OBD-II Pending Codes: Description

Pending codes are DTCs that have only set during one drive cycle and may not have illuminated MIL yet. While some DTCs can set MIL during one drive cycle, they are not recorded as OBD-II DTCs until failing during a second drive cycle. These DTCs may be identified using RETRIEVE PENDING CODES feature. They will also be found in vehicle-specific mode RETRIEVE/CLEAR CONTINUOUS DTCs from the instant that the DTC is set. This function will only report pending failures that have occurred during the present drive cycle, but not indicate single failures that happened on any previous drive cycle.