cool technologies By Greg Vrana, Technical Editor

ince the early 1980s, car manufac-

S turers have used a computer-based
PCM (power-train-control module) to
control the fuel and ignition system in
your car. Tightened emissions standards have forced
car makers to put sophisticated pollution-control
systems under the PCM’s supervision as well. As the
PCM system grew in complexity, engineers added
onboard diagnostics to help technicians trou-
bleshoot malfunctioning engines. Today, onboard
The AutoXray EZ-Link OBD II computers play such an important role in reducing
scanner is compatible with vehicle emissions that, since the 1994 model year, the
all 1996 and later US, US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has es-
European, and Asian OBD II- tablished requirements for OBD (onboard-diag-
compatible vehicles. nostic) systems. The latest system, OBD II, has been
standard equipment on US light-duty cars and
trucks since the 1996 model year.
If you think of your car’s engine as a device that
converts gasoline chemical energy into mechanical

Analytic technology:
energy, then you might believe that the engine that
powered your car to work today and the engine that
went into the first car Henry Ford built in 1903 are
almost the same. In the eyes of the EPA, however, the

DIAGNOSE
engines differ significantly. For example, the hydro-
carbon emissions of a subcompact car built in 1988
are less than one-thirtieth of a 1921 Ford Model T
(Reference 1). This statistic is even more impressive
when you consider that the subcompact has four

WHAT AILS
times the horsepower and nearly twice the gas
mileage, and it weighs 300 lbs more than the Mod-
el T. As the EPA’s emissions regulations become more
stringent, car makers continue to turn to more so-
phisticated software running on more powerful mi-
croprocessors to monitor and control your car’s per-

YOUR AUTO
AUTOMOTIVE ONBOARD DIAGNOSTICS HELPS YOUR
formance.
The two biggest sources of pollution from your
car are the fuel system and the exhaust. In an ideal
world, your car’s engine would burn gasoline with
oxygen from the air to create heat, carbon dioxide,
and water. Unfortunately, the combustion process
ENGINE PERFORM AT PEAK EFFICIENCY, REDUCES also releases unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen-ox-
ide gases, and carbon monoxide. The good news is
EMISSIONS, AND EVEN HELPS YOU FIX YOUR CAR. that today’s engines and fuel mixtures are so effec-
tive that most hydrocarbon emissions are a product
PLUS IT GIVES YOU AN EXCUSE TO BUY A NEW TOY. of evaporative losses, which come from the car’s fuel
tank and when you refuel your car.
EPA OBD II guidelines require car manufactur-
At a glance ..........................38 ers to monitor all emissions-related systems in your
For more information ......39 car. These systems may include the car’s air condi-
tioner, catalytic converter, evaporative-emissions-
control system, EGR (exhaust-gas-recirculation) sys-
tem, fuel-delivery system, heated-oxygen sensor, and
secondary-air-injection system (Reference 2). OBD

