BETWEEN

SCAN TOOL &

SUCCESSFUL
DIAGNOSIS—
FILLING IN
THE GAPS
BY BERNIE THOMPSON
A scan tool is an invaluable aid to vehicle diagnostics, but you
may need to rely on other methods as well when vital information
is either missing or incomplete. A solid understanding of
vehicle electronics is indispensible in these situations.
38 April 2011
 T
he phrase “no-code drive-
ability” can send shivering
fear clear through a tech-
nician, and intermittent
no-code driveability is
even worse. A technician
can hope the symptoms of the problem
are indicative of a pattern failure, but
what if they’re not? Even with known
symptoms and codes, it may be another
problem that appears to be the same but
is not. The question is: How does one
troubleshoot either coded or no-code
driveability problems?
The diagnostic process is actually
very similar for both types of problems.
The first step is to connect a scan tool to
check for both existing codes and pend-
ing codes. Once this is done, Parameter
Identification Data (PIDs) must be col-
lected during a test drive, if the vehicle
is driveable, and then analyzed. An in-
depth understanding of the circuits and
systems involved is needed to under-
stand what the data is conveying. It will
be necessary to check a wiring schemat-
ic in order to know which sensors and
actuators are part of the system.
Not all data is always shown on a scan
tool; many times sensors and actuators
that are part of the system being diag-
nosed are not listed as PIDs. This
means that the possible cause of a prob-
lem may not be seen on the scan tool at
all. Also, if the microprocessor is con-
fused in any way, the data it gives to the
scan tool will be incorrect.
Yet another concern is the inability of
the scan tool to provide the technician
with live data, so there’s always a delay
in all data communications from the
scan tool. Therefore, if the problem oc-
Photoillustration: Harold A. Perry; images: Thinkstock
curs quickly it may be missed, and the
scan tool will not be able to provide this
information to the technician at all.
One of the keys to successful trou-
bleshooting of vehicles is having an un-
derstanding of a scan tool’s limitations.
Unfortunately, many technicians believe
that a scan tool always conveys the cor-
rect data. This could not be further from
the truth, and is one of the reasons multi-
ple parts may be replaced on a vehicle in
an attempt to repair a problem. What’s
needed is a sound understanding of the
tools, circuits and systems involved in
successfully diagnosing a problem.
Once a scan tool has acquired the data
from a vehicle and the technician has an-
alyzed it, the circuit or circuits in ques-
tion must be checked. This can be ac-
complished with a digital volt-ohmmeter
(DVOM), logic probe or oscilloscope.
Due to the speed with which modern
electronic systems operate, a DVOM or
logic probe are very poor choices for this
task. These tools are severely limited by
their actuation speed and their inability
to show the technician the actual
changes that are occurring in the circuit.
For troubleshooting electronic systems
in modern vehicles, the tool of choice is a
very clear one—the oscilloscope.
It’s important to understand what the
oscilloscope is displaying. Voltage
changes over time represent what’s oc-
curring in the circuit or system under
diagnosis and to which you’re connect-
ed. To properly understand what the os-
cilloscope is displaying, you’ll need to
check and understand the wiring
schematic for the system.
In many wiring schematics, electron-
ic devices may be shown as empty boxes
and may even show some of the wiring
without proper labels. This is where an
understanding of basic electronics is vi-
tal to understanding what the circuit is
designed to do.
We’ll start with a basic voltage divider
circuit known as the engine coolant tem-
perature (ECT) sensor circuit (Fig. 1 on
page 40). This device can be used for
any basic temperature-sensing circuit. In
diagram A, it cannot be determined how
this device would function due to the in-
completeness of the circuit as drawn. It
will be necessary to complete the circuit
(diagram B) so the function of this de-
vice can be understood.
The ECT sensor is a variable resistor
that changes with temperature. It can
be constructed in several configura-
tions. In some early fuel injection sys-
tems in use during the ’60s and ’70s, a
high-temperature nickel or nichrome
wire sealed in epoxy was used. As this
nickel wire sensing element takes on
heat from the engine coolant, the resis-
tance of the nickel wire increases. This
type of sensing element is referred to as
a positive temperature coefficient ther-
mistor, or PTC thermistor. As the resis-
tance in the nickel wire increases, the
voltage also increases. So a cold engine
will have a low voltage reading and a hot
April 2011 39
 BETWEEN SCAN TOOL & SUCCESSFUL DIAGNOSIS
engine will have a high voltage reading.
In later fuel injection systems, the

