Airbag light and OBD diagnostics

Generic OBD readers will only ever read the codes associated with emissions. These are the legally required things that are universal between manufacturers. All the other stuff is manufacturer-specific.

No.

First port of call for an airbag fault is to see if the vehicle has explosive-type seat belt pre-tensioners. If so, check under the seats for damaged wiring or connectors.

You may still have to use a specialist to turn the light off even if you find the fault however.

Chris

That's possible - carried some bulky/heavy things about recently. But the underseat/seatbelt anchor point wires all look OK.

I gather these have a 'reset x times and they're junk' doings. Resigned to book it in - just hoping for a quick fix. And a useful reader.

An additional question on that if I may (and around my current Meriva 'ignition light' fault).

I have one of the BT / Elm readers and the (brilliant) Torque2 app that seems to read all sorts of stuff from the 2004 Meriva, the 2001 Corsa and some others I've tried it on.

As you say these may all have been things to do with emissions as I can see all that stuff (and have things like fuel consumption etc) and has read a fault code or two but I'm not sure if I've tried to reset one yet, or if it will see any other the other codes (like from the BCM, if it holds any).

However, with the cost of replacing some of these 'intelligent parts being quite high, being interested in such things technically and having a few cars in the family I was wondering what one might actually have to spend to get something that could realistically handle these things? Like, would any non main-dealer tool be able to divorce (do they call it) and 're-program' new modules into the system or is that all main dealer only in any case (for whatever reason)?

My mate at the garage has the small Suntune thingy and I've seen him doing a lot of things with it (the last being to re-sync a fly-by-wire throttle) but I think he still has to send some stuff to the dealers (and I think there are same brands he can't do at all, like Jeep' possibly)?

Inquiring minds etc. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

The BMW specific s/w is called INPA. Works well and there's many guides out there on how to use it.

Initial cost for something like Snap-on diagnostics would be about the cost of a small new car. As systems evolve, new software modules are released, so there would also be an ongoing cost if you want to keep up to date. Even then, there are some things unachievable outside of a dealer's workshop.

It's a totally unrealistic cost to be able to cover all bases, even for small garage businesses. That's why there is a proliferation of mobile guys of variable ability taking this on.

Chris

Understood.

Ok and thanks for that. I believe my mate pays a subscription to receive regular updates to his system (they come on a Compact Flash card I think). Plus he has a growing collection of little PCB's that plug in the cable going to the data port.

Thanks very much for the reply.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. With your reply in mind I've just ordered a mini ELM327 bluetooth adaptor so I can monitor the voltage on the Meriva in the hope I might spot a relationship / consequence of the 'ignition light' issue (see other thread). I'm hoping to see if the voltage drops as the ignition light comes on, indicating that it isn't actually charging or if the light is some other spurious error (I'm hoping a voltage chart display might highlight such) I would use my existing BT OBD reader ... if I could find it. ;-(

I bought one of the elm bluetooth thingies and it has been very good, I found the obdautodoctor softare to be really good and actually bought it ! The particularly useful thing for me was to be able to show a graph of idle speed, with that I was able to track down a minor air leak as it would show up the slightest variation (20 rpm) that is so minor that the ear doesn't notice the sound change (too many belts and things masking the sound)

I did the same with the Torque android app ah, I didn't pay that for Torque though. ;-)

Have you used Torque OOI and if so how do they compare. Is yours the bluetooth version and the PC software?

Yup, that's the sort of thing I was hoping to do for voltage but not sure just how much you can log for later review with Torque (I think that is one of the things you get when you buy the full version).

Sods law though, just taken the Meriva out for a test drive and all was well.

Cheers, T i m

On 19/11/2013 15:25, T i m wrote: (I think

The paid for version of the Toque App for an Andriod smart phone/tablet is £3.

Yes, I know, I bought it twice (tablet / phone). ;-)

We may be at cross purposes as I was thinking more about the PC version of OBDAutoDoctor (as I don't think there is a PC version of Torque?).

