Sooo I'd like to buy a USB OBD II scanner to plug into my Windows laptop. I'd like to never buy one again. I'm likely to own many OBD II cars in the future of different makes. I would like to be able to decipher proprietary manufacturer's codes as well as the generic stuff.

I'm boggled that there is a standard for the connector, but not for the protocol and what not...PWM? CAN??

Basically, I don't want to buy one for my Chevy, then have to buy another one to read BMW codes, then another for my Porsche yadda yadda...I know where I can buy a bunch of them, but I'm looking for personal experience with one or the other. I'd spend a couple hundred bucks if I thought I'd never buy another.

What's the one to buy (and why)?

 

Well considering none of ourcars use OBD of any kind I would say this is not the best place for the most informed opinions.
I would say Generally when it comes to technology like this you are after something you are never going to get. With the advancements in technologies. protocols and even interface connections ( not to mention car design and the development of new codes ) You can never say you want to buy only one ... what happens with ) OBD3 and OBD4 ? down the road ? who knows ....

 

I personally have never seen one that reads every manufacturer's proprietary codes & deciphers them. From memory, the highline companies like BMW / Porsche readers are usually much bigger money.

I keep a cheap POS OBD-II reader which cost me all of $20 at Harbor Freight I think. Once you have the code, Google's your friend.

I had an Acctron unit with snap-in manufacturer modules for the old OBD-I Fords... paid $200 for the base unit & $100 per module from memory. Or, in the case of my OBD-I Taurus SHO, you use a paperclip to jumper the connector & it causes the CEL to flash the code for you. $0.06 paperclip, priceless.

Good luck.

 

As someone who deals with this everyday, there is no magic bullet to get all the manufacturer specific information you need for every car out there in one tool for a few hundred bucks.

An economical option may be a used Snap-On MT2500 (Brick). That will get you vehicle specific codes for BMW (if EURO pack as purchased) and Chevy, as well as live PIDs and some scanner models have graphing capability for OBD-I and OBD-II vehicles. They can be picked up used for $300-$500, just make sure the cartridges cover the years you need. Porsche will be limited to global OBD-II scanning only.

To put the cost in perspective, the Porsche Factory Scan Tool is around $25k.

 

Oops, meant to post this in a more recent car forum...

I'm more than willing to punch codes into Google, I just want to make sure I can read all the codes that could be available. Will most OBD-II readers be able to at least get (manufacturers') codes from the car or is getting the codes the tricky part? If I can get 00034F, I don't need to know that that translates to oxygen sensor.

I'm so amazed that they would go to all this trouble to standardized and still have everything be completely disjointed.

 

I mean...seems like this is the guy:

http://www.amazon.com/Equus-3140-Dia.../dp/B000R3SNJU

This is all pretty crazy. I'm gonna write some OBD scanning software...Open source that ****, this kind of diagnostics should be a no-money no-brainer...

 

this is a family show ...
good luck

 

YES I GOT ONE IN VERY GOOD CONDITION BARELY USED

 

You can't go wrong with Innova , i have one of their better units and i'm happy with it.I also keep a $20.00 Autel unit from
Amazon in the glove box of my Subaru to clear the ever annoying P0457 codes ...

For what it's worth , a friend of mine in Montreal has a shop and he paid 6K for his SnapOn scanner, which worked very well
to reset all the maintenance codes on my son's BMW

Cheers
Phil

 

13 year old thread .... we are kicking it off early this year lol.

 

of course, 1 poster troll.