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Hey all, going to get my 16’ Z inspected next month. Last time, my garage had difficulty getting the obd2 plug to communicate properly with their computer. Somehow some water has corroded some of the pins and it needs to filed to get a better contact. Not a big deal imho, Amazon has some small needle files and CRC QD contact cleaner. If I carefully clean and file one at a time do I need to disconnect neg terminal? If so, what will be lost when reconnecting battery? TY
I would not file it, you don't want to remove metal. That's too aggressive. Try Deoxit D5 electrical contact cleaner with a tooth brush. First spray it then scrub gently with a soft tooth brush. I would do this a few times. I'd bet it'll be fine. I use this cleaner all the time and swear by it. It's made for plastic connectors. It will protect the metal pins from future corrosion after it dries. Another thing I found this cleaner good for is removing sticker residue from your window glass. My car has tint and this stuff removed the sticky residue and didn't harm the tint. Works better than Goo gone and won't make the car interior smell like oranges. It has almost no odor.
I would not file it, you don't want to remove metal. That's too aggressive. Try Deoxit D5 electrical contact cleaner with a tooth brush. First spray it then scrub gently with a soft tooth brush. I would do this a few times. I'd bet it'll be fine. I use this cleaner all the time and swear by it. It's made for plastic connectors. It will protect the metal pins from future corrosion after it dries. Another thing I found this cleaner good for is removing sticker residue from your window glass. My car has tint and this stuff removed the sticky residue and didn't harm the tint. Works better than Goo gone and won't make the car interior smell like oranges. It has almost no odor.
I assume you are suggesting this with the battery disconnected? Was hoping to avoid disconnecting if I don’t have to. I’m not sure what the ramifications are if I don’t.
I wouldn't do either of them with the battery connected. My point is that cleaning electrical connections is not generally done with a file. Use contact cleaner. Possibly some q-tips making sure to not leave any cotton pieces in there. A small plastic brush if it's really bad.
Edit: I forgot I had these. This is what I'd use. I bought them to clean out battery connectors on my RC cars. They're tiny cotton swabs but the tips don't come apart like q-tips. Spray with contact cleaner then scrub the connections with these. I prefer DeoxIT D5 but the CRC QD is fine too.
Gotcha, I am picking up some Deoxit tomorrow. Will disconnect neg terminal and spray some and work it with a tooth brush. Thanks for the assistance 👍
Remember, when you disconnect the battery ground, you will reset the readiness monitors that need to be set before the car can pass an emissions test. One thing you can try If you have an OBD2 scanner, is to spray some of the contact cleaner on the contacts of it and the OBD port and then without disconnecting the battery plug and unplug the scanner several times to clean the port contacts.
Remember, when you disconnect the battery ground, you will reset the readiness monitors that need to be set before the car can pass an emissions test. One thing you can try If you have an OBD2 scanner, is to spray some of the contact cleaner on the contacts of it and the OBD port and then without disconnecting the battery plug and unplug the scanner several times to clean the port contacts.
Bill
that sounds like a good idea. Should I avoid spraying the hot pin 16? That location has the most corrosion. Yes I do have an OBD2 scanner.
that sounds like a good idea. Should I avoid spraying the hot pin 16? That location has the most corrosion. Yes I do have an OBD2 scanner.
I don't think so because electrical contact cleaners are made to be non-conductive; however, the practice is not to use them on energized circuits, just in case. Pulling the fuse is a good idea. You will still have power on all of the circuits attached to the DLC data pin in the DLC connector.
Data signals that vary from ground to +5V are present on Pin 1 of the DLC connector. As long as you keep the fluids from connecting that pin with the ground pins or the DLC voltage supply pin, you will definitely not have any problems. The vast majority of the time, there is no real danger in having a +5V logic signal line shorted to ground. Diagnostic engineers who design test procedures and test hardware for electronic systems short 5-volt component outputs all the time when doing fault insertions in the systems to see if the built-in test programs and external test systems they design will find the faults. I saw this done thousands of times with no ill effect over a 40-year career.
I don't think so because electrical contact cleaners are made to be non-conductive; however, the practice is not to use them on energized circuits, just in case. Pulling the fuse is a good idea. You will still have power on all of the circuits attached to the DLC data pin in the DLC connector.
Data signals that vary from ground to +5V are present on Pin 1 of the DLC connector. As long as you keep the fluids from connecting that pin with the ground pins or the DLC voltage supply pin, you will definitely not have any problems. The vast majority of the time, there is no real danger in having a +5V logic signal line shorted to ground. Diagnostic engineers who design test procedures and test hardware for electronic systems short 5-volt component outputs all the time when doing fault insertions in the systems to see if the built-in test programs and external test systems they design will find the faults. I saw this done thousands of times with no ill effect over a 40-year career.
No need to worry about disconnecting the battery to do this either...ignition is off anyway...if the car has been shut down for a while your modules (high and low speed CAN buses, the LIN and MOST busses will be "sleeping" even if the ignition were on...for demonstration purposes I've shorted out those busses to power and ground with a 12 volt test light...they are "fault tolerant"...if the scan tool can't communicate with the car it may be a "communication" issue and not a problem with the DLC or scan tool.
No need to worry about disconnecting the battery to do this either...ignition is off anyway...if the car has been shut down for a while your modules (high and low speed CAN buses, the LIN and MOST busses will be "sleeping" even if the ignition were on...for demonstration purposes I've shorted out those busses to power and ground with a 12 volt test light...they are "fault tolerant"...if the scan tool can't communicate with the car it may be a "communication" issue and not a problem with the DLC or scan tool.
It worked out fine, thanks for the tips 👍
You as well, Bill.
Corroded OBD2 interface