www.ednmag.com December 20, 2001 | edn 37

designfeature OBD II
II also requires the detection of engine drocarbon vapors from escaping into the
misfires, which can damage the catalytic AT A GLANCE atmosphere when you refuel your car by
converter. Every time you take a trip, the e Since the early 1980s, car manufacturers trapping the vapors in an evaporative
OBD system tests your car’s emissions have used microprocessor-based power- emissions canister. The canister is filled
systems to make sure the car is not pol- train-control modules to control fuel and with activated carbon, which stores hy-
luting beyond acceptable limits. The EPA emissions systems in your car. drocarbon vapors for the evaporative-
FTP (Federal Test Procedure) sets allow- emissions-control system until the PCM
able emissions levels for light-duty cars e The EPA dictates minimum require- purges the vapors to the engine for burn-
and trucks. If the OBD II system detects ments for onboard-diagnostic systems. All ing. The PCM must perform several tests
an emissions component that has failed 1996 model year and later US light-duty on the evaporative-emissions-control
or has deteriorated to the point at which cars and trucks come with OBD II systems. system. One test must check for leaks as
the vehicle’s emissions may rise to more small as 0.020 in. in diameter in the fuel
than 1.5 times the FTP standard, the e An OBD II-equipped car limits air emis- system. The PCM begins this “small-
PCM must illuminate the malfunction- sions by warning you when your car's leak” test by closing the valve to the va-
indicator lamp. In some cars, this indica- emissions systems fail. por canister and drawing a small vacuum
tor is called the Check Engine or Service in the fuel tank. If the PCM fails to detect
Engine Soon light. When the malfunc- e In the future, an OBD III system may a vacuum, a large system leak is likely.
tion-indicator lamp is on, the PCM also transmit your car's emissions status to a One possible cause of a large leak may
stores a DTC (diagnostic trouble code) in state regulatory agency without your simply be a missing gas cap. Once the
memory along with the operating con- knowledge. PCM verifies that the proper vacuum lev-
ditions at the time of the failure in a el exists, it waits a certain amount of time
“freeze frame.” When a sensor malfunc- and measures the vacuum again. If the
tions and no longer sends valid informa- onboard-refueling-vapor-recovery and PCM records an insufficient vacuum, it
tion, the PCM substitutes default values evaporative-emissions-control systems stores a DTC and lights the malfunction-
for the faulty sensor’s signal so you can to minimize hydrocarbon emissions indicator lamp. Measuring differences in
still drive your car and seek repairs. from your fuel tank. The onboard-refu- vacuum levels to detect small leaks re-
Your car comes equipped with eling-vapor-recovery system prevents hy- quires the PCM to measure precisely how

Figure 1 VOLTAGE TRANSIENT

REGULATORS + 12V
PROTECTION

MICRO-
CONTROLLER-
CRANK POSITION UNIT RESET
RESET
MOTOROLA MPC565 CONTROL
VEHICLE SPEED MICROCONTROLLER

ENGINE FUEL INJECTOR

TEMPERATURE
FUEL-INJECTOR FUEL INJECTOR
AMBIENT APPLICATION DRIVERS
TEMPERATURE CODE FUEL INJECTOR
INPUT FUEL INJECTOR
MANIFOLD SIGNAL
ABSOLUTE CONDITIONING
PRESSURE API API
IGNITION-COIL IGNITION COIL
THROTTLE POSITION DRIVERS DRIVERS
DIAGNOSTIC DRIVERS IGNITION COIL
CODE
MASS AIRFLOW

KNOCK SENSOR SOLENOID EGR

DRIVER VALVE
O2 SENSOR

OIL-PRESSURE OPERATING
SENSOR SYSTEM SOLENOID IDLE-SPEED VALVE
AMPLIFIER DRIVER
FUEL-PRESSURE
SENSOR

ANALOG INPUTS PERIPHERAL DIAGNOSTIC

SPI SCI DIAGNOSTIC BUS
ANALOG OUTPUTS DEVICES BUS DRIVER

INPUT DEVICES OUTPUT DEVICES

OUTPUT/POWER DRIVERS
CUSTOMER HARDWARE
INPUT-CONDITIONING HARDWARE
CONTROL UNIT
POWER MODULES

The Motorola MPC565 microcontroller is designed for automotive-engine-control applications.

