ECU protocol help required

[madgav82]

I have a mk1 focus 1.6 16v which was first registered in September 2001, so should be obd2 compatible, but I cannot get my elm327 reader to connect, I have attached a pic of my connection socket

[madgav82]

any help or advice is greatly appreciated thanks

[Tdci-Peter]

I presume it fits physically. The photo looks a bit odd, but may just the head on perspective.

Your car is very close to the OBD2 limit. May be a Ford "Model Year" pre-OBD2 design.

What software are you using? Is it just whatever came with the ELM?

Forscan can cope with many pre-OBD2 cars. Also chinese ELMs are notoriously variable in quality. May be duff or not compatible.

You will find a lot about ELM327 & Forscan on this site, which together provide a very comprehensive diagnosis & maintenance tool.

For ELM327 see:

http://www.spanglefish.com/TunnelratElectronics/index.asp?pageid=516992

you will also need a program called Forscan, its free and you can get it from

http://forscan.org/download.html

 

For more about compatibility, see

Please post here any results or queries. It is all useful info.

Peter

[madgav82]

hi all and thanks, apologies if I posted in wrong section, to answer the question I'm using an elm 327 connected via bluetooth to my windows phone (windows 10), works perfectly on my friends 06 fiesta but fails to connect to ECU in my focus, 2001 model, would this has anything to do with the fact that I've removed the standard ford cd6000 head unit(with security panel and steering column controls) as I believe the Kline is connected to head unit in some way

[Tdci-Peter]

The ELM is just a dumb interface, the software on the phone is important here. Must be an App or something loaded. To work on a pre-OBD2 car, both the ELM adapter must be a good (genuine or 100% compatible) ELM327, and the App needs to be Forscan or similar.

If the car uses ISO 9141-2 (5 baud init, 10.4 kbit/s) which has a K-Line & an L-Line (and that is the sum total of my knowledge of ISO9141-2!), then a genuine ELM should be able to communicate. See the quoted topic above.

No real idea if the missing "head unit" will make a difference. As long as the lines are not shorted or grounded, and remain connected from the diag. connector to the relevant modules, it should make no difference.

Peter.

[madgav82]

thanks all gonna whip out the voltage meter today and check the connections in the socket, like I said elm327 does work on neighbours fiesta just not on my focus thankyou to everyone who commented all help is appreciated

[Stoney871]

The older OBD ports give very little data anyway.

OBDII is far more integrated into the car (mainly due to more advanced computer management systems used in modern cars).

ELM327 with a HScan/MScan switch and Forscan or FoCCus software will dig as deep as is possible.

Sent from my SM-G930F

[madgav82]

just a quick update I installed another app to my windows phone which gave me some useful info, when connecting to the elm327 that I purchased it came up with the version number as v2.1 , I am now concerned as it was advertised as v1.5, and I have read that there are fake v2.1 being sold, lesson learned I think I bought a dud, even tho it works on some it won't connect to my ecu, checked obd2 socket with voltage meter and all is well

[Tdci-Peter]

9 minutes ago, madgav82 said:

I think I bought a dud,

ELM327s do vary a lot.

Have you tried:http://www.spanglefish.com/TunnelratElectronics/index.asp?pageid=516992

(I not tried it myself, I have a serial port ELM, but other people have tried it, seems to work).

Though this is USB, not sure if they do Bluetooth/WiFi.

For wireless, try the Forscan site, there were several posts there about compatibility of wireless ELMs last time I looked. The wireless ones do seem to be less reliable.

Peter.