shadowknight

Has anyone used the diagnostic tool from JDS porshce. The link forthe unit is http://www.jdsporsche.com/jdsdiagtool.html

the flyin' scotsman

Not personally but soon.

Others have though.

Bill Ball

Yes, I have owned one for about 2 years. It has proven itself over and over. It identified that I had not properly plugged in the rear knock sensor once. Well, it told me "rear knock sensor missing." I knew it was there so, the real answer was obvious, even though I thought I had plugged it in properly after doing some fuel rail work. So, I got a bunch of spark advance power back. Without it, I might never have found the problem. Same with a buddy who was having idle problem - someone had messed up the wiring to the throttle switch. Right a way it clued us into a problem in that area.

In other cars it has found broken Hall sensors and WOT switches among other things. Now, armed with a multimeter, workshop manuals or other EZK/LH diagnostic guides, you could find most of these things by testing the right pins on the plug connectors. The Spanner is a lot more convenient and faster.

ROG100

Highly recommend it and John Speake is a first class gentleman and on top of that he's a Brit.
Very worthwhile tool.

the flyin' scotsman

Second the comments on John...........despite the fact he's a Brit (its a Scottish thing).

StratfordShark

I'd say John Speake's (the man behind JDSporsche) contributions to this list would give you a clue about how useful his diagnostic tool is!

I bought the 'spanner' device off him very recently. I almost wanted to find more problems to justify buying it but it showed all OK apart from the 'flappy' not working. I'm just in the middle of chasing down the vacuum leak that lies behind that problem and once I've nailed it it will give me a big performance boost at high revs apart from the improvement it should bring to the HVAC system (even if the leak isn't one of the actuators in the HVAC system, it relies on good vac to function).

The tool also runs an 'idle adaptation' routine and after running that I had an immediate improvement in idle and general running smoothness.

Apart from peace of mind I regard the cost of the JDS tool as relatively modest compared with saving of my time on troubleshooting, not to mention potentially huge bills from shops if you were to use them.

John backs up his products with terrific communication/help.

Adrian

Ed Scherer

I've had a Spanner for more than a year. Haven't really used it all that much, but it did help me diagnose my air bag problem and get the fault reset. Worked as advertised. We're lucky that somebody like John actually went out and developed something like this, as alternatives (the Bosch Hammer) were becoming harder and harder to find.

See the thread "Fixing a nuisance air bag system fault 3129/3229" from June 2005.

blown 87

I wish I had one.

cfc928gt

Ditto that

cfc928gt

Ditto that

Vilhuer

Have used Spanner on several 928s, one 964 and 968. It does work well even though on few '89 and later 928s it refused to complete the diagnostics. I'm not sure if it was because of the cars or diagnostics software. John was very helpful and would have sorted it out I'm sure. I just haven't had time to really try to find out whats going on.

algie928s4

It's a great tool but you don't get alot of use from it assuming everything is good first test!, I bought it half share with a mate - reckon that's an option to pursue if there is another 928 owner local.

Rob Edwards

Vilhuer- It's interesting you mention the issue about not finishing diagnostics on 89+ cars- I bought a used one a few months back and it will not go all the way thru the diagnostics on my 90GT. I took it to SF06 and had the same issue on Ryans' 90GT. That said, I haven't even taken the time to read the manual properly, let alone play with the included CD, or, hell, even e-mail John whether there are any known issues or software upgrades. Maybe after the three kids graduate from college and I get my weekends back....

danglerb

Sounds like a great "party" tool.

H2

Perhaps the tool is optimized for just certain years?

Harvey