355 OBD II recall update needed.... Help

go to a dealer. Free.

 

I've gone round and round this issue with my 355. When I first got the car, the garage recommended getting a code scanner, so I would know, when those inevitable "check engine" lights came on, whether it was something serious or not. The first scanner I bought would not connect, giving me a "Linking error" message. I thought perhaps this scanner was not compatible with Ferraris. I ended up buying a more expensive, Actron scanner that had the 355 listed as compatible. Ended up getting the same "Linking error". I read on here about a missing ground between pins 4 and 5. When I had the car in for service I asked them to fix this problem, for which a service bulletin had been issued in the past. They "supposedly" fixed it, but the the next check engine light, same linking error. I took the car to the local Maserati dealer, who was able to clear it with their "factory" scanner. Ended up being the same " O2 sensor" warning as before. Their scanner seems to be able to do something mine can't. There are all these new Bluetooth scanner apps., which I wish I could make use of, but Ferrari seems to want to maintain control over who can scan and who can't. Any clues?

 

Something is wrong with your OBD port. I think we talked about this in the past if I recall.

When I got my car my OBD would not work and I traced it to a bent pin in the 9 pin connector in the ECU bay behind the passenger seat. When the major was done and this plug was dc/connected it was bent. Check that along with the recall protocol.

 

+1, I had same problem when I brought my 355 to CT...dealer took care of it.

 

Only thing there is an ALDL plug. They can't use that. They have to connect at the OBD plug.

 

The OBD plug consists of a +, - and two data lines. You would have to create the female of the OBD plug behind the seats to replicate that using the proper pin outs , etc.

Someone needs to trace the two data wires from the OBD port to the harness behind the seats using a tone generator and determine where the issue lies. As I said above in my circumstance one of the terminations of those two wires is in the nine pin plug back there and on reassembly of that plug after a major the male part of the coupling was bent over.

Have you opened that nine pin plug and inspected the pins?

This:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142224816-post62.html

Here is the pin out out for the OBD plug:

Check if you have 12V at pin 16 and splice the ground wire as the recall requires.
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In NJ it is required to have a working OBD for emission testing to pass inspection. Other states may have different requirements.

 

Don't you have foreign cars Italian in Greensboro?

 

They have a location in Charlotte.

I thinks it's worth it to have done at dealer. Future buyers will get warm and fuzzy knowing its documented.

 

I believe the repair to your plug was not done correctly. Mine was done many years ago at the dealer, and it works perfectly with a cheap scanner off Ebay. When I got the occasional CE light, it accurately diagnosed the issue, bad catalyst, bad O2 sensor, or bad catalyst ECU... saved me a ton being able to correct the issue myself.

 

I agree.

By Federal law the data desired by Randy has to be available with one of those scanners. It was not universally so and was the entire reason for the recall.

 

Strange issue

I have a few scanners few dont work on the 355 either

 

The scanners that work on this car would be the one whose pins 4 and 5 are internally connected in the scanners or its connectors.

 

Is there a way to correct this?

 

Get the recall taken care of for the OBDII at a dealership. Is your '98 355 a manual or F1?

 

Dealership will never touch my car. Its on a 97 spider manual
I will go in and mess with the grounds and see what happens
I have several scanners that work fine it's just the latest greatest dont

 

Give it a go. Here in Nevada my 1998 355 F1 GTS that I bought new is hard to get a smog pass outside the dealership. The OBDII signal is weak and you have to know how to smog the car. This has been a problem since Nevada went to new smog machines in 2000. I bought my car new and had the OBDII recall taken care of, and it still won't complete the test at most smog places.