anthrum

Hello all. Ill try to keep this short.

Went to get my car inspected a few months ago. Everything was fine except the emissions test, the computer (at the garage) said (2) of the sensors were not ready, I do not know which ones. The garage had me drive the car for 100 miles and come back. Did that, tested again, same result. Had me drive 200 more miles, highway. Did that. No change. I was like WTF, so I plugged my cheap little Acutron into the ODBII port. NOTHING!!! Did not light up, nada.

So i pulled out my trusty multimeter and Chilton manual and metered the power pins on the port. No juice. I THINK I then checked the fuse and it was ok, but I might have checked the wrong one.

So, whats my point? A couple things.

This car passed last year no problem. But a few months after that inspection, my car was broken into and they stole my Alpine radio. (I only mention that it was an Alpine so you know it was not the factory radio) They did a real slash and grab job, so I thought maybe a wire or two on the ODBII port harness had been severed. Did not remove the harness though to check for continuity. Oh, and the car seems to run fine, no problem starting, still get about 25 MPG.

So I want to know;

1 - is the port/connector on the ECM itself the same as on the end of the harness? Could I have the garage just plug into the ECM directly?

2 - the manual says the fuse for the ECM is under the hood #13, is this correct? Could a bad fuse cause this?

3 - why would the garage's diagnostic computer work (mostly) but my handheld cheap one not at all? (I suspect its because the garage one has its own power)

4 - could the sensors (or whatever isnt ready) be bad? Wouldn't they report BAD or FAIL instead of not ready?

5 - yes, I know I can always but a new harness and ECM

I am going back to the garage Monday to work on this. I appreciate any help or advice, especially if it saves me money!

Thank you.

MG

92civlude

If the backup fuse #13 was popped, your radio wouldnt work or the clock would lose memory. When he said "sensors are not ready", I think he meant readiness tests. The car performs onboard tests on itself and stores the results in the ECM. The car has to meet "enable criteria" in order to perform some tests. It sounds to me like the car is not meeting enable criteria. the best way is to take the car to a HONDA dealer, they can moniter what onboard tests your'e having trouble with. Or take the car on a 30 minute test drive, in the morning, start out with some "in town" driving and then get on the interstate and drive at a steady 60 mph for about 20 minutes. This "test drive" should get all the readiness tests in order.

anthrum

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

Figured I'd follow up in case someone out there had a similar problem.

So, after checking ALL the fuses (duh), I found that fuse #14 Backup Radio (7.5A) under the hood was blown. Replaced it, and voila (sp?), my DST lit up like a champ. Still had 3 sensors reporting Incomplete / Not Ready though. So my mechanic gave me the same advice as "92civlude" (thanks for the reply , I drove it on the highway for about 20 minutes maintaining 45 mph or higher. Then I did 5 minutes of city driving.

I left the DST plugged in the whole time and after I got off the highway I queried it again and... RESULT! No incompletes! Made a beeline to the garage, hooked up his nice professional DST (it was wireless, coooool) and the computer passed my car with flying colors. Or at least to the satisfaction of the State of PA.

Now if I could just fix my intermittent rear glass switch / sensor (it randomly thinks its open when its not which then sets off my alarm) but that's for another thread.

Thanks.

MG

blackskunk2si

glad it worked out and thanks for giving your results. it helps incase someone searches a similar problem, they can see how it got fixed.