38 edn | December 20, 2001 www.ednmag.com

much air is in the fuel tank. To- X 0 0 0 tem’s components. The PCM also
day, car makers use very collects manifold-absolute-pressure
Figure 2
accurate fuel gauges to data when the EGR valve changes
determine the amount of fuel position to determine how well the
B—BODY SPECIFIC FAULT DESIGNATION
and, therefore, air in the fuel sys- EGR system is performing.
C—CHASSIS
tem.
The manifold-absolute-pres- P—POWER TRAIN 1, 2—FUEL AND AIR METERING READY, AIM, MISFIRE
U NETWORK
— 3—IGNITION SYSTEM OR
sure sensor in your car measures MISFIRE The catalytic converter is one of
pressure changes in the intake 4—AUXILIARY EMISSION
the most expensive emissions-re-
manifold, which are due to CONTROLS ducing components on your car, and
changes in engine load and 5—VEHICLE SPEED/IDLE misfires are its worst enemy. A mis-
CONTROL
speed. The heavier the load, the 0—GENERIC fire is a result of incomplete com-
6—COMPUTER-OUTPUT
higher the pressure. The PCM 1—MANUFACTURER- CIRCUIT bustion, and one cause may be a de-
also uses the pressure sensor to SPECIFIC fective spark plug. Misfires send
7, 8—TRANSMISSION
measure barometric pressure unburned hydrocarbon gases into
and changes in EGR flow. The the exhaust and into the atmos-
PCM places 5V across the sensor The OBD II DTC comprises four fields designating the type of phere. But the unburned fuel also
and measures the voltage drop code and which system or component has malfunctioned. travels through the catalytic con-
across it. Changes in pressure verter and may permanently damage
cause the manifold-absolute-pressure standards. If the PCM detects a mal- it. For this reason, automotive engineers
sensor’s resistance to change, and the function, it stores the appropriate DTC spend a lot of time designing ways to de-
PCM detects changes in pressure as a and illuminates the malfunction-indica- tect misfires. The most common ap-
varying voltage. As with most other sen- tor light. proach takes advantage of the fact that
sor diagnostics, the PCM checks the pres- Recirculating exhaust gases back into each cylinder contributes to the rota-
sure sensor for out-of-range readings. the engine’s cylinders is one of the most tional velocity of the crankshaft. If a
The PCM also compares the pressure effective emissions-reducing strategies cylinder misfires, the crankshaft velocity
sensor’s output with expected values that your car uses. By introducing relatively decreases momentarily until the next
the PCM calculates from the throttle po- inert exhaust gases into the fuel/air mix, cylinder in the firing order takes over. The
sition and engine-load factors. Large dis- the EGR system reduces the temperature PCM uses a sensor on the crankshaft to
crepancies between calculated values and of combustion in the cylinder. The re- compute the rotational speed and anoth-
the pressure sensor’s values indicate the duced temperature in turn reduces the er sensor on the camshaft to determine
sensor has deteriorated and needs repair. production of nitrogen-oxide gas. The which cylinder misfired.
The adjustment that the PCM makes PCM diagnoses the EGR system by de- Most misfire-detection systems are
to create an optimum air-to-fuel ratio of tecting out-of-range values from the sys- low-data-rate systems. Low-data-rate
14.7-to-1 is “fuel trim.” systems meet FTP monitor-
Inputs to the fuel-delivery ing requirements on most
system include readings FOR MORE INFORMATION... of today’s engines and “full-
from the oxygen sensors For more information on products such as those discussed in this article, go to range” misfire monitoring
in the exhaust system. If www.ednmag.com and click on the Reader Service link under the Tools & requirements on four-cylin-
the PCM detects a lean Services section. When you contact any of the following manufacturers direct- der engines. Currently, reg-
combustion, it computes ly, please let them know you read about their products in EDN. ulations require misfire de-
an appropriate positive tection at 0 to 55 mph.
AutoXray EPA Office of Trans- International Automo-
