EGR Causing Failure to Idle?

[Schurkey]

Schurkey is there a scan tool you like and recommend for these early GMT400s?

T I recommend a Fap-Off [Snap-On] MT2500.

I have a Snap-On MTG-2500. This is very much like the MT2500, which is cheaper and more common.

They've been obsolete for years. The last software update was for 2009 model year, and they quit selling them before that. OTOH, if you aren't using them for vehicles newer than you can get a software cartridge for (2006 and older is fairly common. I don't think I've ever seen one for model years newer than that.) then they're an inexpensive solution.

My software cartridges are for 1980 1/2 to 1999, and from 1996 to 2006 (Domestic brands--GM, Ford, Chrysler, Jeep) I have some 1996-2005 Asian coverage, too.

You'd need the adapters and keys to suit the vehicles you're going to test. OBD-1 uses a heap of adapters, at least one for every make; GM has three or four. OBD-II uses the same adapter, but may--or may not--require a circuit-board "Key". Key K-9 is common for GM; and what I need to get some ABS codes and data on my '98 Monte Carlo, for example.



Now...Do I recommend these '2500s? Yes, conditionally. They're old. At some point they're going to have functional problems. And of course, you can't get them serviced or updated by Snap-On any more.

I've been threatening to update my scan tool to something newer for years. And someday, it'll happen. I'm looking at another Snap-On, in the Solus series. (Solus, Solus Pro, Solus Ultra, Solus Edge) All but the newest are similarly obsolete and non-supported except maybe for software updates.

There's also the computer-based solutions, of which I have ZERO experience. I don't even know someone who has one. I know that they exist, they don't cost much, and folks seem to like them--but these folks are also the sort that have never used a professional-grade scan tool. They have little to compare with.

I would rather have a used-but-usable Professional-Grade scan tool than a brand-new consumer-grade scan tool. And if it won't do ABS and body computers, and instrument clusters, with some bi-directional activity, I want nothing to do with it. All of that was "old news" twenty years ago.

 

[deckeda]

Thanks for that info and shared experience. I don't have a Windows PC nor Android phone, so the computer stuff is likely out for me. The older vehicles I'd occasionally want this for are not driven often, so the cost investment does lean (for me) towards something consumer based and low cost.

That being said, it sounds as if for whatever tool I may buy, old or new, I'd have to additional get whatever the vehicle needs for a connection (in my case, that'd be for '89, '93, '94 GMT400s in the family.)

So far, for my OBD-II vehicles I've been lucky with my simple, cheapo code reader since I'm not a tuner needing to evaluate curves etc and haven't needed to diagnose anything stranger than whatever a simple code reveals.

 

[Schurkey]

That being said, it sounds as if for whatever tool I may buy, old or new, I'd have to additional get whatever the vehicle needs for a connection (in my case, that'd be for '89, '93, '94 GMT400s in the family.)

Those vehicles "should" all use the same OBD-1 adapter. There were some vehicles in '94--'95 that used the OBD-II plug at the dashboard, but had less than full OBD-II functionality. I don't know if a '94 GM400 had the older, or the newer connector.

So far, for my OBD-II vehicles I've been lucky with my simple, cheapo code reader since I'm not a tuner needing to evaluate curves etc and haven't needed to diagnose anything stranger than whatever a simple code reveals.

When you finally handle and work with a REAL scan tool that accesses the data stream, you'll wonder how you ever managed without.

"Codes" are useful. The data stream is EVEN MORE USEFUL.

The next step beyond a scan tool would be a programming tool; and I can't help with that. Never been there, never seen one operate. Having the ability to CHANGE the tune is ENTIRELY different from being able to see what the sensors and actuators are doing.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

I've been eyeing the Solus stuff too. The MTG you have at least displays graphical stuff, which had I known about at the time I was hunting for a 2500, that would have been the one I bought.

The data stream is what nets you dinner, that's for sure. Codes give you a heads up of a general area but nothing like watching the thing run lean under certain conditions or a sensor go wonky with no input.