Mark Allanson
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 09:43 AM |
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Too good to be true?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Design-OBD2-327-USB-Scanner-CAN-Bus-OBD-OBD-II-Tool_W0QQitemZ150263677898QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item150263677898&_trkp
arms=72%3A636%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
By the description, with one of these I could cure anything - has anyone tried one?
If you can keep you head, whilst all others around you are losing theirs, you are not fully aware of the situation
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stevec
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 09:57 AM |
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I bought a similar one for a fiver. It works fine but the " Scantool"software on the disk was the basic version. You can download higher
versions on mine. That one may differ.
Steve.
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speedyxjs
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 09:57 AM |
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Thats very cheap. The one advertised in the Jag club mag is about £50
How long can i resist the temptation to drop a V8 in?
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nitram38
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 10:54 AM |
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A mate of mine has a ford focus that he is fed up with spending money on.
He got the engine warning up and a misfire. So off to ford he trots where they diagnose coil pack problems.
So they replace the coil packs and leads and misfire goes away........for a few days and now the engine light is back on and the misfire is back.
Is it worth him buying this and sorting it himself? Does anyone know if the car is worth salvaging, it's done 130K
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NeilP
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 10:56 AM |
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£13 postage - Hmm, manufacturing costs must be keeping low on Mars...
If you pay peanuts...
Mentale, yar? Yar, mentale!
Drive it like you stole it!
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ReMan
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 01:02 PM |
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Very temted myself, if it does waht it says.For £20 its probably worth a punt
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Blue Fox
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 01:38 PM |
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I did a course with work a while ago on both the volvo engine and the cummings engine (both big industrial engines for trucks and machines not cars)
and they told me that all engines made now by every manufacturer use the same system and the engine codes are all the same so if a code 5 is low oil
pressure in a mercedes then it is the same in a volvo etc and as they all just use can bus now which again uses the same configuration - on the larger
engines its J1939 then it would be fairly simple and cheap to make something like this for the newer engines, I think its the older engines that use
all different formats where the problems and complexity come. Let us know how you get on with it if you get one.
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steve m
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 02:19 PM |
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I have an OBD reader from ebay that has saved me untold garage fees (robbery)
It is a reader and reset tool and is used about once every fortnight, by work colleages or me, and this little gizmo cost about £20, 3 years ago
what i didnt realise is in the advert this item is also compliant with "MORRIS" and "AUSTIN" !!
those moggy minors must have been very high tech machinery in the 1950's
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MartynV
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 04:51 PM |
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The ELM 327 chipset works very well on OBD 2 vehicles (generally 2001 onwards) and there is lots of optional software available.
Only problems encountered are configuring a virtual com port on the lap top and setting the chipset to auto scan for the correct protocol of the
vehicle being tested.
Worth the money for live data reading and clearing MIL lamp!
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mark chandler
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| posted on 28/6/08 at 06:37 PM |
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I,ve got an early one from Bev Roadman linky thing, its great.
Thing to watch is what the diags mean, as in weak mixture from lambda probe could just be the car running out of fuel.
So you have to work back and deduce the problem. With this one you can log a journey and display vitals while driving.
Regards Mark
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Syd Bridge
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| posted on 29/6/08 at 10:21 AM |
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My son bought one of those £2+ scanners from ebay, to sort a Mitsubishi.
The item arrived within 10 days, hooked it up and away it went.
Configuration ended up with Com port 5. Probably different on other laptops, but Jr tells me you just have to keep going through the Com options to
find the one that works.(That was using Scantool) I'll be finding out for myself this afternoon!
Cheers,
Syd.
[Edited on 29/6/08 by Syd Bridge]
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Mark Allanson
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| posted on 30/6/08 at 08:23 PM |
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Hi Syd,
Let me know how you get on!
If you can keep you head, whilst all others around you are losing theirs, you are not fully aware of the situation
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C10CoryM
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| posted on 1/7/08 at 09:54 PM |
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While code readers can be useful, they are far from everything you will need to diagnose your cars. Our scanner cost $12,000 and it still only helps
so much.
The only way a reader is going to help you diagnose your car is to get the code, and do research online for your specific car and that code. You
might get lucky and throw a part at it and fix it, but I wouldn't count on it.
For example, an dtc for a lean bank could be anything from a missfire, vacuum/exhaust leak, leaky injector, or various sensors such as: either
O2,MAP/MAF, CTS, TPS.
As a mechanic I get to see some pretty entertaining (and expensive) things happen because someone got a code and read up on it. People like to think
mechanics just plug a scanner in and just do as it says, but that just doesn't work. It still takes years of experience to diagnose and repair
cars correctly.
Long story short, code readers can be useful but don't be suprised if you still have to take it to a mechanic. And be even less suprised if
what your mechanic says doesn't agree with what the internet say 
"Our watchword evermore shall be: The Maple Leaf Forever!"
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