Thousands of IF statements in Python

I'm a beginner with Python. Currently i'm making a car reading tool just to build some programming skill. All works good.

When I get a fault code from a control module from a car, I get a P-code. Like:

P2348 and P21E2 (random P codes)

I can retrieve these P codes, but I want to add a little more info to them. P codes can be linked to a fault description: P2348 - Misfire detected (random)

I want my program to give the extended information, and not just the P code. There are thousands of P codes and I have them all with discription. But a thousand If statements would be bad coding. I could look the P code up in a textfile and get the complete string from it, but that's not really an option (unless it's possible in the code itself or compiled with the executable).

What would be a neat way to do this? I have encountered this problem before when I took programming lessons. I used IF statements then (about 20) and I hated it.