fuel-trim value to cause Full-range misfire detection
1-800-595-9729 portation and Air tive Technicians’
the fuel mixture to be- www.autoxray.com Quality Network extends to full throttle.
come rich. A rich com- Enter No. 312 1-734-214-4288 www.iatn.net OBD II regulations from
bustion results in a nega- www.epa.gov Enter No. 318 the 2002 model year will re-
tive fuel-trim-adjustment California Air Resources Enter No. 315 quire full-range misfire
value. Fuel-trim values of Board Motorola Microcon- monitoring on most six-
210 to 110% indicate a 1-800-242-4450 GM troller Technologies and eight-cylinder engines.
properly functioning fuel www.arb.ca.gov www.gm.com Group To meet the new require-
system. The PCM keeps a Enter No. 313 Enter No. 316 1-512-933-6000 ments, engineers use high-
history of average long- www.motorola.com data-rate misfire monitor-
and short-term fuel-trim Drew Technologies GM Hughes Enter No. 319
ing systems with 18
adjustments. The PCM 1-734-623-8080 Electronics
position references per en-
www.drewtech.com www.hughes.com SAE
uses these average fuel- gine revolution as opposed
Enter No. 314 Enter No. 317 1-724-772-7148
trim adjustments along www.sae.org to just one in low-data-rate
with the engine load and Enter No. 320 systems. The greater resolu-
revolutions per minute to tion allows the PCM to use
SUPER INFO NUMBER
calculate whether the more sophisticated algo-
For more information on the products available from all of the vendors listed in this
fuel-delivery system has rithms for detecting mis-
box, go to www.ednmag.com, click on the Reader Service link, and enter no. 321.
deteriorated beyond FTP fires. One algorithm
www.ednmag.com December 20, 2001 | edn 39
designfeature OBD II
“learns” the normal pattern of cylinder the exhaust entering and exiting the con-
accelerations. From this normal pat- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 verter is about the same. A good catalyt-
tern, the PCM can detect deviations or ic converter takes up and releases the
misfires from the positional data. An- 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 oxygen in the exhaust so that the post-
other algorithm detects a continuously converter oxygen sensor should detect
misfiring cylinder by filtering out relatively little change in the oxygen con-
“noise” in data in the form of crankshaft JAE 1962 PIN ASSIGNMENTS tent of the exhaust.
torsional vibration. Pin Description To test the heated-oxygen sensors, the
The PCM counts the number of mis- 1 Discretionary1 OBD II system monitors the response
fires over continuous 200- and 1000-rev- 2 Bus+line (SAE J1850) rate of the precatalyst sensor as the PCM
olution periods. The PCM then com- 3 Discretionary1 varies the fuel trim from rich to lean and
putes the total misfire rate and the misfire 4 Chassis ground lean to rich. The precatalyst sensor
rate of each cylinder at the end of the 5 Signal ground should follow the rich/lean profile of the
evaluation period. The algorithm com- 6 CAN high (SAE J2284)2 exhaust. The PCM may detect a false cat-
pares the misfire data against thresholds 7 K line (ISO 9141-2 and ISO/DIS 14230-4) alytic-converter malfunction if a leak al-
in an engine load/speed table. The 8 Discretionary1 lows oxygen into the exhaust system. An
threshold values protect the catalytic 9 Discretionary1 after-market converter can also cause the
converter from excessive temperatures. 10 Bus11line (SAE J1850) PCM to think a malfunction exists if the
The PCM flashes the malfunction-indi- 11 Discretionary1 replacement converter performs differ-
cator lamp once per second while a cat- 12 Discretionary1 ently from the original.
alytic-converter-damaging condition ex- 13 Discretionary1 The secondary air-injection system
ists. If one cylinder consistently misfires, 14 Can low (SAE J2284)2 uses an electric blower to force fresh air
the PCM may shut off that cylinder’s fuel 15 L line (ISO 9141-2 and ISO/DIS 14230-4) into the exhaust system. The extra oxy-
injector to prevent damage to the con- 16 Unswitched vehicle battery positive gen in the exhaust promotes the oxida-
