I have a 99 Expy w/5.4L. I have a check engine light. Does anyone have a quick recommendation how to pull out the trouble codes and perhaps a reference to what the codes mean?

I'm a little tight on money right now to buy an OBD-II scanner and service manuals to decifer the codes.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I have heard Autozone will pull the codes for you for free and I know that you can do a search online and find results for Ford Diagnostic Trouble Codes. Or post the code here and someone may be able to provide some assistance. Good Luck.

 

It may be different in different geographical areas, but I just went to Autozone tonight and they would only "loan" me a scanner. "Loan", as in: I put down $170 deposit and then get a refund when I return the scanner. They said they could not do it for me because of - some B.S. reason. Better than having to buy one or paying $75 or so to have someone else do it I guess. This is in southern California.

Pat.

 

The "BS" reason is that the dumba$$es that generally work the counter at a typical Autozone aren't qualified to read codes or diagnose engine control systems -- I for one think it's not such a bad thing that the B.A.R. actually busted them for it.

Some guy comes in and the counter guy "reads" the codes and tells him he needs an EGR valve because the codes "says" "Insufficient EGR Flow"...get it? How about a fuel regualtor or some injectors because the code "...says the system is lean..." ?

If you want to pull your own codes and learn about your car...good for you. You shouldn't be getting BS'd into buying unnecessary parts by some knucklehead from Autozone who was scooping fries until last week.

If you get some codes, just post them up here and I'll try to help...there are also brief descriptions (but not much info) at troublecodes.net.

 

Thanks to each of ya'll. I was hoping I could figure a way to pull codes manually - ie on my Lexus I short two leads on the diag port with a big paper clip while KOEO and the check engine light will blink in a pattern that iddicates code. I have the svc manuals and then look them up.

I will keep looking, thanks to you each!