Question from a newb with a 93 Town & Country. Everytime I start my car, the check engine light comes on breifly with all the other dash indicators and promptly goes out when the engine fires up. I drive about a mile through town before I get on the highway and always have the CEL come on between 2 and 5 miles down the road. The CEL stays on until the engine stops and all I get from turning the key over twice is code 55. The next time I start the car, it starts all over again. Do I need to get a reader or scanner to see what's going on while I'm driving or does anyone have any other thoughts on how to figure this out?
monkeywrench06
12-11-2006, 09:20 AM
Strange! I'd take it down to Pepboys/Autozone and have them read out any codes for you with their scan tool. They'll usually do this for you for free. The 55 code indicates that there are no more codes, as far as I know.
Vanderbus
12-12-2006, 08:33 AM
I assume I would have to leave the car running with the CEL on while I find a guy to have it scanned. I'm considering buying a reader if it would help in this case and could clear codes or reset maintenance intervals but don't know the difference between a reader and a scanner. Any advise on that would also be appreciated.
monkeywrench06
12-12-2006, 08:59 AM
First, you don't need to leave the car running to read codes. Any code that triggers a check-engine light should be stored by the ECU for later retrieval. You just need to have the ignition key in the run/on position to power up the ECU.
A reader and a scanner are the same thing. I'm not an expert on the matter, but to my knowledge there are three type of code:
1) Standard OBD-I codes - Set of government mandates diagnosic codes that all cars must support.
2) Standard OBD-II codes - A updated superset of the OBD-II codes. All cars after about 1996 support these codes, also government mandated.
3) Manufacturer-specific codes - Additional codes that manufactures add to cover areas that are specific to their models.
Most of the generic scanners out there will work for reading/clearing the standard non-manufacturer specific OBD-I & OBD-II codes. The most common problems are all covered by the these codes. Inexpensive generic scanners will typically not read the more specialized manufacturer-specific codes.
The scanner I've been using and can recommend is the Equus 3100 - I got one for about $90 on eBay and it works very well with my '96 Grand Voyager. But, probably any scanner that you get at Sears/Pepboys/etc. will do the job. No harm to check their websites beforehand though, to see if you can verify that it works with your model/year.
One last thing - the behavior you describe - i.e. check engine light coming on, no codes stored - doesn't sound normal. I suspect that there might be a problem with your ECU itself and that a scan tool won't help diagnose it. On the other hand, no harm to have the scanner in your toolbox anyway... Good luck with it, report back...
-Daire
Vanderbus
12-13-2006, 12:07 AM
Thanks for the information Daire. Yeah, I'm leaning towards picking up a scanner just to have on hand. If it doesn't help me this time, I'm sure it'll come in handy sooner or later.
