Can I buy a code reader that will hook right up to my diagnostics port? My CEL is out and I need a way to find out what is wrong with my car.

If it was as easy as driving my car to place to get it read, I would.. but my car isn't going anywhere.

Thanks,

Shane

 

Someone else can please correct me if I'm wrong (I'm very new to these cars), but in general OBD1 cars are not as scan-tool friendly as newer cars (is this the '95 you list in other posts?). There are scantools that will work to read codes and even view live data, but as they need to be designed specifically for each car/model, so they're very expensive (unlike the common OBD2 tools, which are designed to read just the basic OBD2 protocol that all '96+ US cars use).

Fixing the CEL is probably your best bet. If you want a scantool that can do the job, a used OTC Nemisys is probably your cheapest bet. You will need to make sure it includes Asian software (optional) and includes the correct toyota cable (optional, but often comes with the software package). This will probably cost about $350 to $400, and isn't likely to be cost effective unless you can make use of it on other vehicles, too. (It does support live data, graphing of data, etc.)

Actually, now that I think about it, there may be a cheaper option. I think one of the top end Actron scantools has OBD1 features for certain vehicles (toyota may be one of them). You'll have to check to see if your car is supported. I think you can get one of these, new, for something in the $200 range, and it does include cables for the vehicles it supports (no where near all OBD1 vehicles, but perhaps it does cover lexus/toyota).

Unfortunately, you cannot use one of the cheap code readers found in auto parts stores: they only work with OBD2.