Hi, I recently purchased a 97 RS and when I went to have my car smog (in Cali). I was told by the smog technician that the OBD II was not reading and couldn't perform the test.

I also realized later that when you initially turn on the the ignition (in which all dummy lights should turn on then go off) that the check engine light did not come on. Is there a problem with the ECU or wiring harness (from what I have read on a few post these can be some of the main problems)?

Just out of curiosity I know that there are many dummy lights on the gauge cluster but not all should turn on based on the model, so what lights should turn on when you first turn the key on? Also, I tried to find the codes/color codes for a 97 ecu and I think I found one on a previous thread but it wouldn't come up, does anybody have a quick link for that?

Lastly, I did notice that the previous owner might of had a EGT/PYROMETER set-up on a aftermarket header (I have since replaced with an oem exhaust manifold) and it looks as though this person spliced into a white w/ red dash wire going into the ecu and a splice into a white w/ black stripe coming from the oxygen sensor wire.

By no means are there any wires attached to these splices but the splice connector have been left on. Could this might be causing the problem in which I should take of the splice connectors and cover the exposed wire with electrical tape?

I greatly appreciate any information and solutions to my questions

Thanks Thomas

To answer your question I had a similar issue once. I took my car to the smog tech, he went through the whole dyno routine and THEN told me my car did not pass because he couldn't connect it to the OBDII reader. Complete ass, he should have told me that in the very beginning that this was the case before going through the whole smog test and charging me. I was so pissed at him, I immediately took it to another smog station and tested again. Guess what, my OBDII was detected by their computer. So I think it's a combination of smog tech computer issues and how much of a crook your smog guy is, instead of being an issue with your actual OBDII computer.

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I appreciate that and I am thinking about borrowing a friends scanner to make sure it is or is not working/reading. One of the main problems I don't understand is the fact that when you initially turn the key on all the dummy lights should come on then go off and the check engine lights is one of those lights that will not come on when I initially turn the key over. I don't think that it is just the light bulb that is burnt out but I will be checking it. Thanks for the info!

Thomas

Found out the problem for why the check engine light was not on and that was due to the bulb being burnt out. The check engine light is on but the scanner can not connect to the ECU. What could be the problem? Is it just the ECU going out because at low speeds it does ever so ofter kinda buck as though it had a carburetor and was loading up but either than that the car runs great and starts up all the time with no problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Thomas

Could be a loose pin at the OBD2 connector. Just to confirm, you did try it with a non-smog-shop OBD2 tool, correct?

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Ok, thanks and I will look into that and yes I used a non-smog OBD II scanner. I sure do hope it is just a pin. Just to be more pin point about this problem would the only problems be just within the ECU and harness connectors?

Thanks Again, Thomas