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Where did you find it for that price? It came up as $39.95 on Amazon which is usually pretty good on pricing.
Just got mine and it does all it says. I tried it on the 2004 Corolla and it did great.
From there I tried it on the 2015 Corolla again it worked perfectly. The only difference was on the 2004 Corolla it had 11 live data feeds. On the 2015 Corolla the the OBD2 scanner had 40 live feeds. So the scanner of course will supply a much greater amount of information on newer cars then older ones.
A good comparison for those in the medical field would be.These OBD2 scanners are many times more powerful then the latest hospital vital statistics monitor. And they do basically the same thing as a (hospital vital stats monitor) for your car. As in constantly read its vital signs, except many more of them (as in more then a thousand).
Now you get the picture. Remember I don't sell these things or endorse them, just passing on my experience. Read the thread from the beginning and it could be a good fit for the techie in your life..
I'm not selling or endorsing these I'm just pointing out a great troubleshooting tool buy.
Having one of these has saved me thousands of dollars. I found out that one repair shop that told me that my car would not pass smog inspection without about $3K worth of repairs was completely full of crap by being able to read and decipher the codes that the car was throwing.
ForScan and an ELM327 port works great for Fords. Late model Dodge, Fiats, and Jeeps (FCA products) uses Appcar DiagFCA software works the same way ForScan. It isn’t $5,000 Snap-On quality. To handle ABS codes and airbag codes would be handy.
The cheap readers point you in the right direction. It may take some additional diagnostic work. A good multimeter is also a good tool to have.
ForScan and an ELM327 port works great for Fords. Late model Dodge, Fiats, and Jeeps (FCA products) uses Appcar DiagFCA software works the same way ForScan. It isn’t $5,000 Snap-On quality. To handle ABS codes and airbag codes would be handy.
The cheap readers point you in the right direction. It may take some additional diagnostic work. A good multimeter is also a good tool to have.
More comparisons come to mind. Going back a few to many years, when points determined ignition spark and would sometimes fail and weld together. Lots of guys would pop the weld with a pen knife reset the point gap with a match book as their gauge and then be able to get the car home.
In my experience the OBD2 scanner tool does a good job and there are certainly those who need it, either financially or due to lack of understanding of of what makes cars go. (sometimes both). Think of the OBD2 scanner codes as an educated guess.
Something to note: this only works for 1996 and newer vehicles. If your vehicle is 1995 or older, then you'll need an OBD-1 (note the "dash-one" instead of "dash-two") scanner, and those are NOT universal. If your vehicle is pre-1990s, it might not have any scanning-capability at all, despite still having a check-engine "idiot light". Such a dashboard-light goes back at least to the earliest fuel-injections systems, in the mid 1970s.
For OBD-1, the diagnostic procedure is to jump connectors in the diagnostic-box. This is a small plastic "box" under the hood, typically near the driver-fender or passenger-fender. When thus jumped, the check-engine light will blink, in accordance with the trouble-code that the ECU has stored.
The old dwell testers, timing lights and other gadgets. I have some of the tools. Mainly something to collect. I haven’t used a timing light in over 20 years.
Thinking back car manufacturers had it figured out for a long time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ohio_peasant
Something to note: this only works for 1996 and newer vehicles. If your vehicle is 1995 or older, then you'll need an OBD-1 (note the "dash-one" instead of "dash-two") scanner, and those are NOT universal. If your vehicle is pre-1990s, it might not have any scanning-capability at all, despite still having a check-engine "idiot light". Such a dashboard-light goes back at least to the earliest fuel-injections systems, in the mid 1970s.
For OBD-1, the diagnostic procedure is to jump connectors in the diagnostic-box. This is a small plastic "box" under the hood, typically near the driver-fender or passenger-fender. When thus jumped, the check-engine light will blink, in accordance with the trouble-code that the ECU has stored.
The good news today you can collect from the live readings presented by the OBD2 scanner for both winter and summer when you have your vehicle running at it's best. Then I catalog and save those readings for future reference. That way I have a base reference before a code sent or a starting place to keep the car running good with periodic OBD2 checks.
I have had an elm327 for close to 10 years now and it did a good job for my purposes. I prefer the hand held it keeps the phone from getting greased up and if I drop the handheld it's no big deal. Also that elm327 is selling at Walmart and all the auto parts store along with the hand-held. They are as common as flashlights walmart gets 7 bucks for the elm327 on line.
I can see that being a more utilitarian form factor for when you're actually wrenching rather than pulling out your phone. I've actually got an old iPad I keep around for pulling up pictures/instructions and running music in my garage and just connect that to the ELM327.
But for every day driving I just keep the ELM plugged in all the time and pull up the dashboard on my phone to display gauges that have been replaced by dummy lights in modern cars.
The good news today you can collect from the live readings presented by the OBD2 scanner for both winter and summer when you have your vehicle running at it's best. Then I catalog and save those readings for future reference. That way I have a base reference before a code sent or a starting place to keep the car running good with periodic OBD2 checks.
Well, at the moment I have an OBD-1 car that's getting maybe 40% worse gas mileage than it should. It occasionally misfires and the spark plugs are sooty, though full-throttle acceleration is OK. It throws OBD-1 error codes for bad oxygen sensor, presumably defaulting to open-loop operation that's too rich. Easy fix? Not necessarily. Running rich might explain the spark plugs, but not the hesitation. And the gas-mileage is far worse than what would be expected from running ~12:1 vs. the stoichiometric 14.7:1.
If I had a wide-band oxygen sensor I could diagnose what's going on. But the OEM narrow-band leaves me helpless. Even if the sensor could cover the necessary range of oxygen values, there is no way - at least none obvious to me - to read the signal. There is no way - at least none obvious to me - to "hack" into the ECU. So all of this clever OBD-2 stuff is, well, something like science-fiction for my application.
Your over thinking this one. I would rather have sooty plugs then oily ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ohio_peasant
Well, at the moment I have an OBD-1 car that's getting maybe 40% worse gas mileage than it should. It occasionally misfires and the spark plugs are sooty, though full-throttle acceleration is OK. It throws OBD-1 error codes for bad oxygen sensor, presumably defaulting to open-loop operation that's too rich. Easy fix? Not necessarily. Running rich might explain the spark plugs, but not the hesitation. And the gas-mileage is far worse than what would be expected from running ~12:1 vs. the stoichiometric 14.7:1.
If I had a wide-band oxygen sensor I could diagnose what's going on. But the OEM narrow-band leaves me helpless. Even if the sensor could cover the necessary range of oxygen values, there is no way - at least none obvious to me - to read the signal. There is no way - at least none obvious to me - to "hack" into the ECU. So all of this clever OBD-2 stuff is, well, something like science-fiction for my application.
Your over thinking this one. I would rather have sooty plugs then oily ones. You know the car better then anyone. Stick with the basics and do the full tune up. Fuel filter, air filter, oil and filter change, plugs and gap them, (iridium if possible) PVC valve, and thermostat (might no be coming up to temperature).
Check and double check everything for vacuum leaks. Make sure every electrical ground and positive connection is tight and clean. Next drive it like a granny for one tank of fuel just because it is geared for sport and you are trying to establish a base. Stick with the simple stuff to begin with and go back over what you changed recently.
You have a good repair manual and you know what to do. Here's a little book from years ago that has l list of great old school magic tricks that I used. You can probably get through this with a volt meter and a vacuum gauge.
On the Mazda forums they are saying that car does 22 city you need something to do this weekend anyway. Happy hunting.
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More comparisons come to mind.
