1. KlausC,

I appreciate your spreading the word that the ELM327 can read the Vehicle Mileage, but there's some problems with this thread's 1st post. I'd probably reword it something like:

"For those with a lap top or Bluetooth phone even(?), ELM327 can be used as a low cost alternative to diagnose some of your Volvo '96-'97 850 problems. It can, with some basic tricks, read the stored mileage, reset SRS and ABS, diagnose seat errors, etc. And it likely can be used with some of the other Volvo models -- S40, S70/V70, S90/V90 -- which have one or more ECUs that talk via a protocol that is similar to what the Volvo 850 uses for its COMBI, SRS, ABS, etc."

Your original word "totally" is a bit of exaggeration, because the ELM327 inherently can *not* access some of the ECUs -- the ones that don't talk any protocol which the ELM327 is aware of:

- '96-'97 850 Motronic 4.3,
- '96-'97 850 ECC (electronic climate control),
- '96-'97 850 Cruise Control.

Those require: a) a flashing LED tool, or b) a VAG/COM KKL cable with an adapter that switches OBDII pin 7 to pin 3 / 6 / 13, along with appropriate software, eg, Brick-Diag Full. I'm presuming case b) is a VST equivalent and/or is the '96-'97 Volvo 850 equivalent of VIDA/DICE for the CAN bus cars.

I'm surprised you included "electronic climate control". Have you been able to read/clear its DTCs with an ELM327? If so, in what year/model?

2. All,

The http://jonesrh.info/volvo850/index.html "Volvo 850 OBDII Portal" that KlausC mentioned is very '96-'97 Volvo 850 oriented. It deals primarily with the ISO9141-2 like "keyword D3 B0 protocol (KWPD3B0)" that the '96-'97 Volvo 850 is known to use for COMBI, SRS, ABS, AW 50-42, Power Seats.

That same KWPD3B0 protocol is used by the Motronic 4.4 (but not Motronic 4.3), but I have no experience with a Motronic 4.4, so the portal includes no Motronic 4.4 examples other than to list that its ECU is 7F and points you to rkam's http://forum.ecuproject.com/showthread.php?1664-Diagnose-and-communication "Diagnose and Communication" post for details.

Much of the Volvo 850 OBDII portal is probably applicable to the '98-'99 S70 and V70, but that remains to be verified fully. I have used Brick-Diag Free to select a 1998 S70, then successfully connected to my 1997 850 to read and clear DTCs for:

- '98 S70: COMBI (tried both "instruments Yazaki" and "instruments VDO"), ABS, SRS, AW 50-42, and Power Seat Left.

That much seems to use the same ECU #s and the same exact protocol. All I could check was the reading and clearing of DTCs, since that's all that Brick-Diag Free v0.0.6.6 allows.

I also verified that the following cars / ECUs could similarly be connected to and used the same read DTCs / clear DTCs commands:

- '98 S40: Info-Center (SV40), ABS, SRS.
- '98 V90: SRS.

The general rule of thumb is: If an ECU can be connected to via OBDII pin 7 at 10400 baud using the ELM327's ATSI command and the ELM327's ISO 9141-2 protocol, and if the keywords in the response are D3 B0, and if DTCs can then be read with either the ELM327's ATSH 84 nn 13 / AE0100 or ATSH 83 nn 13 / AE01 / ATBD sequences, where nn is the ECU #, then that ECU is accessible via the ELM327 using the commands similar to those at the pages that feed from the jonesrh.info/volvo850/ portal, once you substitute the correct ECU #. You'll just have to experiment to see if all the Volvo 850 commands work for your year / model / ECU.

My educated guess is this also applies to the '96-'97 850 and '98-'99 S70/V70 ECUs: Immobilizer, AW 50-42 TDI, VGLA, RTI, ROP, and maybe more, but that remains to be verified.

Another rule of thumb is probably: If the ECU appears as a grey box in Vol-FCR, then it likely uses the KWPD3B0 protocol and is accessible via the ELM327 using commands similar to those on the portal.

3. Anyone with a Volvo with CAN bus ECUs,

The Volvo 850 OBDII Portal is not directly applicable to the CAN bus based cars, which I believe VIDA/DICE deals with. Its true that the ELM327 can perform OBDII emission diagnostics using the CAN bus. But it remains to be seen if an ELM327 can be made to talk with most all the other various ECUs of the CAN bus based Volvos. I'd strongly suspect that the cost of VIDA/DICE is a far better choice vs. the time it would take to get an ELM327 talking to the other ECUs (ABS, SRS, etc) of the CAN bus based Volvos.

