Well I had written off the Op-com in being able to help diagnose the traction control/stability control fault. The car had been behaving itself and hadn't thrown the fault for a little while.....until today!! On my way home, doing 50mph on an A road and "bing bong", momentary stutter, and then he carried on driving OK, but with the warning showing!!! This time, I didn't press clear - I left it - determined to get home and try and plug something into the car before I turned the engine off to see if I could capture anything at all in the way of DTCs.
So I parked up with engine running, ran into the house to grab my ancient laptop and Op-com, and back out to plug it all into the car!!!! With the traction control system fault message still on the SiD, and the TCS warning light on the cluster, I plugged the Op-com in. I didn't hold out much hope because last time, it seemed incapable of talking to some systems on the car, including the ABS/TCS etc.
So I scanned through the BCM etc checking to see if the other faults it previously found were still there (LHS rear door switch, and a front fog light open circuit, and sure enough, they were). Then I thought I would just try the Chassis items again, and the first thing on the menu is the ABS/TCS - and to my surprise, it connected, and threw up this DTC:
U2105-00 CAN-Bus No Communication with ECM (Engine Control Module)
In various other modules I got these codes too, which may, or may not be connected:
B3057-48 <Unknown DTC>
B1023-09 <Unknown DTC>
B1023-57 <Unknown DTC>
U2155-71 <Unknown DTC>
I then turned the ignition off and on again to do another scan to see if the codes had disappeared, and the TCS fault came up on the SiD, and the car didn't start, but there was a loud buzzing from either the back of the steering wheel, or within the instrument cluster itself (if I can upload the video I took, I'll try and put it on here asap). I got this a couple of times, until I switched it all off locked the car, then unlocked and tried again, and the car started normally.
So am I any further forward? Is it all a disaster, or could it be something simple?
I have emailed all this info back to Fraser at Bagnals, who could not get the car to misbehave when he had it, so will see if any of that means anything to them. But I was impressed that the Op-com did actually find something......so it wasn't useless after all, and I didn't even have to go out and buy a new one!!!!! I had it in my toolbox gathering dust for the last few years!!!! And the ancient laptop I was going to get rid of, now has a new purpose again!!!!