hello everybody. Just writing to see if I can get help trying to diagnose"check engine light"problem on my 95 mazda protege. The other vehicles i have use OBDII so this is my first time diagnosing the probleim using OBDI. I had read it's easier with the paper clip trick but it's not working for me.

The chilton manual for this car says to jumper the TEN and GND connector so I'm using the paper clip trick but it's not working for me right now. Here's a link with adrawing as to what I'm doing. http://autorepair.about.com/library/....htm?once=true& After attaching the paper clip to those two locations per the chilton manual I'm supposed to read the number of long flashes followed by short blinks and that tells me the code. Pretty easy I thought..... Even after connecting the paper clip the CEL does not flash at all. It just stays lit. With that said, What am I doing wrong? I did notice that on the dianosis port there is another GND connect in the 4th row. I'm hesistant to try it here as I was told that you can fry your computer if you don't connect in the right place. Don't want to add fuel to the fire...

While I'm writing, let me post what the car is doing and hopefully somebody knows what the repair is. A week after the CEL came on the overdrive off light started blinking. Found on the internet that if you turn off your vehicle and then turn it on again that problem would go away but evenutally come back. Well that worked grea for a week but not any more. Due to o/d off blinking the transmission is not shifting properly.engine revs high but the transmission is not on the same page as the engine. A friend of mine says it's the throttle position sensor but I don't want to be guesssing on parts.

I was hoping to get the CEL code to make sure it is that but I think I'm doing something wrong. Any help on how to correctly do the "paperclip trick" or if you had this same problem with the overdrive off light blinkingwould be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
oa

 

Well, this may be totally off the wall, but haveyou tried resetting the ECU by disconnecting the batt for 10+ minutesthen reconnecting it?
I don't honestly know of this would solve the problem permenantly, for a short time or not at all, but it's a safe test to do and doesn't cost anything to try.
As I have read just recently, there were no standards w/OBDI systems... that every manufacturer was free to do their own software for their line of vehicles, or just one model/year before changing it to something different.
That said, I have never found Chilton shop/repair manuals to be very helpful or very accurate.