Recommend me an OBD reader
Discussion
I figure that one of these would be pretty useful - especially if you do stuff like accidentally trigger an airbag light for example.
So I'm looking on Ebay and the choice is a bit bewildering. I'd like something that can read codes, preferably translate them (ie. no need to look up), reset errors/clear codes. Cars I'd be using it on would be a 05 Volvo V70, and 02 Merc (C class and SL).
Can anyone point me at what features I need?
So I'm looking on Ebay and the choice is a bit bewildering. I'd like something that can read codes, preferably translate them (ie. no need to look up), reset errors/clear codes. Cars I'd be using it on would be a 05 Volvo V70, and 02 Merc (C class and SL).
Can anyone point me at what features I need?
Most tools under £500 are pretty poor (or chinese clones of the real thing). My main OBD tester is a delphi ds150 and costs £2k and then £1k a year for new modules and updates, this is just one of 5-6 obd tools I have as not all are good at everything.
I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
jbi said:
paid £15 for mine which has been a great diagnostic tool.
Cant do basic tasks on most cars and has helped me several times to clear codes and isolate faults.
Sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles like the pro tools, but hey for £15 off ebay you can't really complain
I too got an OBD blue tooth dongle off the 'Bay for 15 notes. I have Torque Pro on my android phone and they auto connect as soon as I get in the car and turn it on. Gives fully configurable read outs on everything and allows you to see and clear fault codes. Cant do basic tasks on most cars and has helped me several times to clear codes and isolate faults.
Sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles like the pro tools, but hey for £15 off ebay you can't really complain
For iThings, you might want to look at the wifi ones as Mr Jobs didn't like people using bluetooth, unless you can find something tried and tested.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elm327-WIFI-OBD-2-Car-Di...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elm327-WIFI-OBD-2-Car-Di...
Adam-b said:
Most tools under £500 are pretty poor (or chinese clones of the real thing). My main OBD tester is a delphi ds150 and costs £2k and then £1k a year for new modules and updates, this is just one of 5-6 obd tools I have as not all are good at everything.
I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
Would you reccomend a Veryon for popping down to Tesco too?!!I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
I've seen garages charge up to £40 just to plug the OBD in, so I can see the advantage of having a home DIY version for the less complicated jobs. A friend has a bluetooth dongle which, for the money, is very good. If you want a hand held, I've seen good things about Autel.
I paid about 10 quid for a computer interface from ebay and it works fine.
It will do anything that any of the more expensive ones will do, because it's just a bridge. The software will do the simple stuff automatically, and if you want to do something complicated, you can just submit the raw OBD commands from a terminal. The standard is published on the internet. Probably not much good for a garage who wants to use the thing every day, but for a home-user it's fine.
It will do anything that any of the more expensive ones will do, because it's just a bridge. The software will do the simple stuff automatically, and if you want to do something complicated, you can just submit the raw OBD commands from a terminal. The standard is published on the internet. Probably not much good for a garage who wants to use the thing every day, but for a home-user it's fine.
Adam-b said:
Most tools under £500 are pretty poor (or chinese clones of the real thing). My main OBD tester is a delphi ds150 and costs £2k and then £1k a year for new modules and updates, this is just one of 5-6 obd tools I have as not all are good at everything.
I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
What does your £2K obd tester do that a cheap consumer unit doesn't? Seriously interested, as I understand the feature set in the consumer software is very good for the generic stuff.I would advise getting friendly with a local garage and slip them a fiver when needed.
Sealy does the job .... covers all cars from UK Jags to US Vipers and Rams....
Bought of a mate who owns www.motorstoreni.com
Bought of a mate who owns www.motorstoreni.com
Yep it's basically a ruggedised notebook with a touch screen. The beauty is the DA4 OBD bridge is powered by the OBD port and wireless. The software is pretty cool too. You can control pretty much all aspects and controls that the car has. It will do a complete sweep of the car activating each component. Handy when I have changed over BCM modules or various sensors. No pissing around with unplugging and bench testing components it either works or gives you a fail test with symptoms. Time is money!
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