I noticed that my egr plug fell off but no check engin lights on the dash. I was still wondering if there was a code in there so pulled out my OTC Stinger 3769 code reader. Pluged it up like I have many times on the old Ranger. Hit the link button and it 'read's for about 10 seconds then just displays 'err'. Tried this a few times, power off/on, remove batteries, unplug/replug, etc. Nothing, always just the error display.

After about 15min I break down and pull out the book. Under the vehicles covered section it says "All 1996 and newer vehicles (cars and light trucks)...". I try it on the old Ranger and it works, my 250 is not exactly a 'light truck'. The book also says to look for the VECI label and make sure it is "OBD II Certified" but I can not locate that label.

Should the simple OBD II readers work on an '05 F250 or do I need to get a new reader?

 

It's not really OBD II it's based on the CAN system. I don't think your code reader will work. I'm not even sure my 04 reader will work on an 05. PSD/Matt knows--hope he'll chime in here.

 

Thats just lovely. So if that is the case do I look for another < $100 reader or just break down and buy a programmer that will read codes? ATM I don't want to mess with a chip or anything. The truck has under 2100 miles and I don't tow / race enough so I'd only want the mpg mode... Hope I am just missing something simple on this

 

Call Motorhaven and spring for the Pred or the SCMT 1704 and get diagnostics and a better shifting machine. Oops, almost forgot the HP/TQ gains if you so desire. They will both read the CAN based system and "throw a code" for the um...fallen out EGR sensor.