Code Reader Different for Euro Cars?

[twright]

I have a ICarsoft code reader that I have used for a variety of BMW models. Unfortunately, it reads nothing from my new toy: 1993 318 Touring.

Is there something different about the Euro cars that make this thing not work? Or has my code reader taken a dump?

[twright]

Has anyone plugged their code reader into a Touring?

Does it work?

[roguetoaster]

If I recall, I had to update the Foxwell unit I use to make it recognize the car, but a Mac scanner had no issues.

[ForcedFirebird]

1993 was not OBD yet. In fact up through about 1998, most Euro cars were still not OBD yet. I had a clown shoe factory race car in the shop a few years ago. Never hit the road, came from BMW as a stitch welded bare bones driver intend for competition use only. Anyways, 1998 z3 coupe 2.8l with an m52 in it, BUT, the crank sensor was on the front of the block. Had to special order a sensor from Germany since they went to hall effect in 1996.

[roguetoaster]

Nothing through the diag port on ROW cars? Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

[ForcedFirebird]

The US mandated that all cars imported be OBD by 1996, obviously some MFGR's were lazy at converting all cars coming off the line. GM had OBD1.5 for just 94 and 95 that used different protocols from "OBDI" and OBDII. I would think that all cars would be converted to make things easier, but that z3 proved to me otherwise. I can't remember if it did have a standard port, might have gone through the round BMW port (this had to be at least a decade ago). Either way it was a strange duck - the VIN number wouldn't even come up in the system at the local dealership - the guy on the phone kept telling me "that VIN doesn't exist", and I told him it was clearly engraved on the cowl. Ended up using Euro cars in realoem to see the differences and figure out what parts I needed, and turned out it used MS4.0. In fact, that's where the desirable m20b28 cranks come from since they have smaller throws like the m50 and lack the reluctor mounting bosses.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=CK31-EUR-01-1998-Z3-BMW-Z3_28&diagId=11_6173

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=CK31-EUR-01-1998-Z3-BMW-Z3_28&diagId=12_0843

Back to this thread, though, the 1993 "should" use the same protocols as the US stuff. IE: Stomp test, Peake Reader etc, not all Scanners do the older stuff (or require modules and/or add-ons).

[twright]

I have two Peake tools. They seem to work.

The Icarsoft won't communicate with this car. It works for other models. Its supposed to work with E30's.

[ForcedFirebird]

I have two Peake tools. They seem to work.

The Icarsoft won't communicate with this car. It works for other models. Its supposed to work with E30's.

As I mentioned before, most modernish scanners need a plug in or module for e30's. I have to wonder if there's some confusion in scanner literature since the 1992 cabrio would have been e30 and hard tops would be e36's. Many scanners can read Motronic 3.x and later, but not Motronic 1.x. BMW skipped Motronic 2.0, and haven't worked with any of those to know much about them.

[roguetoaster]

I'd bet that OP is using an OBD2 to diag port adapter and not getting any response. So, I suggest trying to update your scanner, and failing that you'd need to replace it with a different unit.

However, if this is just to get a read out on fault codes, and not for specific value readouts, I recall some people discussing how to do add a CEL to an M40, so search for that if desired.

[ForcedFirebird]

93 wouldn't have a standard OBD port, just the round diag. Yeah, maybe using the OBD/round adapter?

Just looked it up and the m40 used Moltronic 1.3, same as late m20's, so diag should be similar - but - since it's configured for 4cyl, not sure how that changes things for typical scanner (and/or add-ons, modules etc).