Hand held diagnostic

[Fergie87]

Hi all,
I am after some help from ph with the purchase of a hand held fault code reader for OBD2. It is for my brother in law for christmas and the budget is max £150. I have never had one so don't know where to start. Are there any recommendations?

[rallycross]

What kind of car does he have ( or does he have various makes?)

[8bit]

If it's for basic fault code scanning (i.e. you don't need any extended, manufacturer-specific stuff) then just get an OBD to Bluetooth dongle and something like Torque Pro (Android only) or equivalent for the mobile device of your choice. Adapters like that cost ~£20 and Torque Pro is a few pounds on the Google Play store.

I've been using it for years, works great.

[samsock]

I bought the cheapest on amazon for 8 quid and it seems to work okay. No expert though, i might be missing some things

[Wonkyhorn]

I have the autel al319 and its great for a small device.

[alorotom]

8bit said:

If it's for basic fault code scanning (i.e. you don't need any extended, manufacturer-specific stuff) then just get an OBD to Bluetooth dongle and something like Torque Pro (Android only) or equivalent for the mobile device of your choice. Adapters like that cost ~£20 and Torque Pro is a few pounds on the Google Play store.

I've been using it for years, works great.

This. I use an OBD2 WiFi dongle (for iPhone) and Have a paid subscription to Carista and it works with all vehicles I’ve come across so far and offers quite a bit customisation too

[CarAbuser]

Does he have a specific marque that he sticks to?

There's lots of code reading tools out there but you need to be careful of the distinction between generic codes and manufacturer specific ones.

For generic code reading you just need a cheap ELM327 bluetooth/wifi adapter and the Torque app. Grand total of £5.
This will scan all OBDII codes and allow reading of certain sensors in the car.

For more advanced work you need to move into more specialist tools. I have heard good things about Foxwell tools: https://www.foxwelluk.co.uk/products.php
With more advanced tools you tend to pay more for certain functionality and per manufacturer.

[speedking31]

OBDlink has served me well on a variety of cars. More expensive but fully featured and has some support.

[Dog Star]

I use iCarsoft marque specific readers; you need something a bit more comprehensive than the generic readers if you want to be able to reset stuff like SRS lights, they're also better if you start delving down into car specific stuff like HVAC and so on.

I had one for the OHs Volvo that I recently sold on eBay and I've just replaced it with a Mercedes version for her "new" car. They're around the £100 mark.

[Equus]

Wonkyhorn said:

I have the autel al319 and its great for a small device.

Dog Star said:

I use iCarsoft marque specific readers; you need something a bit more comprehensive than the generic readers if you want to be able to reset stuff like SRS lights, they're also better if you start delving down into car specific stuff like HVAC and so on.

I had one for the OHs Volvo that I recently sold on eBay and I've just replaced it with a Mercedes version for her "new" car. They're around the £100 mark.

I've got an Autel AL519 for general use, and an iCarsoft marque-specific reader for my Range Rover.

As Dog Star says, you need the marque-specific one for more advanced stuff, resetting service intervals, and even reading some fault codes... the RR recently threw up a fault for a sticky turbo wastegate actuator and the Autel told me 'no codes present', while the iCarsoft reader gave me chapter and verse.

[SlimJim16v]

When I was looking, the Launch CRP123 had good reviews at about £120.

I just went for one of the cheap Autel ones, did what I needed, as I couldn't get my phone to work with my Bluetooth thing. Works OK now though on my new phone.

[Fergie87]

He doesn't want a bluetooth reader as he is not one to have a decent android phone. He is a marine engineer by trade but has been working on cars for years. He is starting to repair more cars than boats so needs a reader ideally to make his life easier. He'd like a code reader to cover all marks for this purpose and if the added advantage of being able to reset lights after fixing the faults can be had then that's a bonus.