For a 1999 V10, you need a RED card and a GREEN card.

For the bottom half of the NGS, the VIM should be beige (same color as the T shaped top with the screen and buttons) or if a later XL model with black color VIMs, the label should be red (NOT CAN BUS).

 

Much appreciated @Y2KW57 . I'll search on units available.

 

This seems to match your description but just to be sure, this would be it?

 

Yes.

That unit pictured above has the added advantage of not only having the originally designed beige color VIM that you need for your 1999, it also has an additional black VIM with a blue label for CAN-Bus Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, and Mazdas (where applicable) through model year 2009.

From your photo, it looks like the unit also comes with an originally bound Rotunda manual, a case, a steering wheel hangar, and what looks like a legacy EEC connector harness introduced by Ford in 1983 for the 1984 Mark VII, and was used for underhood engine control modules for the next decade, until the EPA finalized the OBD2 connector in 1996, which the unit above also has two of... one for the regular VIM, and one for the controller area network VIM.

The button membrane looks clean and hardly used, so it does not appear to have had a very rough life.

I'd take one of these any day over a FORscan app (bootlegged copy of Ford proprietary scanning software hacked by Russian computer experts) that uses either an Android device or a Windows device, plus an interface that typically relies on a data exchange through a Bluetooth radio signal.

Add up all the nouns in the previous sentence.

1. Wireless data transmission
2. Bluetooth protocol
3. Windows
4. Android
5. Russian computer experts
6. Bootlegged
7. Proprietary copy

So that is at least 7 potentially vulnerable paths to your vehicle network modules.

I'm not suggesting that any of these seven exposures have actually proven to be a problem. But when compared to the Ford Rotunda licensed Hickok Instruments New Generation Star Tester that does not rely on wireless, Bluetooth, Windows, Android, Russian computer experts, bootlegging, or a questionably derived derivative of Ford proprietary scan software offered for free or $5... I'd feel more comfortable with the hardened, hard wired, task specific device designed by Ford for the purpose it serves, and that is specifically referenced in the Ford Workshop Manual.

Gotta go... I just looked up and saw a shadow sweep past my window. Could be a windmill blade moving. I had better go check it out and see if it is dangerous.

 

Ha, ha! Don't second guess those Shadow People. Thanks Y2KW57. I should have it by this weekend. Plus red and green.

-Wild Ford Hickock
Have Scanner Will Travel

 

Received the scanner and cards in good order today. 1. I just wanted to be sure the connector pins are all there/intact. (There are six pins in it. None missing?) 2. Also, in the manual it shows NGS OBDII Adapter and a flash cable. From the pictures, I can't see what the difference is. There was only one cable that looks like this that came with the package. Which is this, the OBDII or Flash? 3. On the NGS ODII Adapter photo, it says "connect only to vehicles generic scan tool connector". In the flash cable connector photo it says, "to vehicle's Data Link Connector. There's only one connector I am aware of on my '99 E350 right under the steering column. Is there a difference between Data Link Connector and Vehicles Generic Scan Tool Connector?

It came with manual but seems pretty basic.

 

Correct. No pins are missing from that cable.

Those six (6) pins are all that are needed with the beige colored VIM to execute all available diagnostics and service functions available via the Red and Green PCMCIA cards.


The cable that you show connected to the NGS laying on the bed sheet in your photo is the NGS OBDII Adapter cable with integrated 12v "cigarette lighter" power port.

For your purposes and vehicle, you do not need the NGS DDL Flash cable (without the "cigarette lighter" addendum). There are no calibration files available for your vehicle on PCMCIA data transfer cards, that were limited in memory capacity anyway. As file sizes became larger, different methods of reflashing the PCM were adopted and adapted.

You also do not need the Flash cable for anything related to diagnostics or service functions. The flash cable is to change the calibration of your PCM. You cannot easily obtain a new calibration without connecting to Ford's cloud server, and to do that, you will need a subscription account to Motorcraft Service, as well as a Windows computer and a software package with the SAE J2534 interface protocol, and a different NGS Flash cable with 16 pins and a USB connector on the opposite end.