verter (Reference 3). Another algorithm Notes: tion of the unburned hydrocarbons and
uses the 1000-revolution misfire count to 1. Assignments of pins 1, 3, 8 to 9, and 11 to 13 carbon monoxide. The PCM diagnoses
determine whether the engine’s emis- are left to the vehicle manufacturer's discretion. the secondary-air-injection system by
2. If pins 6 and 14 are not used for SAE J2284,
sions exceed FTP standards. their assignment is discretionary.
checking for airflow in the exhaust and
The PCM also must guard against de- for an appropriate lean reading from the
tecting “false” misfires. Driving on rough Figure 3
The J1962 diagnostic con- precatalyst oxygen sensor.
roads can apply torque to the drive wheels nector allows you to A typical engine-control system uses
and drive train, which can decrease engine download DTCs into an OBD scanner. a special-purpose microcontroller, such
speed. These momentary fluctuations in as the Motorola MPC565 (Figure 1). The
crankshaft velocity may fool the PCM catalyst and postcatalyst exhaust streams, MPC565 is a 32-bit RISC processor with
into thinking that a misfire occurred. The the PCM can evaluate the converter’s ef- a floating-point unit, three time-proces-
misfire software applies additional analy- ficiency. sor units, one J1850, and three controller-
ses to crankshaft positional data to detect Catalytic converters use precious met- area-network interfaces. The microcon-
rough terrain and may turn off misfire de- als, such as platinum, palladium, and troller also has a 36-kbyte SRAM, a
tection until your car is on a smoother rhodium, to take up excess oxygen in lean 10-kbyte dual-port time-processor unit
surface. On cars with automatic trans- exhaust and release oxygen in rich ex- RAM, a 4-kbyte decompression RAM,
missions, the PCM may disengage the haust. This ability allows the converter to and as much as 1 Mbyte of on-chip flash
torque-converter clutch to isolate the en- transform the by-products of incomplete memory. The MPC565 can run at 56
gine from the drive wheels. Some cars use combustion—hydrocarbon and carbon- MHz, which may seem unimpressive un-
the wheel-speed sensors in the antilock- monoxide gases—into water vapor and til you consider that the part operates
braking system to detect rough driving carbon dioxide. By taking up oxygen, the over 140 to +1258C. As OBD require-
conditions, so that they know whether to converter reduces nitrogen-oxide gases ments grow, PCMs will need more mem-
disable misfire detection. into nitrogen and oxygen. ory and processing power. Today, a typi-
Catalytic converters generally do not cal engine controller devotes 40% of its
SNIFFING FOR OXYGEN wear out. Instead, poor engine perform- memory to running OBD II diagnostics.
Oxygen sensors in your car’s exhaust ance, excessive fuel or oil consumption,
system provide valuable information to and impurities in the fuel impair the con- OFF-BOARD DIAGNOSTICS
the OBD II system. A heated-oxygen sen- verter’s efficiency until it no longer does Monitoring and diagnosing the emis-
sor is the most common oxygen sensor in its job. To determine your converter’s ef- sions-control systems in your car is only
use today. Heated sensors provide data ficiency, the PCM compares the postcat- part of the PCM’s job. The other part is
sooner to the emissions-feedback system alyst oxygen readings with the precatalyst helping the service technician trou-
and, therefore, help reduce pollution. sensor’s readings. If the catalytic con- bleshoot your car when you bring it in af-
Most cars have a heated-oxygen sensor verter is damaged, the postcatalyst oxy- ter the malfunction-indicator lamp turns
ahead of (precatalyst) and behind (post- gen sensor’s readings track closely with on. Every time the PCM detects a mal-
catalyst) the catalytic converter. By meas- the precatalyst’s oxygen readings. Similar function in the OBD II system, it stores
uring the amount of oxygen in the pre- readings mean that the oxygen content of a DTC and a freeze frame of the engine’s

