E36 M3 Evo - Diagnostics... how?.

[SteveC123]

Hi all.

I'm trying to work out the easiest, most cost effective way of getting the fault codes out of a 1997 M3 Evo.

Looking around eBay etc, it seems the Peake tool is the cheapest way forwards in terms of standalone kit.

I come from a background of VAGs, so have VAG-COM for these which is excellent.

I've also bought an interface this week which converts a USB OBDII lead into the 20 pin connection you need to be able to hook it up to olders BMW such as this.

I believe 'Carsoft' is a good option but you can't run it via USB?

So... what's the best way forwards - ideally I'd like to be running something similar to VAG-COM off my laptop.

Cheers. :-)

[528Sport]

Peake is the easy way to go for ease. there is another system inpa I think its called.
Carsoft is hard to get running as you need com port and an interface box, also the copied software needs cracking. Carsoft can work with USB as long as the usb comport can be set to a port lower than 4 (its how mine worked).
I could not get it to work easly and got bored with it.

[spants]

as a complete coincidence I was just looking at this thread http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/forumdisplay....

Tony

[dan101smith]

Carsoft is pretty good, and I've never had a problem getting it to run over USB. As said, just reassign the COM port to be 1-4 and all should be fine.

[breezy]

I found the Peake device to be very good FWIW - straightforward and easy to use.

[pat_y]

Another carsoft user here, had initial problems over running the correct version, but updates are readily available, i do use serial i/o though so not sure about usb. good system to use.

[1ians]

You can run Carsoft with a USB adapter.

However, if you already have the vagcom lead I'd just use that with Inpa. It's more powerful than Carsoft and you should be able to communicate with every module bar the instrument cluster without modifying the lead.

There's plenty of information about how to do so on the link posted above.

Ian