"Alternating" P0174 lean codes, Bank 2 only, then 1 & 2...??

[fixizin]

I'm afraid my borrowed, late-1990s OBD-II scanner lacks a graphing feature... will have to video with duh smurtfone and plot my own graph... or hire young Taiwanese girls to do it... but then I'd have to design uniforms for them to wear... plus care and feeding... the overhead piles up rather quickly...

OTOH, it does have a RECORD feature... 60 second "frames" IIRC... will have to read up... and figure out which 12V modem/external disk drive/radio wall-wart has the right size plug (and amperage) to run that puppy indoors, for playback.

>>>> BUT THE BIGGEST CLUE IS: fault manifests only when running E85 (yes, it's a "V" VIN Flex-Fuel "Green Leaf" Ranger)

 

[Dirtman]

Does dat one have the ethanol sensor, and if so is said ethanol sensor working right? If the sensor isn't reading the ethanol content properly it can't adjust the fuel trims to compensate for the utter crappiness of it.

 

[Orca]

Does dat one have the ethanol sensor, [...]

Piggybacking on Dirtman's comment, if your truck does have the ethanol sensor and the PCM is programmed to report it, there's a chance that even low-end scanners will report it because it's an SAE-standardized PID (Parameter ID), known as "Alcohol Fuel Percentage" (PID $52). However, if the scanner is from the late 1990s, that PID may not be supported by your particular scanner because it was not part of the original SAE PIDs. It might be worth a try, though. (The bad news is that if it doesn't work, you won't know if it's because your scanner doesn't support it or because your vehicle doesn't support it.)

I'm afraid my borrowed, late-1990s OBD-II scanner lacks a graphing feature...

Since your scantool won't graph, if recording with it is too much bother, just try to get an idea of the "S2" values as they're being updated. My point was that looking at a single O2 voltage is almost useless -- you want to see them over time.

IMHO, there are at least 3 considerations for interpreting any "downstream" O2 sensor voltage readings (i.e. "O2 B1 S2" and, when applicable, "O2 B2 S2"):

1. vehicle fuel system is in (and stays in) closed-loop mode (another SAE-standard PID, $03, which should be available on even older and/or low-end scanners)
2. engine run time is long enough for catalytic converter to have gotten up to temperature
3. O2 sensor voltage values are stable over time

If those conditions are met, then, echoing what RonD said, "S2 sensors should be at 0.70 to 0.80 VDC".

Hope that helps...

 

[fixizin]

GOLDen info, keep it coming... sure hope it's NOT that hyper expen$ive FF Sensor: $800 to $1,300... for generics!

My Scanner manual says there's a Sensor in its lookup tables called 'ALCO' = Alcohol Percentage, but I'm not sure my PCM (is it EEC-IV or V for 1999??) outputs that; which is sad because obviously it's reading the sensor all the time, and using it to adjust timing, injector duty cycle, etc...

... time to go push my Scanner skills to the next level.

 

[RonD]

1995 to 2011 Rangers have EEC-V engine computer using OBD2 communications, 4 digit codes

These are 4 of the most common Flex Fuel sensor codes
P0176 Fuel Composition Sensor Circuit Malfunction
P0177 Fuel Composition Sensor Circuit Range/Performance
P0178 Fuel Composition Sensor Circuit Low Input
P0179 Fuel Composition Sensor Circuit High Input

 

[Dirtman]

Or just stop putting corn in the gas tank....

 

[fixizin]

Corn in the fuel-hole keepin's da innards CLEAN and shiny!... and water-free. (Don't run it that often--mileage sux.)

 

[Dirtman]

So... a shiney corn hole is a good thing? Makes sense.

 

[Orca]

My Scanner manual says there's a Sensor in its lookup tables called 'ALCO' = Alcohol Percentage, but I'm not sure my PCM (is it EEC-IV or V for 1999??) outputs that;

Interesting! That sounds promising.

... time to go push my Scanner skills to the next level.

Excellent plan. I suspect it will be time well spent.

