She died on the road. (Anyone familiar with Capital Toyota in Landover, MD?)

Jim,

Glad you're home safely and that you have a provisional answer to the
problem... that beginning "bump" was significant after all.

So, Galaxee/DH's experience-based, most likely scenario is it was a
loose electrical connection between the OEM data bus and your CAN-
View (CV). Not at the OBD port but at the connection to the CV box. Is
that a standard LAN connector? It was just loose, not broken/cracked,
right?

I'm not that good at computer related stuff so please pardon the non-
technical nature of what follows; incorrect terminology etc.

As I understand it CV gets info two different ways:
* by passively picking stuff out of the existing data streams between
computers and components
* by sending out specifically adressed data requests to specific
computers, etc.

I take it that the loose connection would have corrupted one/some of
the specific data requests and for a brief instant the data stream made
no sense and the master computer shut things down, and threw a
zillion codes. When the codes were cleared, and the CV connector had
wiggled and jiggled its way back to a stable connection on its own ,
everything was OK.

OK, now the BIG QUESTION:

If this can happen with a CAN-View, do you think it can it also happen
with a ScanGauge (SG)? (Cue Jaws theme music.)

It's a much simpler device, but IIRC, it too gets info via both passive
and active means and the electrical connection at the device is a LAN
connector.

There are a whole lot more SGs in use in our population than CVs.
Your situation and it's fix could have broad application.

I just checked my SG connections and both are tight.
Thank you very much.

 

Very interesting. If CAN-View can induce a failure of that magnitude, then it seems like a good idea to remove it from the vehicle, especially if the car will be driven by other family members.

 

glad to hear the trip home was uneventful, Jim! it was a pleasure to see you again.

once DH have some time to sit down together, i'll have him explain what about the loose plug could trigger that response from the car.

 

So how much was the bill from the dealer, since they only cleared the codes? $120?

 

anything in the communication system that has a spotty connection can cause an issue. communications failure codes are generally caused by disruptions to the network, less so a full loss of communication. so a loose connection (our case) or a spotty connection somewhere in the CV box (Jim's probable case) could cause a voltage disruption, and the system will probably interpret that as a communications problem. codes set, car responds to the perceived failure. whether that's a transient, infinitesimally small blip that sends something just outside of expected operating parameters or something else, the car will respond with that same failure mode.

both incidents were related to a physical disruptor of the connections. in our case, DH disturbed the CV wiring, which immediately precipitated the limp-home mode event in our car. we're looking at a dataset with n=2 here, with known physical exceptions to normal operation. that's a lotta caveats. we really do not think this is cause for grave concern or drastic action of any type, and we certainly have not removed our CV. (we've driven 15k+ miles since with no issue.)

in any case, Jim did the right thing and took precautions when he realized something was up. also, it's a good idea generally to try the 3-restart trick should a problem crop up.