Photo, illustrations & waveforms: Bernie Thompson

newer thermistors are made of a semi-
conductor material. This usually ceram-
ic- or polymer-based material is doped
with a sintered mixture of metal oxides,
so when the material takes on heat from
the liquid coolant, the resistance of the
thermistor decreases. This type of sens-
ing element is referred to as a negative
temperature coefficient thermistor, or
NTC thermistor. For example, the ther-
mistor’s resistance at -40°F will read ap-
proximately 100,700 ohms, and as the
thermistor is heated to approximately
70°F it will have a resistance of approxi-
mately 3400 ohms. As the thermistor
continues to take on heat to approxi- Troubleshooting electronic circuits in modern vehicles can be accomplished
mately 210°F, the resistance will be ap- with (l. to r.) a logic probe, DVOM or oscilloscope. Because a logic probe and
proximately 185 ohms. Note: This resis- DVOM have speed limitations, the oscilloscope is the best choice.
tance varies among manufacturers.
In the ECT sensor circuit, the ther- across the thermistor but the voltage When the thermistor is cold, it has a
mistor is put into a series circuit that’s drop from the ECM’s ground as well. In resistance of about 100,000 ohms, and
supplied voltage from a voltage regulator later model injection systems, a redun- the fixed resistor within the ECM has a
located inside the engine control mod- dant ground is wired back to the ECM. resistance of 1300 to 3500 ohms, depend-
ule. This supplied voltage can be 5, 8 or If the ECM’s grounds experience a volt- ing on the manufacturer. In this condi-
9 volts, but is most commonly 5 volts. age drop, the voltage drop of the ther- tion, the thermistor, having a large resis-
The regulator supplies voltage to one mistor that’s read by the A/D converter tance, will consume most of the voltage.
end of a fixed resistor located within the will not be affected. Thus, this two-wire Therefore, the voltage reading between
ECM. The other end of the fixed resistor configuration is more robust. the resistors will be about 4.8 volts.
is connected to the thermistor. The ther- The ECT sensor circuit configuration When the thermistor is hot, its resis-
mistor can be grounded through the is referred to as a voltage divider. As the tance decreases to about 200 ohms, and
ECT housing (one-wire sensor) or wired thermistor takes on more heat from the the fixed resistor within the ECM has a
with a redundant ground back to the liquid coolant, its resistance decreases, resistance of about 2200 ohms. In this
ECM (two-wire sensor). causing the voltage between the fixed condition, the fixed resistor within the
In earlier applications a single-wire resistor and the thermistor to change. In ECM being a large resistance will con-
ECT is common. However, if the a voltage divider circuit, two resistors are sume most of the voltage. Therefore,
ECM’s ground becomes affected by re- wired in series. The larger resistor will the voltage reading between the resis-
sistance, an analog-to-digital converter consume more voltage and the smaller tors will be about .42 volt.
will read not only the voltage drop resistor will consume less voltage. The output of this circuit (Fig. 2) can

ECM ECT ECM ECT

5V Reg.
1 1

A/D
Converter

2 2
Microprocessor

A B
Fig 1. Vehicle circuit diagrams may provide an incomplete or partial view of what’s going on inside various electronic modules.

40 April 2011
 BETWEEN SCAN TOOL & SUCCESSFUL DIAGNOSIS

45°F Start 200°F

45°F Start

200°F

Pull-Up
Divider
Circuit

Fig 2. The engine coolant temperature (ECT) sensor waveforms above were taken from two different types of ECT volt-
age divider circuits. The waveform on the left shows a basic ECT divider circuit, the other an ECT pull-up divider circuit. In
a pull-up circuit, once the engine has obtained a set coolant temperature at warm-up, the resistance is switched inside
the PCM. This allows for higher resolution in the ECT signal during the time the engine goes from warm to hot.
be predicted when an oscilloscope is in- which is accomplished by an operational the amplified signal from the output to
stalled. Voltage divider circuits are used amplifier. The op amp works with two the inverting input (Fig. 4 on page 44).
throughout the vehicle’s electronic cir- inputs that are connected to the nonin- This will reduce the amplitude of the
cuits, so it becomes very important to verting (⫹) and inverting (⫺) terminals. output signal and thus the gain. The
understand this type of circuit. When the two input potentials are equal smaller the resistor, the lower the gain
Now let’s look at a basic pull-down to one another, there is no output from produced from the op amp. If there’s
circuit that can be used as a camshaft the amplifier. As the positive and nega- no resistor installed in the feedback cir-
(CMP) or crankshaft (CKP) sensor cir- tive inputs start to have a potential dif- cuit, the op amp will work as a follower.
cuit (Fig. 3). In diagram A, it cannot be ference between them, there will be an The op amp gain is independent from
determined how this device would output produced by the amplifier. This the supply voltage and can be from sev-
function because it’s incomplete as output polarity will be based on the in- eral times to many thousands of times
drawn. It will be necessary to complete verting (⫺) input signal; the polarity of a greater than the supply. When the op
the circuit (diagram B) so the function signal applied to the inverting input is amp does not have a feedback circuit, it’s
of this device can be understood. reversed at the output of the op amp. said to be in open-loop mode. When in
The Hall effect element puts out an The greater the difference between the open-loop mode, a very small potential
analog voltage of about 30 microvolts positive and negative inputs, the greater difference between positive and negative
when a magnetic field penetrates it. the gain, or output, from the amplifier. will create an output of maximum gain.
With this very low-voltage output, the This amplification is determined by a Therefore, open-loop mode is not practi-
Hall effect signal must be amplified, feedback resistor that feeds a portion of cal for linear amplification, but is used as