It's actually possible to query any OBD2 PCM and have it report exactly which SAE-standard PIDs that it supports. Unfortunately, low-end, all-in-one style scantools just don't typically show that information, often due to a very limited user interface. That's one reason why it's better to use an inexpensive, hardware-only scantool (which connects via USB cable or wirelessly between the vehicle and the user-end device [i.e. a laptop, smartphone, or tablet]) where you already own the user-end device and can control the software being run (and then run something really smart like FORScan).

 

[fixizin]

Yeah, in delving into the manual, this scanner came out when EEC-IV was the latest thing from FoMoCo... although it does have a raw/simple mode called Basic/Star, which emulates a Ford Star Tester... "recommended only for very experienced Ford Technicians"... lol.

... any RECOMMENDATIONS on a FORscan-compatible "dongle" ??

 

[Dirtman]

Yeah, in delving into the manual, this scanner came out when EEC-IV was the latest thing from FoMoCo... although it does have a raw/simple mode called Basic/Star, which emulates a Ford Star Tester... "recommended only for very experienced Ford Technicians"... lol.

... any RECOMMENDATIONS on a FORscan-compatible "dongle" ??

OBDlink MX+ for phone or tablet Forscan Lite.
OBDlink EX for laptop full Forscan.

 

[Orca]

Yeah, in delving into the manual, this scanner came out when EEC-IV was the latest thing from FoMoCo... although it does have a raw/simple mode called Basic/Star, which emulates a Ford Star Tester... "recommended only for very experienced Ford Technicians"... lol.

Very interesting. I did a quick bit of research on that and it seems that the Ford "NGS" (New Generation Star) tester has some sophisticated capabilities. So if your scanner emulates that (or something similar) even partially, you probably have a lot more power than I realized! I'd spend some time with that manual and see just what it can do. (If you name your current scanner and I can find an online manual for it, I could take a look and maybe have useful advice.)

For example, I see that the Ford NGS can do graphs. They appear to be low-resolution and probably monochrome, so they would not compare to what you'd see on a device running FORScan, but what you may already have is still quite useful.

... any RECOMMENDATIONS on a FORscan-compatible "dongle" ??

Dirtman's recommendation is good and, IIRC, matches what the FORScan folks recommend.

It also depends a bit on what user-end hardware you have (Windows laptop or Android/iOS smartphone/tablet) to use for running FORScan (or any other software). Lastly, it depends on what vehicles you plan to use it with. For example, if you just use it with a 1999 Ranger, there's no need to get a scantool that supports MS-CAN protocol.

I prefer USB-wired scantools (e.g. OBDLink SX, which I own, or OBDLink EX, which I do not yet own) because they are faster and more reliable and because I typically use a laptop computer when diagnosing. If you go wireless (as is often done by folks with smartphones or tablets), then Bluetooth is strongly recommended over WiFi. The OBDLink MX+ (a Bluetooth device) is a good (but expensive -- currently $100 on Amazon -- ouch!) choice that has support for MS-CAN protocol (and GM's SW-CAN/GMLAN, if that's an advantage for you). I own a 'BAFX Products' Bluetooth scantool ($21 currently at Amazon) and it works quite well but lacks MS-CAN and SW-CAN/GMLAN protocol support. It says "For Android Only" but really means "won't work on iOS". If your Windows laptop has Bluetooth capability, there's no reason the BAFX device shouldn't work. Some food for thought.

If you can tell us which vehicle(s) you plan to be diagnosing and what user-end hardware (laptop, smartphone/tablet) and OS (Windows/Android/iOS) you'd like to use, it would help.

But frankly, as capable as your current hardware seems to be, you might be able to do a lot even without FORScan.

 

[fixizin]

WOW, 250% price diff 'tween Bluetooth version (OBDlink MX+) and nice long USB cable version (OBDLink SX)... smells like smurt-fone "hype".

Anyway, my borrowed scanner is a TECH/MATE OW-C3753 by Cornwell Tools, aka OTC Div. of SPX Corp... how obscure and out-of-date is THAT, eh? Oh well, got an old 'droid I could use as an OBD-II "head" unit.