40 edn | December 20, 2001 www.ednmag.com

designfeature OBD II

operating conditions at the time of the technicians more easily diagnose and re- turns on, they want to at least require
fault. The technician can download the pair your vehicle. GM, for example, stores your car to squeal on you when you’re
trouble code and freeze frame with a spe- a “fail record” any time a diagnostic test driving around with emissions problems.
cial diagnostic tool, often called an OBD fails, including non-emissions-related The OBD III radio transponder would
scan tool or scanner. The OBD II pro- tests. The GM PCM stores the records in automatically report your problems to a
gram standardized the interface to and FIFO order, so the most recent malfunc- regulatory agency. The system might use
the format of the DTCs. The OBD II tions are saved. Depending on the vehi- satellite or cellular technology to send the
standard makes life easier for independ- cle, the PCM can store as many as five fail report as soon as the malfunction-indi-
ent service technicians and after-market records. cator lamp turns on.
scan-tool vendors. To access this diagnostic information, GM Hughes Electronics has built a
The OBD II DTC format comprises a you have to connect a scan tool to the prototype system that the California Air
leading alphabetic character followed by OBD connector on the lower left side of Resources Board has evaluated (Refer-
four digits (Figure 2). The letter tells you the driver’s side instrument panel on ence 5). The system uses a roadside trans-
whether the trouble code refers to the ve- 1996 and later model year US cars. SAE mitter to interrogate passing vehicles.
hicle’s body, chassis, power train, or net- document J1962 describes the 16-pin Regulators claim that such a system
work. The first digit tells you whether the connector’s pinout and physical charac- would improve air quality and save mon-
trouble code is a generic SAE (Society of teristics (Reference 4 and Figure 3). The ey by requiring inspections only for mal-
Automotive Engineers) code or a manu- problem is that car makers may use any functioning vehicles. On the other hand,
facturer-specific code. The second digit of four serial-data protocols to commu- some Fourth Amendment privacy issues
refers to a particular vehicle system, and nicate diagnostic information through may have to be cleared up first.
the last two digits represent the compo- the connector. OBD II standards go a long way to-
nent or subsystem at fault. Each DTC has Diagnostic scan tools come in a vari- ward keeping our air cleaner and helping
a text message associated with it. For ex- ety of configurations. AutoXray makes a us take better care of our cars. That maze
ample, the message for P0099 is “Intake handheld model for independent service of cables, hoses, and black boxes really
Air Temperature Sensor 2 Circuit Inter- technicians and consumers. This device does something more than make it near-
mittent/Erratic.” understands the generic SAE DTCs, and ly impossible to change your own spark
There are five types of DTCs, depend- you can upgrade it to interpret manu- plugs. So, the next time you open the
ing on the severity of the malfunction. facturer-specific DTCs. The scanner also hood of your car, take a few moments to
Type A codes are always emissions-relat- allows you to reset these codes and turn admire all the engineering that allows
ed and are the most serious. A Type A off the malfunction-indicator lamp after your engine to outperform by many
code requires only one occurrence of a you correct the problem. If you’re really times Ford’s Model T while emitting only
malfunction for the PCM to light the ambitious, you can use Drew Technolo- a tiny fraction of the emissions.k
malfunction-indicator lamp and store gies’ CarDAQ 2534 general-purpose bus-
the code and freeze frame. A Type B code interface device (Figure 4). The CarDAQ References
is also emissions-related, but the mal- understands several automotive com- 1. Stachew, Mark, and John West, All
function must occur on two consecutive munications protocols and allows you to Aboard the Clean Engine, Motorola
trips for the PCM to light the malfunc- write your own Windows application us- Transportation Systems Group.
tion lamp and store the code and freeze ing its Win32 API. 2. General Motors On-Board Diagnos-
frame. If the same malfunction does not You might assume that, with OBD II tics-Generation Two, General Motors
occur on the second trip, the PCM clears technology, an OBD III is in the works. Corp, 1997.
the “armed” diagnostic code. As much as OBD II does to help reduce 3. 2002 MY OBD System Operation
The freeze-frame data stores the vehi- emissions, it can’t repair the malfunc- Summary for Gasoline Engines, Ford,
cle’s operating conditions when the PCM tions that cause polluting emissions. Reg- 2001.
detects the malfunction. The operating ulators want the next best thing by re- 4. On-Board Diagnostics for Light and
data includes mass airflow, engine load quiring automakers to connect a Medium Duty Vehicles Standards Manu-
and revolutions per minute, and engine- transmitter to the OBD system. If the reg- al, SAE International Inc, 1999.
coolant temperature and indicates ulators can’t force you to repair your car 5. Carley, Larry, Understanding OBD II:
whether the fuel system is in open- or when the malfunction-indictor lamp Past, Present & Future, www.Carley
closed-loop mode. OBD II requires that Software.com, 2000.
the PCM save only one freeze frame of
data for a malfunction. The PCM saves Author’s bio graphy
the freeze frame of the first trouble code Technical Editor Greg
detected. If a second malfunction occurs, Vrana changes the oil
the PCM ignores it unless the second himself on his 1996
trouble code has priority over the Ford Explorer Sport.
stored code. Misfire and fuel- Figure 4 You can reach him at
trim codes have the highest priority. 1-512-338-0129, fax
Car manufacturers store more infor- Drew Technologies’ CarDAQ 2534 is a general- 1-512-338-1239, or e-mailgvrana@earth
mation about malfunctions than OBD II purpose bus-interface device for automotive- link.net.
requires. The extra information helps communications systems.
42 edn | December 20, 2001 www.ednmag.com