OBD Issues on a 97 Lumina

[jbradley]

The facts:

1) My wifes 97 Lumina (sedan, 3.1) SES light comes on.
2) The car fails NJ state inspection for "random misfire" code. (p06?)
3) The shop where we go does their "fuel injector service". Fixes nothing.
4) All plugs and wires are changed. Car runs much better, but...
5) One cylinder (6), is still misfiring wildly. They pull and clean that fuel injector. All codes seem to disappear and SES light goes out.
6) I have the car reinspected but it FAILS beacuse the OBD gives the inspection guys NOTHING. No codes, no data, no "Not Ready's".
7) I stop at AutoZone on the way home and ask them to pull the codes. Their handheld box just says "Pass".

Questions:
1) Could the "Pass" from AZ be the result of no data at all?
2) Is there a "reset time" on the OBD? (I don't mean drive cycles.)
3) Could this be a fuse or breaker? I looked in the manual for one but could not find anything.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[jbradley]

More to the point: What could be wrong if the OBD isn't communicating?

I took it back to original garage, and he couldn't talk to the computer anymore either. I can ony assume that it's not the computer itself that's not working because I would expect to see a lot more problems if that were the case.

Has anyone ever seen a problem like this before? I honestly don't know where to start looking.

Thanks for any help at all.

[maxwedge]

The liter fuse could be bad, no power to scanner.

[jbradley]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

The liter fuse could be bad, no power to scanner.

I use the lighter for other things (like my cell phone charger) and it's working fine. Besides, the machine at the inspection station couldn't read me either.

Thanks for the reply, though.

[maxwedge]

Look for another fuse out, there is a power circuit for the scanner that powers up anyones scanner including the insp station.

[jbradley]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

Look for another fuse out, there is a power circuit for the scanner that powers up anyones scanner including the insp station.

That is great news. Do you happen to know if the fuse is under the hood or in the passenger compartment?

[maxwedge]

Take a look in the owners manual, but the fuse panel is r/s of dash where the door closes and under the hood.

[jbradley]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

Take a look in the owners manual, but the fuse panel is r/s of dash where the door closes and under the hood.

I know that there are three fuse panels (2 under the hood and 1 in the passenger area), but I was curious if you knew where the fuse that powers the OBD connector was.

Thanks again.

[jbradley]

Originally Posted by jbradley

I know that there are three fuse panels (2 under the hood and 1 in the passenger area), but I was curious if you knew where the fuse that powers the OBD connector was.

Thanks again.

Update: (bad news?) I put a voltmeter across pins 4 (chassis ground)and 16 (battery positive) on the OBD port and got 12 volts. I guess this means there's not a blown fuse, unless there's a fuse that controls something else... @$#!%

[maxwedge]

No fuse/power is good, this will take further diagnosis.