No. There is no difference. On earlier (pre OBDII vehicles) there were differences. There are also differences with different vehicles. For example, the Mercury Villager uses a different cable. The Mercury Mystic and Ford Contour corporate twins use a different cable. There is also a UBP cable, etc.

You have the cable you need, and have already located the vehicle connection port that you need.

You can plug the cigarette lighter male into the female receptacle provided with the cable, or into the actual 12V power port on the dash. Since one of the 6 pins in your vehicle's OBDII / Data Link Connector port has 12V B+ voltage, it may be simpler to just use the receptacle provided as an appendage to the cable.

Keep in mind, the NGS was Ford's standard dealership level diagnostics device for a quarter of a century of Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, and Mazda vehicles. No need to be distracted by the various permutations designed to adapt to the differences in both vehicles as well as Federal regulations that evolved over that 25 year time period.

True. There are larger and more comprehensive NGS training manuals available. Some have been "copied" and sold on eBay. There have been crackdowns from time to time on obtaining those materials, but there are also windows of opportunity where new sellers happen to post listings that manage to slip though the search term cracks of algorithms used to detect and delist such offerings.

I have been able to do everything that I have thus far needed to do without consulting a manual. The device software itself is fairly self explanatory.

Congratulations on your newly acquired capability to diagnose your own vehicle.

 

I'll post more on the scanner as I go through the learning process of use and functions, but quick question-I don't see a specific model year associated with this component, so I was wondering, what is this card used for?

 

That is the BLACK card.

For your 1999 model year V10, it is almost functionally equivalent to the RED card, except that the RED card is newer than the BLACK card.

The BLACK card stops coverage at model year 1999, but covers all previous model years dating back to 1984. Since older vehicles from the 80's and 90's were less computerized, all the previous models could fit on the card.

However, the EPA mandated self-diagnostics software that became required by law in 1996 had the corollary effect of increasing the computational requirements and data payloads moving through a vehicle's network, and when multiplied by all vehicles that Ford sold, the space limitations inherent to the PCMCIA form factor and chipset were quickly reached by the turn of the millennium.

1999 was the transition year where new cards were issued. When a new NGS was shipped to any given dealer who ordered one in 1999-2003, it usually came with a BLACK Diagnostics card for covering all legacy vehicles prior to 1999, a RED Diagnostics card for covering all then current vehicles from 1999-2004, and a GREEN Service card... which was another "innovation" in 1999 undertaken to make more "room" on the RED card for diagnostics.

Prior to the RED and GREEN card, both Diagnostics and Service functions were on the BLACK card. In fact, there were no other colored cards prior to 1998. Everything was on the BLACK card... except new Calibrations, which used to be loaded into the vehicle via the NGS with separate PCMCIA cards that were only "transfer" cards for module updates, not Diagnostics nor Service cards.

All the color card came after 1999. Not all at once, because the ORANGE, BROWN, GRAY, etc cards came after the RED and GREEN card.

An exception to this is the card for the Ford Probe and other Mazda built vehicles with Ford branding. Those vehicles were covered by a BLUE card.

Anyway, if you don't have a RED card, you can try using the BLACK card to diagnose your 1999.

If you do have a RED card, then the RED card might be more up to date, compared to the BLACK card.

 

Started familiarizing myself with the tool today. Appreciate your input.

NGS results and sequence from scanner display:
PCM-Power Train Control Mod
Diagnostic Test Modes
Retrieve/clear cont DTCs
Sys passed (no DTCs avail)
KOEO-On-demand self test
P065 (PCM ROM Test Error)
A .Now does this mean PCM is bad? Or, possibly because I have a DP Tuner chip in this vehicle?
B. Also, regarding the KOER test, is there a point during it where you press the brake, rev engine, turn wheel? I I thought I read that somewhere awhile back, but didn't get any prompts on the scanner to do that.

 

I should be Ford Master Tech by this weekend, right? (maybe in about 10 years, I'd get through all of this! )