RTBimmer,

If your VIDA/DICE can access all your car's ECUs, then you should probably keep it. If you know your car uses the CAN bus, then keep the VIDA/DICE. If it can't, then you might consider the ELM327 if your car is one of the mid to late '90s Volvos mentioned in this post -- the ones which have one or more ECUs which use the ISO9141-2 like keyword D3 B0 protocol.

4. Herb and All,

My understanding is that the Torque app on Android is great to show the live OBDII data. If there's a known OBDII PID, I believe the Torque can be made to display it.

The problem I've encountered with the ELM327 scanning both the '97 Volvo 850 OBDII emission diagnostics data and the COMBI data is that I had to switch the ELM327 from one to the other. Either I could talk using the functional addressing of OBDII emission diagnostics (documented many places on the net), or I could talk using the physical addressing of the KWPD3B0 protocol, documented thoroughly at the http://jonesrh.info/volvo850/index.html portal's pages (and some Matthew's Volvo Site pages). My guess is that the author of Torque is not going to want to add that complexity to his general purpose app, because it requires breaking the communication link then reestablishing it every time you do the switch. But it *is* possible for *any* software which communicates with an ELM327 to talk with all the '96-'97 Volvo 850 KWPD3B0 based ECUs, if there's the wherewithal to implement it. And that brings us to...

5. Milanomike and All,

One thing you missed is that there's no other cheap (good) way -- as of today -- to read the '96-'97 Volvo 850 mileage stored in the Instrument Cluster. That's been important for a lot of us owners because so many of those automobiles have broken mechanical odometers. The only other way to retrieve the mileage is to visit the dealer or find an independent shop with a Volvo Scan Tool (VST) or some other VST equivalent. Either way, that usually will cost money each time it is read, since they have to pay for the tool somehow.

Once you have an ELM327 to retrieve the mileage, you might as well use it to read/reset the other ECUs (SRS, ABS, auto tranny, etc), since those also involve paying the dealer, buying an Autel MS700 series scanner, buying other high-end scanners, buying Vol-FCR Full, buying Brick-Diag Full (if it ever becomes released publicly again), or acquiring a free, illegal, cracked version of Vol-FCR v1.3. To me the only one of those which is viable is the Brick-Diag Full purchase. But it's not yet available for purchase, and I wouldn't pay any more than $100 for it, even though compared to Vol-FCR Full, Brick-Diag Full is probably worth $300 or more. Brick-Diag is available in German, English, and French.

The ELM327 setup instructions are for WinXP because that's what I use and what I prefer. Those instructions are easily adaptable to Win7. I recently went to the library with an ELM327 cable, selected a Win7 computer, downloaded Realterm and installed it, downloaded the ELM327 drivers and installed them, downloaded volvo850diag.zip and extracted it, plugged in the ELM327 cable, and was able to talk to the ELM327 and go through the motions of volvo850diag's "Full Scan All ECUs" all in roughly 20-30 minutes IIRC. It went much smoother than I anticipated and the WinXP instructions were very usable under Win7. It was a quick test to determine if Win7, Realterm, IE 9, and volvo850diag work together OK.

You're certainly right that the Volvo 850 OBDII Portal is NOT for the guy who just wants a tool. If you want a scanning tool that can clear SRS and ABS, then the Autel MS700 series (or maybe some upgrade to it) is probably the way to go, once you wait for a good price on one.

That in fact is why I created the site. I want an affordable scan tool -- by my definition that's $100 or less -- that can, for a 1997 Volvo 850:

- do all the typical, standard OBDII emission diagnostics,
- read the vehicle mileage,
- read and clear DTCs for: COMBI, SRS, ABS, AW 50-42 (and any auto transmission ECU), Power Seats, Immobilizer,
- reset the SERVICE light,
- change the SERVICE Reminder Intervals,
- show any appropriate DTC freeze frames,
- read and change other COMBI parameters,
- show live data from a Motronic 4.4 (if such an engine ECU is used).

and preferably, with the proper pin 7 to pin 3 / 6 / 13 / or whatever adapter, be able to act like a flashing LED tool to:

- communicate with the Cruise Control, and
- ECC (climate control),

in addition to being able to:

- show the wealth of live data available from a direct KWP71 connection with the Motronic 4.3.

Those are listed in the rough order of importance to me personally.

There is no such <= $100 tool that is presently available, either in hardware or in software. That's the other thing that you missed. The only thing that comes close is the "not publicly available and don't know if it will ever be made available for public consumption" Brick-Diag Full. And even it has been mentioned to be in the 100 euro or more range, which is past my cutoff point.

esl_97_850_T5