OBD Diagnostic fault readers

[silverback mike]

Folks,
I'm thinking of buying one of these for potentially searching for faults etc. Does anyone have any recommendations, under £50.
Thanks.
Mike

[Jazoli]

If you have an Android phone/tablet you could do a lot worse than invest in the Torque app and a cheap bluetooth obd reader from amazon/ebay

It will do pretty much the same as a generic obd reader and a lot more, all for less than a tenner

[steelej]

Just remember that simple obdii only gives basic info on engine errors, can't look at ABS for example or any other control modules.

John.

[silverback mike]

Thanks folks, sadly don't have android, I have the other one!!
Currently have a ropey E39 bmw, a merc cls and Honda Civic...
I'm anticipating the BMW may present a few snags first however the civic engine management light occasionally pops on, but then obviously disappears when I book it into the garage

[james_gt3rs]

I've used one of those cheap orange ones off ebay, they read the codes ok.

[slinky]

Wifi ODB doofer + DashCommand for the iPhone.. It'll do the same job as Torque + Bluetooth for Android users..

[Krikkit]

In your position I'd buy a K+DCAN cable and a copy of BMW's DIS/SSS/TIS software.

Then you can use generic OBD2 software on the Civic (assuming it's got an OBD2 port of course).

[r11co]

Krikkit said:

In your position I'd buy a K+DCAN cable and a copy of BMW's DIS/SSS/TIS software.

This!

Got to be said though that the BMW software is some of the most unintuitive I've ever had the misfortune to use.

[Krikkit]

r11co said:

Krikkit said:

In your position I'd buy a K+DCAN cable and a copy of BMW's DIS/SSS/TIS software.

This!

Got to be said though that the BMW software is some of the most unintuitive I've ever had the misfortune to use.

It is pretty rough, and the SSS part I stay well away from, but the TIS diagrams are excellent, that's worth the effort alone!

[silverback mike]

Thanks folks, I'll look into the bits and bobs above.