linakill

1. Check engine light came on about a week or so ago.

2. Researched and discovered the E1 to TE1 jumper cable method. Tried it, but the light didn't flash.

3. Researched more - 1995 ES300 is OBD II compliant. Can pull codes for free! Sweet!

4. Pep Boys AND Auto Zone couldn't pull the codes with an OBD II scanner.


Does anyone care to venture a guess on this one? Several threads on this forum as well as other sources have told me that my car is a "tweener" - I have OBD I and OBD II ports. I'd rather avoid paying $90 to have Pep Boys do the OBD I scan.

Is it possible that the light went on as a result of ECM failure? Is the OBD II port just busted? Is forking out the cash my only option? Should I buy an OBD I scanner myself for future use as well?

CUMan

What port did Pep Boys and Auto Zone use for the OBD II scanner?

The OBD II port is inside the fuse panel on the left side of the dash. There is a white port underneath the dash, but the OBD II scanner will not fit that one.

hsiehd

Call autozone to find out which autozone near you have OBD I plug. They do the scan for free.
I know different autozone carry different equiment and rent tools. Some autozone have it and some do not have it.

Walnut

I read somewhere that OBD II is a connection standard but not a signal standard, and that in the early days of OBD II (94-96?)the Toyota signals were different than most other companies. I think around MY97 they became "standard". So a cheaper scanner might not be able to read the older signals. Certainly the $5000 models will.

Walnut

Yes, I am correct. There are 3 different OBD II protocols.

http://www.troublecodes.net/articles/Carcoderview.shtml for a review of a good system.

http://www.obd-2.com/ is where to buy it.

Totally cool...here is the answer to your question I think...remember that the ES 300 used the same protocol in 94 and 95 so just lookup for the 96 and you are gold:

http://www.obd-2.com/dlcnet.html

Here are some lookups I did from that database:
1996 Lexus ES 300 network is VPW
1997 Lexus ES 300 network is ISO
2001 Lexus network is ISO
So you can see how they changed the communication protocol for MY97.