I wouldn't mind spending £34.95 on OBDAutoDoctor, if it did even one thing (or one thing better) than Torque (Pro). Running on a laptop might be one (for better logging / screen size possibly). I'll try the (free) Android app though. ;-)

My thought is anything I can do with / on these modern systems is potentially one less trip to the garage (and I whilst I get well 'looked after' by my local garage (he was a witness when the Mrs and I got married), I don't like wasting his time on things I could (possibly) do myself.

Cheers, T i m

The android version (of obdautodoctor) is 7.95, I have downloaded (free) the full PC version, but have not actually tried it yet.

I've found that one of the biggest issues is not so much the multiple proto cols, which can of course be dealt with in software, but the variety of pin outs for older implementations of OBD in particular.

I have had quite a bit of success reading/resetting ABS and airbag codes on a 1999 (pre EOBD) Hyundai Coupe by running a code scanner emulator called Cascade and a modified OBD cable to allow the redirection of the K-Line awa y from the ECU to the ABS/airbag as required. Cascade can not only run Hyun dai's proprietory scanning software but also the generic Carman Scan too su itable for most other vehicles.

I wrote the experiment up here:

Mathew

Ah yes, I see I've only installed the 'Lite' version.

'Trial' version? (Some options unavailable)?

I'm going to download that now and hope the BT OBD unit arrives tomorrow (or I can find the other one) so I can play. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

the full pc obdautodoctor is here:

And there was me thinking that bit (at least) was a standard. ;-(

So is that how the circuits are laid out with a different 'role' on each physical pin? For some reason I thought you would talk to any sub modules via a main module?

Handy.

I like it. However, as per one of the comments I'm not sure I'd be so quick to play that way, especially on my main transport. ;-)

Quite ... and well done for working it out and writing it up. You never know how many others may be guided etc.

Cheers, T i m

I just tried to install the free version on my W7 laptop and Avast kicked up a bit of a fuss (I didn't ok it and it didn't seem to write the main .exe).

I then rebooted and tried it on Ubuntu 13.10 and whilst it warned me about trusting the source it did install and seems to run ok. It also seems to have seen the bluetooth dongle and can see this Mac Mini as a USB device (but not my SII) so we will see how it goes on the ODB module if it arrives tomorrow. If it works on Ubuntu I might have actually found a real world use for Linux! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Hmmm. My new mini OBD / BT thingy turned up today and initially I couldn't connect to it with either my phone or tablet. The issue seemed to be that the new dongle appeared as the same name as my original and neither device seemed to want to forget the old (non pared) devices existed. Rebooting both allowed a fresh scan to see the devices afresh but whilst they then connected they didn't ask for the passcode?

Anyway, Torque connected to the dongle and ECU and was running the voltage test when the battery light came on. There was no obvious / apparent voltage fluctuation so I'm guessing the battery light is bogus?

So, I then tried the free (Android) OBDAutoDoctor (on both devices) but I couldn't get it to connect at all? It goes through the motions but doesn't actually seem to connect (even though the dongle was already paired etc).

If I get a chance I'll try it with the laptop tomorrow.

Cheers, T i m

They pretty much are for emissions-related aspects (the whole purpose behin d the original standardisation of OBD) but secondary systems such as ABS, S RS, cruise control etc not so much.

Newer cars do tend to be bus-based and hence with a shared access medium al l devices can be communicated with on the same pin(s). However, with older cars that have discrete systems - ECU, ABS, SRS etc - all operating complet ely independently they require their own pins.

'Generic' code readers tend only to communicate on the one pin and only the more expensive, or manufacturer-provided, ones can access multiple pins an d the software knows which pin to use for which system on which car.

Ah, thanks.

Ok.

Ah.

Can you get different modules that do different tasks then? (Like you project addresses) ... Do they generally communicate using the same (range of) protocols as the man device (ECU)?

So, I'm guessing that is the purpose of the little PCBs my mate plugs into the lead of his Suntune thingy? To map the 'live' lead to the relevant pins on the connector for a particular task?

Cheers, T i m