Mailbag: Recover Lost OBD Codes?

[Cadillac Jim]

I have a issue: I went to read the codes on. My 2001 Cadillac DTS and I hit the reset codes button without writing them down. What do I do to find the codes again? Please tell me a way to get the codes back or the length of time before the computer brings the codes back up?

Thanks

There is no way to recover OBD codes once you have cleared them, other than to wait for the car's modules to detect the same error again. That's not a bad thing because the car is pretty quick to flag a problem when it occurs. You didn't say what the problem is that caused you to run the codes, if any, but the next time it happens, any relevant codes will be there again.

The next time you drive the car, then, after you park but before you turn off the key, run the codes again. That way, any codes that were thrown during the drive will be flagged as CURRENT, and anything that was detected as a problem but then checked OK will be flagged as HISTORY. Once you turn off the key, all the codes go to HISTORY.