Obd2 scanners, snap on alternatives?

[DLowe]

As I'm yet again in possession of a land rover.....

I don't think my £20 ebay obd2 scanners going to cut it, its been showing its limitations from day 1, I wasn't expecting much but its been useful.

So I used to borrow my mates snap on solus, it was immense, but a few years out of date - unfortunately my mate is no longer with us and the tools been misplaced since.

I can use the work snap on when needed, but it requires a trip to work while the garages are open, so swapping vehicles during the shift as I need my van and tools incase there's any faults while I'm in... obviously limiting the effectiveness as a diagnostic tool as I can't leave it in and drive round or dick about for hours.

Seen very mixed reviews about the Autel stuff and the snap on is way over budget, anything else about that can do multiple marques and stuff like gearbox learning and injector coding?

Both of which I've had to do in last 12 months, dad's citroen auto needed relearn gears and Mrs volvo had to have injector changed and dpf clean.

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[R3K1355]

Seems that you get what you pay for. Some marques have a specific reader/tool that can do lots of stuff (Like VCDS for Audi/VW)

[DLowe]

From what I can tell the Autel Maxiscan and icarsoft universal ones should do it all for about a third of the snap on costs.

Bit wanted get some opinions of real world use not sponsored YouTube vids and blog posts

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[Mike41288]

I believe Autel is the go to budget friendly brand. Although the garage next door to my work bought the brand new snap on scanner for £10k recently and it does literally everything. May as well buy one of those, Maybe 2.

[George]

I don't think there's really any cheap do it all OBD diagnostic tools. I've ended up with multiple tools to do the majority of things at home but I still go to the garage and use the Bosch or the brand specific tools if I get stuck.

I have these for home use:
iCarSoft CR Pro (does all modules and has protocols for the majority of brands. Really slow though)
BlueDriver (only does all modules for American brands but engine codes/live data for everything else. Really handy to have in your pocket)
OBD Link SX (Super fast data logging. It has diagnostic software but I've never used it for that)
Ross Tech VCDS (Does everything VAG)
ISTA (I needed this for BMW/Mini)

I think that's about it for the cheaper stuff.



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[DLowe]

I'm leaning towards the icarsoft cp Pro + or possibly the cp max.

Mrs dad had the bmw specific one when he had an X5 and it seemed to do all the systems.

I'm not arsed about coding anything like side lights or winking indicators etc that the cool kids have on bmws, just as long as it can check faults on the stuff like air ride and body computers for the land rover and volvo and do dpf regens and gearbox learning for modern autos like my dad's C4.

It won't be used that often, but when it's needed I like it there... and as the range rover will probably decide it doesn't want to move at some point getting it to work won't be an option for the solus.

From what I remember the icarsoft BMW one was actually nicer use than the snap on

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[DLowe]

Also heard the best description for a land rover today.....

"Schrodinger car" - until you turn the key one has to assume it is both broken and working as its impossible to know the state it's in until proven

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[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

I'm really liking the Thinkdiag for the money

[George]

Does the ThinkDiag need an annual subscription or is it a one off cost? It seems to have quite a lot of functionality for some cars.

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[DLowe]

Well gone for the icarsoft cp Pro +

Seems to do everything the snap on did, same as the tablet based one but £100 cheaper for the smaller screen.

Didn't want go app based so I can let my dad / mates use it if needed without faffing with the phone .....

Be here in a couple days see if it was worth it

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[George]

Much the same as the iCarSoft CP but with added caffeine

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[DLowe]

Had a play with my mates couple year old land rover specific icarsoft and it does EPB and air suspension etc and this should do the same for all brands so if it does, it should be well worth the £260

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[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Does the ThinkDiag need an annual subscription or is it a one off cost? It seems to have quite a lot of functionality for some cars.

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2-3 years then resubscribe needed

[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Had a play with my mates couple year old land rover specific icarsoft and it does EPB and air suspension etc and this should do the same for all brands so if it does, it should be well worth the £260

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Does it do Aston Martin? I only got the Foxwell NT520 and Thinkdiag because they're the only ones that seem to cover them

[DLowe]

Let you know when it turns up

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[Asht_200]

I purchased a PLX Kiwi 2 WiFi OBD2 interface originally so I could run Autometer Dash Command.

But have used generic Diagnostics tools on the iPad to determine that the knock sensor on my Mum's Honda CRV was causing the engine light to come on on the Dash when multiple garages incorrectly said it was the Lambda sensor

[DLowe]

Aston Martin not listed unfortunately,

Otherwise it does everything expected, not quite as slick as the snap on but everything's there...

Main downside when compared is having to manually select the car options instead of auto selecting.... but for a grand less I'll take it

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[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Thanks for checking

[George]

Does Aston Martin not use the same protocols as Ford?

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[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Does Aston Martin not use the same protocols as Ford?

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It's an EEC-VI but it has a proprietary AMDS diagnostic system