2004 s series v6 . looking at the icarsoft i930 . good choice ?

 

I use an I930 along with freeware/cheapware on a laptop Cable link and Bluetooth to my phone. While the laptop presents best and the phone is unbelievably convenient, they can only operate in the PCM's environment. The I930 is much more versatile and you would never be able to troubleshoot ABS systems without it. Glad I have all three but you can be confident in I930 if you had to choose only one. I recommend an additional ELM327 Bluetooth clone off Amazon too. They're like $12 and can display all sorts of sensor data on a phone screen dashboard.

 

thanks for the thumbs up on it..after 3 yrs it finally happened one fatal day,, bank 1 lean .random misfires,miss cyl1,3,5,, and check engine light, abs light/abs fault,. dsc not available~ lr wheel sensor, and tcm fault..
damn auto zone will only pull codes and wont erase them..so i have no idea on how old the codes may be..but the check engine and abs codes are new

 

Having the luxury of what I do for a living..I have access to high end diagnostic equipment so there is no need to purchase a scanner. IMHO I would find the best budget scanner that can pull more than just P and U codes. I seriously doubt the scanner that they use at the parts store can pull anything deeper than the basics.

There is a thread in the main forum..(maybe a sticky?) about suggested scanners. The thread is several pages long with some helpful insights.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/g...-%2A%2A-33347/

 

All those at once is very likely a low battery.

Otherwise, see the many posts about air leaks & fuel trims as the next step.

 

+1 on that!

More details than you'll ever care to know:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...attery-193787/


For low-cost troubleshooting, I like to recommend hooking up an automatic battery charger every night for a week or so. That way, you begin each day with good prestart voltage. If the car now behaves itself, you'll know low voltage was the cause. Then you have to figure out why, whether it's a bad battery, charging system problem, battery drain at night, etc.

 

forgotv to add a fact,,battery about 1 yr old, chargingv at 14.5 v with my meter. had parts store load test it (ok) and verified the 14.5 v charging under a load w all accessories on... will be digging into it saturday

 

That shows the alternator works. Don't trust the parts store test.

 

Agree with all of the above recommendations. Alternator can hide a battery with one cell completely dead. iCarsoft reads everything including B and A codes.

 

went had battery/alternator tested..after sitting all night ,using my vom battery showed 11.9 v , 14.5 while running ..went to 2nd (napa) confirmed readings...so im trickle charging overnight w battery disconnected and see how it acts tommorow,
also liberally sprayed starting fluid around intake and vaccum lines to see if i got any rpm increase..none noted..
also jacked up rear end and pulled wheels. both wheel sensors ohmed out the same..so i swapped left and right sensors to see if wheel sensor code moves to other wheel. (also ordered scanner,,}
hoping leaving battery disconnected overnight clears the codes. if not it will be a few days till my scanner arrives..

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this trick doesn't work on a computer controlled engine. If you spray anything combustible into a vacuum leak, the computer instantly adjusts fuel delivery to maintain a constant RPM.

With a carb or mechanical fuel injection, you'd get an RPM change. With a modern engine, you have to watch fuel trim on a scanner.

 

11.9 is terrible.

If you spray, watch the STFTs as they go wild (momentarily) if you spray in the right place.

Bear in mind the PCM can correct for the unexpected fuel (spray) in not many milliseconds...

 

Disconnecting the battery each night may be counterproductive at this stage of troubleshooting. Charging the battery each night? Yes, I highly recommend that, but leave the battery connected.

Each time you disconnect the battery, the poor computer has to start its learning process from scratch, using preprogrammed data. You have to accumulate several cycles and a few miles before the computer can accurately tell you how the car is behaving. Typically you won't see any fault codes right away, which gives the mistaken impression that all is good.

I also wonder about your charging system. On a 2003+ car, normal behavior is around 14.5v for the first few minutes, and then settling down around 13.5v. Are you seeing this normal decrease? If not, your battery may be getting damaged from overcharging.

 

Or not damaged but the PCM senses it's not charging as it should so continues with the higher voltage (which isn't damaging but if the battery is toast simply won't work).

 

as suspected disconnecting the battery didnt erase the mil codes...but gave the battery a good charge.... . scanner should be here thursday..im kinda thinking it may have been a battery issue.. voltage after sitting for 24 hrs is 12.3, while running 14,8/9 after idling for a few minutes..cant see any other reason these codes all appeared at the same moment
is it possible to remove the passenger side sparkplugs w/o intake removal ? looks real tight there
looks like ill be getting to know my new scanner..lol