Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

so we do have obd2 on these cars under the dash or where is it? sorry stupid question

So the 94-95 Cougs/Birds had a retarded version of OBDII.

The only reason it is there is because it HAS to be there....but the OBDII isn't fully functional.  It still is a Ford specific diagnostic programing strategy.  It gives limited information and does its job to the least extent possible.  94-95 Cougars/T-birds are still dyno tested here and not OBDII tested.  I'm pretty sure that the testing machine for OBDII vehicles would reject one because it isn't a 96-newer.  In the emissions class, the teacher instructed us to dyno test anything pre-96, regaurdless of the vehicle having OBDII or not, and Philly is the most strict district in PA, so the state doesn't trust 94-95 OBDII systems to work properly or even read properly on the machine.  Like I said...it's there because the EPA says it has to be there.  But it is NOT OBDII in the manner a 96-newer car is.

Thunder Chicken-  I know about P1 codes...I'm sorry I didn't specify what I meant with VW.  They have P0 (required), P1, and XXXXX codes.  So you could get a 14506, a 15473, or a 16885, which means didly to anyone without super expensive scanner software.  Unlike P0 codes, VW codes do not have an easy to translate classification system; ex. a P04XX - Evap Leak, P03XX - Misfire.  VW codes come up on a regular scanner as P0 codes, some P1 codes come up as well.  But these codes are very generic, instead of a P0302, a P0300 comes up, which is Misfire Detected....thank you very much...if you were to look up the VW code...it would be like 17205 - Cyl. 2 Misfire Detected.  The code books for VW's are like the size of War and Peace :p.

JeremyT-  OBDII was fully compliant in 96, it had to be...end of story.  But it was refined  in 98 and again in 2001.  Hence the reason a car can pass with 2 readiness monitors not set from 1996 until 2000, but can only have 1 monitor not ready from 2001 on.  And the DLC on 94 4.6's might give codes..but they still use the EEC-IV programing.  Meaning 90% of the time there is an EEC-IV style connector under the dash somewhere.  This is because again, the 4.6 was new in 94 and was required to be "OBDII".  Which meant, in 94 and 95, that the vehicle had an OBDII connector.  But Ford, as did probably everyone else, waited until 96 to fully sync the ECU up with OBDII standards and EPA regulation.

If you didn't know, the EPA sets emissions standards every year for new cars.  They keep tightening up on the standards, the manufactures have to keep up with their controls.  Look at a 96 4.6l and a 2004 4.6l.  Completely different.  Coilpacks to COP, return loop fuel system to returnless.  Ford didn't want to, they had to.  But when the technology allowed, the EPA refined the OBDII system, misfire detection is better, some monitors disappeared because they were obsolete, thermostat monitoring, and the new CAN system.

BTW...the clean air act gets revisited in 3 years....look for OBDIII after that...and look for Gore to lead his charge on the EPA........unless we have a record cold 3 years.....HA.

Similar standards were incorporated into the federal Clean Air Act in 1990 which also required all 49-state vehicles to be OBDII equipped by 1996 -- with one loophole. The OBDII systems would not have to be fully compliant until 1999. So some 1996 OBDII systems may lack one of the features normally required to meet the OBDII specs, such as the evaporative emissions purge test.

I'm sorry I meant under the hood.  Most of the time, from what I'm told, they put the EEC-IV connector on these vehicles so dealerships could use current diagnostic tools to read the information from the computer.  Mostly because of the limited output of the OBDII connector.  It did read OBDII codes and monitors, but did little in the way of diagnostics.

Are you sure about that? Even the manufactures of the EEC-IV compatible scan tools (even cheap ones) specifically state that they will not work on the '94/'95 T-Bird/Cougar 4.6L equipped.