SilliamWhale
Member
I want to get one but not sure where to start.
Need it for diagnosing odd faults on 3 vehicles dated 03-11. Any advice?
Need it for diagnosing odd faults on 3 vehicles dated 03-11. Any advice?
OBD Scanner
- Thread starter SilliamWhale
- Start date
Depends on the vehicles.
We bought a good quality code reader for our vans etc.
We found that it will work on about 50% of what we plug into for example transit no problem , ford Kuga wont look at it.
Same with a lot of Japanese cars. Would work on my shogun but not on a L200 truck.
It would also depend on your faults.We have a local guy with all the diagnostic kit but to be honest I think its cheaper to take it to the main dealers .
9 times out of 10 your problem will be known to them or at least to there franchise and using dedicated fault finding kit
they should have it fixed quite easily. (depends how good your dealer is.)
This is just my own personal findings . There will be some faults which you can spend thousands trying to sort .
The clever part is recognising these faults and getting out of the vehicle before you spend more than its value fixing it.
We bought a good quality code reader for our vans etc.
We found that it will work on about 50% of what we plug into for example transit no problem , ford Kuga wont look at it.
Same with a lot of Japanese cars. Would work on my shogun but not on a L200 truck.
It would also depend on your faults.We have a local guy with all the diagnostic kit but to be honest I think its cheaper to take it to the main dealers .
9 times out of 10 your problem will be known to them or at least to there franchise and using dedicated fault finding kit
they should have it fixed quite easily. (depends how good your dealer is.)
This is just my own personal findings . There will be some faults which you can spend thousands trying to sort .
The clever part is recognising these faults and getting out of the vehicle before you spend more than its value fixing it.
SilliamWhale
Member
Ive got a little cheapy ebay one which gets me by by cross referencing online but it cant seem to get intermittent fault codes only ones there and then. Was thinking a better one would help
I use an Elm327 from Ebay that cost around £20 and connects to couple of aps on my iPhone via wifi. It's about the same size as a packet of 10 fags, and while it doesn't have full integration of all vehicle functions it does a lot of stuff pretty well, like giving a virtual dashboard of any parameters you select like temperatures, RPM, speed, pressures (boost / oil) etc etc, as well as cumulative fault codes. It's powered by the vehicle (no wires) and handy to carry in the glove compartment.
The alternative being the dealers, who charge £87 plus VAT every time they "plug it into the machine"...
The alternative being the dealers, who charge £87 plus VAT every time they "plug it into the machine"...
itsalwaysme
Member
- Location
- Cheshire
Being involved in the motor trade I don't think you'll find a "one size fits all" diagnostic tool, I know guys in the trade (independent garages) who in one case has about 9 different machines, (peugeot, vauxhall, and snap on type "universal" ones) and still in some cases not getting the required info, when some of these machines are costing £5000 and need regular updates, it's all a bit of a minefield.
Agreed, the manufacturer specific OBD readers have access to each and every ECU on a vehicle, whereas the 'generics' usually only read the engine ECU which is good enough for 90% of fault finding.
'Modern' cars require 9 or more ECU's for everything from engine, transmission, entertainment, guidance, climate control, adaptive cruise, ABS etc etc. A lot of which I wouldn't want anyone accessing.
itsalwaysme
Member
- Location
- Cheshire
The snap -on type machines are very good and will read most "modules" on the vehicle ABS, Airbags Transmission etc, you can even check the function of certain components with them, procedures where the computer will pump the brake pedal when bleeding brakes etc (ABS) but they will also come up with "code not recognised" or something similar or no codes logged, when manufacturers are supposed to disclose all info
TripleSix
Member
- Location
- Helmsley, North Yorkshire
Generic OBDii access is only a legal requirement for emission and safety systems on a vehicle.
Everything else is allowed to be manufacturer specific....
Everything else is allowed to be manufacturer specific....
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
It's only as good as the software and how often it's updated. I've used VCDS (formerly VAG-COM) for the last 10 years or so on our VW and Audi cars. It's third party but very well supported, updated and good value for money. The cable was the chargeable item. The software has always been free. It's used by many indy garages that work on VAG cars.
Jon Feetham
Member
- Location
- Long Sutton
I bought an OBD2 bluetooth dongle from ebay, bought the Torque pro app from google play and got set up for under a tenner
It's told me every code I have ever needed to find on my Nissan
It's told me every code I have ever needed to find on my Nissan
SilliamWhale
Member
I bought an OBD2 bluetooth dongle from ebay, bought the Torque pro app from google play and got set up for under a tenner
It's told me every code I have ever needed to find on my Nissan
Yes ive got one of them it is pretty good but theres one its not getting so wanted to see if i could get better.