seen a few on ebay, all say E36 in the title, but not the description...
thought this looks ok
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270881003385
but 1 i don't have a laptop with serial port any more, 2, says E36 in the title, but not the description, and 3, not hugely keen if it only works on BMW and not ford vauxhall etc. it does seem to have an OBD2 connector though. asked the seller the questions
any recommendations on a hand held tool that covers all the bases, at a similar price?

It will only read BMW and the E36 is not OBDII compliant does it have the big round 20/21 pin connector?

Think I have one in the garage if you wanted to borrow it but you will need a com port

yeah, its got the packman type connector

i've seen this too, don't know if this will work with OBD 2 scanners
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220744327174

If you can find it, i'd love to try if thats ok! that would be a great help
i'm sure i can find a PC/laptop/adapter somewhere to run it

I have seen similar interfaces running Carsoft BMW software work on USB to serial converters but that was on Windows Xp --- should also work in a virtual machine Xp system



If you want access to the SRS system I have a BMW SRS hand held scanner going spare.

[Edited on 30/12/11 by britishtrident]

thanks BT!, not really a airbag fault (though it does have that too... the light's always been on since before i got it) but it seems to start up ok, then when it warms up, it keeps cutting out every time i put the clutch in, so i guess there's some temp sensor, or another sensor fault somewhere. hopefully this can tell me where

i reckon with a bit of inginuity it'll work on a serial usb adapter, but maybe it just won't... i've got XP on my laptops, so not a problem there

or theres another obd2 reader for £17 somewhere, with this BMW adapter
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220744327174


well confused

[Edited on 30/12/11 by blakep82]

I believe you need the one with the big rectangular box (I have one of these and it worked on my '96 328 and my '95 M3). Later cars (E46?) you might not need the rectangular box, I think. I use it with a USB-serial adaptor, no problems - you just need a particular chipset in the adaptor. FT232R works, I think.