It Works!!

Several days ago, someone asked about an OBDII code scanner for the '96 and newer 960's.

I sent away for a $99.00 ISO9141-compatible device that connects between the OBDII connector on the car and the serial port on a PC.

Well, it arrived today and I installed the software on my laptop (3 diskettes) and took the unit out to my '96 960 wagon.

I connected it up to the 960's OBDII port and started the program on my laptop. When I turned on the ignition, the scanner successfully connected to the ECU and they started communicating.

At first, it appeared that although it was telling me that the MIL lamp was not on and that I had no trouble codes set, it did not provide a list of parameters that I could monitor in real time...

The instructions mentioned that some cars start the OBDII communications with the transmission ECU, and thats what appeares to have happened here.

There is an on-screen button you can toggle to "Change ECU's". Once I toggled this button, the engine ECU came on-line and I was able to get the following:

I was able to select from the following list of engine parameters and monitor any one of them in real time on the laptop screen:

* Calculated Load

* Coolant Temp

* Engine RPM

* Speed

* Ignition Advance

* Air Flow

* Gas Milage

* Throttle Position

* O2 Sensor Voltage

Additionally, it printed out the following information:

MIL Status = 0 Monitor Status = 7

Misfire Monitoring Complete

Fuel Sys. Monitoring Complete

Component Monitoring Complete

Catalyst Monitoring Complete

Evaporative System Monitoring Complete

Sec. Air System Monitoring Complete

O2 Sensor Monitoring Complete

O2 Sensor Heater Monitoring Complete

Short Term Fuel Trim.... 4%

Long Term FT,B1.... -3%

Cmd Sec. Air Status.... 4

# of O2 sensors.... 1

I know the car has 2 O2 sensors so something's not 100% correct, but so far I have to say that I'm very pleased that for $99.00 I now have a tool that can monitor a number of engine parameters, report OBDII trouble codes and reset the MIL lamp.

I have no financial interest in this product but did spend some time searching around for an economical tool for communicating with the 960's ECU and I think this is the "best bang for the buck".

It should also work for any other '96 or newer OBDII equipped Volvo, regardless of model.

In case anyone is interested, I have included a link to the website where I found the scanner below.

I hope some of you found this of interest.