ECM Crankshaft Position Sensor ECM Crankshaft Position Sensor

Schmitt Trigger Op
1 5V 1 Amp
Reg.

2 2 ⫹
⫺
NPN
3 3

Hall Effect Sensor

A Microprocessor B
Fig 3. Diagram A on the left is all you may have to go on when consulting a circuit diagram. Diagram B on the right pro-
vides a clearer explanation of the relationships among the components and their internal components.

42 April 2011
a comparator since it compares one in- lector output; this type of transistor is flow. The transistor leg with the arrow is
put voltage to the other input voltage. turned on when its base is pulled low rel- the emitter and is always connected to
Many electronic circuits on the vehicle ative to the emitter. This transistor is the higher potential in the circuit. For an
are amplified by an op amp and can be used to control a power output, say, 12 easy way to remember which transistor
configured as a noninverting amp, an in- volts. In Fig. 5, notice the arrow in dia- this is, think arrow “pointing in”—PNP.
verting amp, a differential amp, a com- gram A. It shows the direction of current An NPN transistor consists of a layer
parator and follower or a buffer. for the conventional theory of current of P-doped semiconductor between two
In the configuration shown in dia-
gram B in Fig. 3, the operational ampli-
fier is in open-loop mode. Therefore, a
very small potential difference between
positive and negative will allow the volt-
age to swing from full off to full on. It
will be necessary to feed this voltage to
a circuit that will make sure a retrigger
will not occur within the circuit. This is
accomplished by the Schmitt trigger. As
the voltage from the op amp increases,
it reaches a turn-on threshold, or oper-
ating point. At this operating point, the
Schmitt trigger changes states, allowing
a digital voltage signal to be sent out.
This signal is applied to the base of a
transistor.
A bipolar transistor is a three-termi-
nal semiconductor device. Its three ter-
minals are referred to as the base, col-
lector and emitter. A small command
current at the base can control a much
larger current flowing between the col-
lector and emitter. This allows the tran-
sistor to work as an amplifier or switch.
If the base voltage is modulated, the
transistor works as an amplifier. If the
base voltage is fully saturated, the tran-
sistor works as a switch. The type of
transistor used will determine how the
circuit will operate.
There are two basic classifications of
the bipolar transistor, based on the
semiconductor doping within the tran-
sistor itself—positive-negative-positive
(PNP), and negative-positive-negative
(NPN), as illustrated in Fig. 5 on page
44. The P-type semiconductor junction
is made with pure silicone that’s doped
with boron which does not have a
fourth valence electron, creating “bro-
ken bonds,” or holes. The N-type semi-
conductor junction is made with pure
silicone that’s doped with phosphorus,
which adds valence electrons.
A PNP transistor consists of a layer of
N-doped semiconductor material sand-
wiched between two layers of P-doped
semiconductor material. A small current
leaving the base is amplified in the col-
Circle #24

April 2011 43
 BETWEEN SCAN TOOL & SUCCESSFUL DIAGNOSIS

Feedback Circuit PNP NPN

PNP 12V NPN 12V
E BC E BC
⫹V

⫺ E C
V In
B B
Op Amp
V Out C E
⫹
⫺V
A B

Fig 4. Operational amplifier circuit design. Fig 5. Basic transistor circuit designs.

