Which diagnostic tools do you guys have? Recomendations??

[eliot]

miniman said:

Seems pretty clear where the evidence is pointing then. Considering I spent about £50 on various RS232 adapters that didn't work, it's not inconceivable that one could get a basic Win XP laptop with serial port for that amount on eBay.

Also worth checking if you can get a docking station for your laptop as most of them have serial ports on the back of them, cant vouch as to how "proper" it is - but certainly drives my megasquirt fine where a usb one failed.

[eliot]

Cable turned up today, installed onto a thinkpad t22 and got it working on my e39 540. Doesn't seem to work on my 1994 e36 though.
Now to explore..

[julian64]

eliot said:

Cable turned up today, installed onto a thinkpad t22 and got it working on my e39 540. Doesn't seem to work on my 1994 e36 though.
Now to explore..

My wife has an E36 touring 2.8. Works on that no problem, so I suspect it should work on yours

[Ravell]

Might be due to the fact that in 1994 BMW still used the OBD-I system, switching to OBD-II in 1995. Might be possible to still get it to work, but don't expect full functionality from every module, like on the later cars.

[eliot]

Ravell said:

Might be due to the fact that in 1994 BMW still used the OBD-I system, switching to OBD-II in 1995. Might be possible to still get it to work, but don't expect full functionality from every module, like on the later cars.

Yes I believe that is the problem. I'm looking into getting a cable that has "ADS" support.

[fixedwheelnut]

Ravell said:

Should have tried this earlier! I put the whole content of the zip file into "C:\BMW", instead of "C:\Program Files\BMW" and it will now install no problem!

Now I just need the cable!

julian64 said:

I wanted E36 and E31 but neither are represented. I just wonder if my software is a different version. It seems to cover 85,46,65, 39,52,53,60,83,R50

In the main INPA menu, chose "Alte Baureihen" with <shift> + <F5> for a list of other models. Both e36 and e31 are on the list with their respective subsystems.

That is exactly the problem I had, cheers for the tip it is loading as I type, if it all seems ok I'll try getting a lead

[eliot]

fyi;
I've ordered another cable which should support the pre obd2 cars, such as the wife's '94 e36. Once it turns up, I will update. At this stage, I'm not 100% sure that the cable I have doesn't support the pre obd2 stuff, but I did try editing ediabas.ini and changing it to "ADS" from "OBD" and it made no difference. Plus I opened the box up and it says "obd2" inside - which is a clue..
So if you have older cars, dont rush out and buy the cable listed in this thread (yet).

[julian64]

Are you putting the cable together yourself from the schematic and bits??

[jamoor]

I have a good 25 gig transfer remaining,
so you can download it at
http://ks.mylha.com/inpa/BMW.Softing.EDIABAS.INPA....

Follow the install instructions, but choose the uk one not the german version when installing, works on XP only!

[[TW]Fox]

I plugged car soft into my 530 the other day and it told my that my Airconditiong Condenser was broken.

As it was 26c outside but a chilled 18c inside the car I was rather confused by this.

[jamoor]

[TW]Fox said:

I plugged car soft into my 530 the other day and it told my that my Airconditiong Condenser was broken.

As it was 26c outside but a chilled 18c inside the car I was rather confused by this.

Carsoft is an aftermarket, overpriced piece of tat. (can you believe it costs over £1.5k?)

This is actually used in the BMW factory, I have seen it being used

It's pretty accurate in my limited experience.

Edited by jamoor on Thursday 21st August 02:09

[eliot]

Still waiting for my ADS cable, which will allow me to diagnose early cars...

[VladD]

Will all of this work on a 1998 pre-facelift E38 750i?

[miniman]

VladD said:

Will all of this work on a 1998 pre-facelift E38 750i?

Yes, E38 is listed on the copy of Inpa that I'm running.

[[TW]Fox]

jamoor said:

[TW]Fox said:

I plugged car soft into my 530 the other day and it told my that my Airconditiong Condenser was broken.

As it was 26c outside but a chilled 18c inside the car I was rather confused by this.

Carsoft is an aftermarket, overpriced piece of tat. (can you believe it costs over £1.5k?)

Are you saying its unreliable? I wondered if it was detecting a fault that had yet to show itself, could it be there is nothing wrong with it?

[jamoor]

[TW]Fox said:

jamoor said:

[TW]Fox said:

I plugged car soft into my 530 the other day and it told my that my Airconditiong Condenser was broken.

As it was 26c outside but a chilled 18c inside the car I was rather confused by this.

Carsoft is an aftermarket, overpriced piece of tat. (can you believe it costs over £1.5k?)

Are you saying its unreliable? I wondered if it was detecting a fault that had yet to show itself, could it be there is nothing wrong with it?

Yes, there is a bug in it that always used to report as a temprature control wheel fault, I don't even think that exists.

I doubt there is anything wrong with it (especially if it works fine), although don't quote me on this if it is actually broken/about to break .

[jamoor]

Did we all get this working in the end?

I have got the latest version with a PDF on how to install and it's in English if anyone wants it.

[miniman]

jamoor said:

Did we all get this working in the end?

I have got the latest version with a PDF on how to install and it's in English if anyone wants it.

Eventually, with an old Thinkpad with a serial port and XP Pro. I'd take a copy of the latest one if you don't mind hosting it somewhere

[eliot]

My diy cable finally turned up the other day to allow me to do pre-odb2 stuff, such as early e36. So far only managed to talk to the dashboard and central locking module - works fine on the e39 though.

[jamoor]

miniman said:

jamoor said:

Did we all get this working in the end?

I have got the latest version with a PDF on how to install and it's in English if anyone wants it.

Eventually, with an old Thinkpad with a serial port and XP Pro. I'd take a copy of the latest one if you don't mind hosting it somewhere

Yeah it is the latest with e90 support

I will update tomorrow