Fault code reader (OBD)

[Possum19]

Morning!

I have an orange warning light that comes on sporadically, having spent WAY too much on the car this year already I want to avoid more garage fees. It's a Mazda 6 diesel 2016 model and feels fine driving, so I'd like to check and maybe clear the code.

There are loads of products available, but I wondered if anyone could recommend a good value and easy-to-use one?

Thanks

[d_a_n1979]

Possum19 said:

Morning!

I have an orange warning light that comes on sporadically, having spent WAY too much on the car this year already I want to avoid more garage fees. It's a Mazda 6 diesel 2016 model and feels fine driving, so I'd like to check and maybe clear the code.

There are loads of products available, but I wondered if anyone could recommend a good value and easy-to-use one?

Thanks

Read the reviews and go for which one you think is right:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=mazda+code+reader&amp...

At that level; they're all very much of the same

[President Merkin]

d_a_n1979 said:

At that level; they're all very much of the same

Up to about £100 all you'll get is something that will read & clear codes. You'll have to up the budget a bit if you want something that can reset stuff, which is where I am now, needing to recalbrate a steering angle sensor but irritatingly my cheapy one will only tell me it's throwing a code which I can already see on the dash.

[Possum19]

President Merkin said:

Up to about £100 all you'll get is something that will read & clear codes. You'll have to up the budget a bit if you want something that can reset stuff, which is where I am now, needing to recalbrate a steering angle sensor but irritatingly my cheapy one will only tell me it's throwing a code which I can already see on the dash.

Not sure I'm technical enough to actually try many if any fixes, so it's more peace of mind and some idea of what's going on before the garage takes it for me.

i can't see much difference between £20 and up to £100 versions for my needs

[RazerSauber]

I've got a 2013 Mazda diesel (current generation, pre-facelift) and use Forscan with a cheapy eBay USB-OBD2 cable. Works well on Ford vehicles and despite Mazda and Ford having parted ways for development of the GH & GK models, Forscan works really well. It can read fault codes, all the sensors on the vehicle with live view, loads of stuff. Obviously, it's way bulkier than a simple code reader but it's a lot more informative, too. I think total cost was under a tenner and I went with one of the cables that has a switch on it to access more modules.

[Byker28i]

Whats the fault light.

We've just swapped out our 2013 Mazda 6 estate and I think we had every fault possible with the car, numerous recalls, and the infamous soft camshafts needing an engine rebuild at 30K miles. TPS was the worse thing ever on that car - never worked, always alerted, unless you changed all 4 tyres at the same time...

But 160K miles, 9 years of ownership - might be something we had.

[pteron]

I got this one for programming my mini - it was recommended by the bimmerlink/code guys and so far has worked flawlessly.

https://amzn.to/3hBQO6R

[Possum19]

RazerSauber said:

I've got a 2013 Mazda diesel (current generation, pre-facelift) and use Forscan with a cheapy eBay USB-OBD2 cable. Works well on Ford vehicles and despite Mazda and Ford having parted ways for development of the GH & GK models, Forscan works really well. It can read fault codes, all the sensors on the vehicle with live view, loads of stuff. Obviously, it's way bulkier than a simple code reader but it's a lot more informative, too. I think total cost was under a tenner and I went with one of the cables that has a switch on it to access more modules.

So to ask a stupid question, Forscan is a (Free?) piece of software for your laptop, which you then link to the car with a USB-OBD2 cable?

This sounds way better than a cheap, fixed software box from china OBD reader!