Freeze Frame data is a great function of the OBD2 system in vehicles. This allows you to find out what and why your engine check light came on. What it does is whenever your engine check light comes on it, will take a freeze frame and record all data during that moment.
Your vehicle’s memory stores this data and you can now access it with an OBD2 scan tool. Part of the OBD2 system is that it has to record these data when your check engine light comes on. If that fault light comes on, off and then back on again, then you have not overwritten the data. It will stay stored in the vehicle’s memory and can only be cleared if there is a DTC reset done with a scan tool.
The freeze frame data shows you a snapshot of your engine’s data when the check engine light comes on!
Now to access this information, you use an OBD2 scan tool. When you access the tool, you will see faults that have come up. A camera type icon will appear beside this data. And if you click on this, it will show you the freeze frame data. This is very important as it shows you basically what went wrong and where in the car the problem is located so that you can fix it. Much more handy than just having the fault code.