Greetings. Re: '95 Buick LeSabre 3.8L Limited.
In a previous post I stated a problem I'm having with the check engine light coming on. Usually, it comes on as soon as I start the car in the a.m. but may delay coming on anywhere from minutes to hours to as long as a whole day. I went to two auto stores that do free readings and they got the result that the reader couldn't communicate with the car computer. I went to a third source, Mr. Underhood, who has better equipment than the first two and I was confident that I would finally get a result, instead, Mr. Underhood got the same result as the first two. He explained that with older cars they find that in 9 out of 10 events, a burned- out fuse is preventing a reading and it usually is in the radio circuit. My radio works and I don't know of any other thing that doesn't work in the car because of a burned-out fuse. During that visit, we saw a small vacuum hose that looked bad and yesterday, (10/22) I replaced it after which I put on 40 miles and thinking that I licked the problem, but it did come on. I have to mention here that there is a small leak in my exhaust system down the line. Thanks for any input.

 

Do you know what type of scanner the third place used? If it was an OBD II scanner, it may not work because I'm pretty sure the '95 has an OBD 1.5 port. Basically, it has an OBD II style plug, but only has the capabilities of the older OBD I system.

 

No, I don't. I thought though that his equipment was more sophisticated than the other two sources that read my car. The socket in my car is trapezoid shaped. I understand the unusual circumstances involved with the manufacturing date of my car in that even though it is considered a '95 because it was manufactured in August of that year, it is considered a 1996. If I understand what you are saying correctly you mean that if the plug in my car is shaped for a OBDII plug it will not read because the car will only respond to an OBDI. So in effect, if I had an adapter that would plug into my OBDII socket on one side with the other side being a receptacle for an OBDI plug that would go to the reader. Or that the socket in my car should have been one for an OBDI plug.

 

I'm not too familiar with anything pre OBD II, but here's a wiki article on the different OBD types. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics


Here's something to look at:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/t900...connector.html

Apparently you can get an adapter. Also, a few sites that I read said that autozone, advanced, and some other places. Your best bet is to call around and see of anywhere has the capability to scan the 1.5 system. If worst comes to worst, you might have to bring it to the dealer. They should have the Tech 2 scanner that should be able to read it.

One thing you can check is to make sure all the pins are in the proper place in the connector.