gonzilla

So a quick backstory... Car's been out of commission at the body shop since April of last year. It's now at my mechanic's. He can't get it to interface with his PST2. It goes through all the control modules one-by-one, then after the last one just shows "system not found." We tried it with the motor running, not running, same thing. We hooked the PST2 up to a 2001 996 and it was fine (so probably not his PST2).

We thought it might be the car, so we hooked it up to a generic OBDII code reader. It did connect with the car and showed that 2 of the flags were set, but then showed n/a (for the cat test, and maybe others) or incomplete for the rest. I wish I could remember which ones it showed as "set."

The other weird thing is that the CEL was coming on (P1411) pretty frequently before I took it into the body shop. Now it's not coming on. Possibly because it hasn't been driven enough, but I thought that the SAI failure triggered pretty quickly (maybe not?).

Anyway, bottom line is the PST2 doesn't connect at all and the generic OBDII reader connects only enough to retrieve a couple of flags. My best completely uninformed guess is that the battery was allowed to drain completely (probably several times) while it was at the body shop. And maybe the ECU has some sort of memory function? And if so, maybe this cleared it out, causing it to not connect for some reason??? I dunno.

Has anyone run into a situation like this before?

Here's a shot of the screen from earlier tonight:

Mike J

Did they do any electrical work at the body shop? What exactly was done? Any welding?

It sounds like your DME is either partially blown, or is confused by another blown module. The alarm system is the last one, try running it again with that module unplugged. The PST2 should complete but show errors.

Does the PST2 "stall" or just show one module missing or does not continue to allow you to execute functions on the module it did detect?

Cheers,

Mike

356Racing

Starting from no key in the car. Insert key, turn to run position, hit immobilizer button, wait for immobilizer light to go out on dash, and then connect and scan with PST2. That's how my 96 likes to be scanned for some reason.

gonzilla

Thanks guys!

No welding, no electrical, but a lot of sitting (I learned to never tell the shop you don't really need your car immediately). It was just a little bit of body work on the pass side front fender, and pass side rear quarter (due to two separate garage incidents ), paint, new windshield, mostly just surface stuff.

The PST2 didn't stall at all. It went through all the control modules, but then at the end just says "system not found."

Blown DME doesn't sound fun. Crossing my fingers that isn't the case here.

Thanks. I'll try your watusi and see if that works.

It's weird because the car has never had trouble connecting to the PST2 or generic reader in the past. And right now the car runs fine, just can't connect. Damn computers!

mgianzero

Mike,

I've got an extra DME if you want to try that. I think we both own '96 993's. But this last year I changed it out for a '97. I also own a PST-2.

Bring it down and we'll hook her up and see what's what. We'll also have to throw some pizza and beer into the mix too!

I'm guessing your baby is maybe a little upset with you that you haven't driven her that much last year!

gonzilla

Marc, you the man!!!

I'd bring it down there, but it still hasn't been smogged (was due in feb of last year!). I'm gonna try to get that taken care of and then maybe I can take you up on your offer. If nothing else, maybe I can rent your DME for a week or so to see if that's the problem while it's at my mech's.

And yes, it seems the Silver Torpedo is very nonplussed for having been in foster homes for the past year.

mgianzero

Sure Mike ... whatever works for you. Just remember, since your battery was disconnected, you probably lost all your readiness codes. So you will have to reset that with two ready-set trips. But since you cannot talk to your DME, you may also not be able to even set these flags. So, you might be in a bit of a dilemma here. If you want to risk just driving her down, we should probably check out the DME first. You can, hopefully, reset your flags with my good DME and go smog it and then deal with what to do with the faulty one (if that's truly the cause of the problem.)

Just let me know.

gonzilla

Yeah, that's kind of the problem. There was a CEL on that was coming on very often (within 50 miles of resetting the light) before it went into the body shop, so a top end is planned when my mech has some time. In the meantime he was just going to smog it for me and let me have it because it's been away so long. This is where we ran into the problem.

Strangely, no CEL has come on in the month that he's had it. But also, lack of communication with the car and PST2 and OBDII readers.

I'm going to let him mess with it a little more, but will probably call on you to borrow your DME at some point. (TIA!)

mgianzero

Sure Mike. But I know that you and Keith are do for a pizza run down this way sometime soon!

I'm around.

RollingArt

The new CA smog test for OBD2 equipped cars consists of an OBD2 link-up to the state computers ONLY. There is no more running it on the rollers and no more sniffing the tail-pipe.

Odds are if your mechanic cannot connect to your OBD2 interface then the smog station probably won't either. No connect = fail.

Good luck sorting this out.

mgianzero

Yup. I agree with that logic. Think we're all on the same page.

pp000830

I use Durametric software and found that sometimes I have to make several attempts before all the modules connect with the laptop. I believe the connection problem is not a physical one it seems more like a software issue with the individual modules. If I do not have a solid connection to a given module the software acts as if it has received a laundry list of error codes. After multiple reread attempts I get what look like more reasonable code lists either no codes or just one or two that seem correct.Andy

Andy

george996

this is how i get my pst2 to connect as well.

mgianzero

Yes, the immobilizer has to be turned off before your PST-2 talks to the DME. This is what you are really doing here and the standard procedure when using a PST-2.

nine9six

Marc et al,
I would think such a procedure would be applicable for any successful diagnostics software handshaking; PST-2, Durametric, Hammer, PIWIS.
Excellent point!

I thought you and Gonzilla were already pals, and it was your PST-2 that was being used in the diagnostics...