layers of N-doped semiconductor mate-
rial. A small current entering the base is
amplified in the collector output; this
type of transistor is turned on when its
base is pulled high relative to the emit-
ter. This transistor is used to control a
ground or sync power. In diagram B in
Fig. 5, notice the direction of the arrow,
which shows the direction of current for
the conventional theory of current flow.
The transistor leg with the arrow is the
emitter and is always connected to the
lower potential in the circuit. An easy
way to remember which transistor this
is, think arrow “not pointing in”—NPN.
In diagram B in Fig. 3, the transistor
is an NPN type, which will ground the
circuit. A voltage regulator in the ECM
supplies voltage to one side of a fixed
resistor; the other side of the fixed resis-
tor is connected to the NPN transistor
in the CKP sensor. When the NPN
transistor base voltage goes high it’s
turned on, thus pulling the circuit to
ground. When the NPN transistor base
voltage goes low it’s turned off, opening
the circuit so source voltage is present.
This turning on and off produces a
high-low/high-low digital voltage signal
output from the CKP sensor. The ECM
now counts the edges from the sensor,
and compares this count against a clock
to determine CKP angular position and
angular velocity. Now that we have a
proper understanding of the circuit,
when the oscilloscope is attached the
normal output (Fig. 6) can be anticipat-
ed. This type of pull-down circuit is by
far the most common used in vehicle
electronic systems.
However, if a PNP transistor was
used instead of an NPN transistor, the
CKP sensor would send the voltage out
of the sensor (pull-up circuit). The
ECM signal circuit would also change;

Camshaft Signal Good Camshaft Signal Failing

Fig 6. In the waveforms above, a crankshaft position sensor (CKP, shown in red) and a camshaft position sensor (CMP,
green) from a 2001 Dodge 2.7L engine are shown. This is a pull-down circuit that uses an NPN transistor. This means that the
sensor is holding its signal and then releasing it, so we know that source voltage from the ECM is present. The right-hand
waveform shows the green signal failed to return to ground. At this point you know the control unit and the circuit are good
because voltage is present at the sensor signal wire. The problem is in the sensor, sensor ground or trigger wheel. In this
case, the trigger wheel was bent, causing an intermittent problem, where the signal had one pulse missing every 30 minutes.

44 April 2011
it would no longer supply voltage to the
sensor signal circuit, but instead would
receive the digital output voltage from
the CKP sensor and count the edges
from this signal. When diagnosing these
sensors, it’s very important to realize
which sensor type is used—a pull-down
circuit or a pull-up circuit.
If a signal is being produced, a quick
way to determine which circuit is being
used is to unplug the sensor and check
the harness-side signal voltage. If the
signal wire has voltage, it’s a grounding
circuit; if the signal wire does not have
voltage, it’s an output circuit.
If a signal is not being produced and
there’s no signal voltage present, several
possibilities exist: The ECM is not sup-
plying the signal voltage, the signal cir-
cuit is open, the signal circuit is shorted
to ground, the sensor is pulling the sig-
nal to ground, the sensor is an output
type that’s not producing a signal or the
trigger wheel is not turning. If the cir-
cuit type is unknown and there’s no
voltage on the signal wire, unplug the
sensor from the circuit. If voltage is now
present, check the sensor’s power and
ground. If these are good, check the
trigger wheel condition and make sure
it’s turning, then replace the sensor. If
there’s no voltage on the signal wire
when the sensor is unplugged, take a
signal generator with an analog voltage
and connect it to the unplugged signal
wire. If voltage is now present on the
signal wire, the signal wire is not
grounded. If no voltage is present on
the signal wire, unplug the ECM from
the circuit. If voltage is now present, the
ECM is pulling the signal circuit down.
Make sure all the power supplies and
grounds are good at the ECM before re-
placing the module, because a power or
ground problem can cause the ECM to
pull this circuit down. If the voltage
from the sensor simulator is still not pres-
ent with the ECM unplugged, the signal
wire is grounded. If the sensor is un-
plugged and the signal wire has the sen-
sor simulator voltage on it, plug the sen-
sor back in and crank the engine over.
Circle #25
Now watch the oscilloscope to see if
the voltage changed to make a digital
signal. If the signal is now present,
check the sensor signal wire at the
ECM to check for an open wire be-
tween the sensor and ECM. If the sig-
nal did not change, this could be an out-
put-style sensor that has no output;
check the power and ground at the sen-
sor. If they’re good, check the trigger
wheel and replace the sensor. If multi-
ple sensors have been installed but keep
failing, suspect a short circuit between
the sensor signal and a power circuit.
It’s hard to imagine life without a
scan tool. But when that trusted friend
can’t give you the answers you need,
possessing an understanding of vehicle
electronics, typical circuits and compo-
nents, coupled with the ability to use
the appropriate diagnostic equipment,
can prove equally valuable.
This article can be found online at
www.motormagazine.com.
April 2011 45