As part of the OBDII standard, the US Environmental Protection Agency mandated that a basic set of emissions related readings be supported on all OBDII vehicles. The SAE specification J1979 defines these legislated parameters. Many low-end tools only support these emissions related readings, giving you access to only a dozen or so truly useful parameters. While these give you some basic vehicle information, they are just a small set of the vehicle information available through the OBDII port.

So, all that said, I am looking for a scan tool to interface to a 1997 Subaru 2.5L.

MY QUESTIONS:

Does the OBD II port on this vehicle support just the legislated parameters or does it also include the enhanced diagnostics. Or even additional parameters?

Can I do LIVE data logging through the 97 OBDII port?

Does anyone have experience with one of the PC based tools or recomend one?
Thanks

This thread is basically a review of the Autotap II scanner setup, but the poster also includes screen shots of parameters available to him in his 2000 RS. Yours in your 1997 may vary, but it'll probably be a good place to start.

http://www.rs25.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12375

At post #32 in that thread, someone lists several scan tools available, some stand-alone, some PC-plugable.

Thank you great thread, a lot of information to check out.
Exactly what I was looking for.

This thread officially surpasses my knowledge base. Now I have to go study.