the self-organized models are compared. The presented approach represents a new look at error detection in commercial mechatronic systems, where the normal behavior of a system is actually found under real operating conditions, rather than the behavior observed in a number of laboratory tests or test-drives prior to production of the system. The approach has potential to be the basis for a self-discovering system for general purpose fault detection and diagnostics.