Losw cost Diagnostic Scanners & ECU Faults

[RonYork]

Hi _ anyone used these new low cost Diagnostic Scanners (Pro Scam etc) with software on the phone ? Are they any use ? Have a problem with an ECU on my run about Peugeot 206 and want to check with a scan ~ heres the prob ~ any advice ?

And would really appreciate any advice ~

Ref 2003 Peugeot 206 1.4 petrol engine with a Sagem (9646988680 / s2000A) ECU

The car starts first time and runs ok - except for a slight intermittent misfire and high emissions in the form of wisp of black smoke when it starts - this reducing but not completely going when driving. The car drives well at speed, has power, does not stall and the slight misfire is hardly noticeable when driving

I can probably resolve the emissions and misfire with new air filter, Co2 / MAP Sensor and Coil pack ~ but there is a fault with the ECU that I would appreciate some advice with

When ignition is turned on on the dashboard ECU light comes on ( which it should ) ~ The ECU light goes off when the engine starts - and stays off, even when the Co2 & Map sensors are disconnected - which is a fault which should show an ECU light on the dash board ?

So the ECU is not showing these faults ~ as ECU dash light stays off when engine is running and shows no faults indicated when connected to a diagnostic tool?

Has the ECU failed ?

Many thanks Ron

[LordLoveLength]

Don't know the history of the car but is it possible that the engine light has been 'modified'? It's possible to connect it to its own timer circuit instead of the ecu to hide faults. These are readily available on eBay and a cheap 'fix' to move a car on.
If there any faults relating to emissions a cheap reader will show them.

[McSatan]

Get a cheap OBD plug in unit off Ebay, I paid about 8 quid for mine, and use the free app 'Torque' on your phone, works a treat. Tells you all sorts of nerdy stuff as well, intake temperature, fuel flow, things like that.

[mini me]

MIL lamp legally has to be illuminated after at most three drive cycles with the emissions fault present. Drive cycle is defind as start/run stop but there may be entry conditions for the diagnostic to work and pick up a fault. I wouold try driving the car for a little while each time. Not a lot just round the block and back. See if any lights come on then.

Scan tools can scan in many different modes and some only show confirmed faults rather than pending. Confirmed having completed the necesssary three drive cycles.

By CO2 sensor, do you mean Lambda?

Echo the above comments on buying the cheap OBD scan tools from ebay/amazon. I have one i use with my iphone and it works well for this kinda stuff as long as the vehicle is OBD2 compliant.

Edited by mini me on Monday 14th July 07:54

Edited by mini me on Monday 14th July 07:54

[Pentoman]

They do the job and read the basics. I have the common blue one off amazon.

Although they only give you about 1% of the options and readouts that a professional scanner gives you. A decent local independent garage should be able to plug in and take a look at the readouts in detail for you. I wouldn't bother with a dealer for a problem like this.

I posted about this recently: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Welcome, by the way.

[BL Fanboy]

Try a Peugeot/Citroen Lexia 3 diagnostic tool - they give you near enough dealer level diagnostic ability - you'll need a laptop running XP. I got mine from Ebay - should cost around £80.

[kambites]

I've got a generic bluetooth OBD reader thing and the Torque app on my phone as well as a more fully fledged piece of software on my laptop (whose name I forget because I use it so seldom) and I've not found anything to do with the engine that the combination wont do yet, although doing marque specific things often involves looking up codes and inputting them manually on a command line.

Edited by kambites on Monday 14th July 08:20