Need to help a friend next week start his father's 1996 S600. The car has been sitting a few years thanks to Covid and the battery dying, so they let it sit some more.

I've never touched a W140 before (the W109 is more my speed) and I'll be the only car literate person there.

As I understand it, the first hurdle will be to get the trunk open? They have the keys they drive with, is that sufficient? What's plan B if it isn't?

If I can get it running for 2 seconds with a fresh battery and ether, I'll consider the effort to be a smashing success.

If it somehow does stay running, I will probably asked to deal with more issues because it's been sitting so long. What is the right scanner to pick up for a 96? I found several old threads about the speed bumps and dead ends with 95 and earlier models in the pre-ODB2 world.

Does a 96 S600 have the ubiquitous, generic ODB2 connector, or is the 38-pin connector the thing to scan (or both, subject to caveats)? If so, what's a reasonable scanner to purchase, considering I'll be doing this more than once, I want something that actually works, but I won't be doing this enough to justify a 500$ purchase?

With warm regards,

-CTH

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