Discussion
Hi all, thinking it’s about time I invested in a OBDII reader / scanner. I’ve used the cheap ones before to read and clear faults, looking online there’s various different ones for basic DIY diagnostics from anywhere between £20 and, well, as much as you want to spend!!
All I really need from the tool is to know what the problem is and be able to clear it, so I’m pretty sure I don’t need anything too fancy. It’ll get plenty of use, the car I’m doing for myself at the moment is a Freelander 2 with some accident damage so need to be able to read and clear airbag faults. Assuming any OBDII reader can do that.
Don’t suppose anyone has any recommendations? I don’t mind spending 100 odd quid on a half decent one as long as it doesn’t do exactly the same job as the 20 quid ones!
Autel AL619 looks a good bet, around 80 quid on eBay
https://www.garagetooladvisor.com/auto/best-obd2-s...
All I really need from the tool is to know what the problem is and be able to clear it, so I’m pretty sure I don’t need anything too fancy. It’ll get plenty of use, the car I’m doing for myself at the moment is a Freelander 2 with some accident damage so need to be able to read and clear airbag faults. Assuming any OBDII reader can do that.
Don’t suppose anyone has any recommendations? I don’t mind spending 100 odd quid on a half decent one as long as it doesn’t do exactly the same job as the 20 quid ones!
Autel AL619 looks a good bet, around 80 quid on eBay
https://www.garagetooladvisor.com/auto/best-obd2-s...
Edited by Yazza54 on Sunday 21st January 09:24
Done some reading today and whilst it seems there is a plethora of cheap options for general OBD2 scanners most of them don’t do the additional functions that I want such as SRS, ABS etc. The Autel ones state they do SRS but when going on the vehicle data list they only cover the Freelander 1 so glad I didn’t jump the gun and buy one of them.
Quite a few people seem to rate the launchtech CRP129 which can be had for around £200. This does SRS, transmission, ABS, steering angle, service resets etc. There are cheaper bits of kit that will do my Freelander 2 but they only work on Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles so seems pointless as this is as much of a investment for future tinkering as it is for sorting my immediate jobs out. Think I’ll probably be going with the CRP129.
Quite a few people seem to rate the launchtech CRP129 which can be had for around £200. This does SRS, transmission, ABS, steering angle, service resets etc. There are cheaper bits of kit that will do my Freelander 2 but they only work on Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles so seems pointless as this is as much of a investment for future tinkering as it is for sorting my immediate jobs out. Think I’ll probably be going with the CRP129.
Edited by Yazza54 on Sunday 21st January 19:36
Just thought I’d update this, got the Launch CRP129 and would definitely recommend it. I got it off a authorised eBay seller and have registered it on the website confirmed all genuine etc. They tend to be around £190 on eBay but the seller had a best offer so I threw in a cheeky £160 bid and they accepted - it’s worth every penny.
So far I’ve repaired and cleared all airbag faults on a Land Rover that I bought damaged to repair, also diagnosed/fixed a few errors on the mrs car and my mums BMW which had a airbag light on due to a loose connector. For me it’s pretty much already paid for itself.
I did have one slightly odd occurance with the Land Rover where it was struggling to connect to the airbag ECU when going through the Land Rover menu but I managed to get it sorted going through the Jaguar selection instead with them sharing many parts. Think it was just because my car was the very last of the line and had a different airbag ECU, so just a case of knowing how to manipulate the machine.
It also does steering angle reset etc and some other bits that many DIY ODB tools don’t have.
The main thing for me was I was concerned about spending the money and finding that it didn’t do what I needed it to, so if you’re in the same boat I can totally recommend one. Just miffed I didn’t get one sooner!
So far I’ve repaired and cleared all airbag faults on a Land Rover that I bought damaged to repair, also diagnosed/fixed a few errors on the mrs car and my mums BMW which had a airbag light on due to a loose connector. For me it’s pretty much already paid for itself.
I did have one slightly odd occurance with the Land Rover where it was struggling to connect to the airbag ECU when going through the Land Rover menu but I managed to get it sorted going through the Jaguar selection instead with them sharing many parts. Think it was just because my car was the very last of the line and had a different airbag ECU, so just a case of knowing how to manipulate the machine.
It also does steering angle reset etc and some other bits that many DIY ODB tools don’t have.
The main thing for me was I was concerned about spending the money and finding that it didn’t do what I needed it to, so if you’re in the same boat I can totally recommend one. Just miffed I didn’t get one sooner!
Hey mate, sure -
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
You’re right it’s worth the extra no doubt about it. Didn’t see the point buying a tool that would only work on one car.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
You’re right it’s worth the extra no doubt about it. Didn’t see the point buying a tool that would only work on one car.
Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff