My grandfather recently passed away and left me his 1998 Dakota Sport 5.2. It had been sitting for about 3 years but was taken care of it’s whole life. My grandfather was a mechanic at a Dodge dealer and this truck was his baby so it was taken care of well other than sitting for a few years. Long story short, the check engine light is on and I can’t seem to pull a code with a OBD2 scanner. The truck seems to be running absolutely fine but the check engine light is on so there must be something wrong. I also tried to get a code using that method where you hold in The odometer trip reset button and turn the ignition three times and start it on the fourth time and my truck will go through the sequence but will not show any codes on the odometer. I recently got the car inspected and it passed but literally driving home from the shop that inspected it is when the check engine light came on. Any guidance on what I should do from here would be greatly appreciated.

 

Holding the trip reset button and cycling the key initiates a 'cluster test', it will only show cluster codes. You only have to hold the button, and turn the ignition on for that though. The 'cycle the ignition three times' to get it to display codes is REALLY hit and miss. I keep hearing different stories on whether it actually works on the 98 and up trucks or not.... Give it a shot, without touching the trip reset button, and see if it shows any codes in the odometer. Worth a try anyway.

Might also try going to one of the chain auto parts stores, they will usually read codes for free. See if their scanner has any more success.

 

Pull the neg battery cable, then turn the key to crank position for a few seconds, or let it sit disconnected overnight. See if that reset changes things.

 

Hey guys, thank you so much for your replies. I am going to bring it to an Advanced Auto Parts to see if they can get a reading from their scanner. When I first got the truck, since it sat for years I had to get it inspected. I would imagine that the shop that did the inspection had to hook my truck up to either a machine or computer via the OBD2 port in order for it to pass inspection, which it did. Another thing I have noticed that happens and think it may be related to all this is that when I put my truck into 4x4 the light in the instrument cluster does not illuminate. I can tell that the truck is definitely in 4x4 but there’s just no light confirming it. When I turn on the truck I see it come on briefly and then shut off so I know that the light is not out or anything. This also happens when I hit the button on the column shifter to disable overdrive, I get no light on the instrument cluster and the same situation for my seat belt light. It comes on briefly when I start the truck but while driving if I take off my seat belt the light does not illuminate. I apologize if these issues are not related whatsoever and I appreciate any help. I will be trying out what was suggested and will report back later today.