ODB II ODBII code reader scanner Equus Actron AutoXray what should I buy

[fanta]

ODB II ODBII code reader scanner Equus Actron AutoXray what should I buy?

I'm like, not sure

I'm leaning towards Equus http://www.equus.com/Product/Detail/66353679-55D4-490F-96ED-0582F1452540

[jay-ell]

I don't understand how that device can be used to blind hosss.

[AugustWest]

Do you work on cars?  Because, why?

[fanta]

I don't understand the question is that more of the word remapping going on there?

anyway, holy crap!  I have ascertained that a company named SPX maintains all of the following brands, and possibly others as well:

Actron
AutoXray
OTC aka Owatonna Tool Co.

So I it seems that the SPX products are fairly similar, however some may have more professional features than others, and different price points as well.

I compared the manual of the most expensive Equus with the most expensive SPX Actron, and meh... they seem largely similar... the Equus seems a little more user friendly generally, but seems to provide less access to data in certain specific scenarios.  The Equus doesn't seem worth paying extra for.  

So in choosing an SPX product, one has to wonder which product line is going to get shafted first, left in the dust with no updates.  My preference is to support a little more diversity in the marketplace by going with some less common brand.  From the looks of the SPX manual, the attention to detail in another product could be worse, but probably won't be, and might even be better.

The ideal would be to find a company that caters more to the niche market of which I guess I'm a part:  DIYers who want something that isn't sh*t and are able to make the effort to find it and buy it.  Some company like SPX is obviously just trying to flood the market as much as possible to maximize revenue, and cater to the by definition relatively less discriminating demands of the average consumer.  I don't think you can do that while making an excellent product.  To maximize market share really, because of the market dynamics, is an exercise in the kind of logic and ethics that really can't exist in the mind of someone who can focus on ... quality.

sorry, I hope I'm not over-generalizing there...

http://www.auteltech.com/  may fit the bill...  more research to be done... will post updates as more info is found..

[JorgeFabregas]

Are you a DIYer or a collector of junk and unfinished projects? I say this after seeing your living room or whatever and reading about all of your vehicles in various stages of disarray.

I've got no helpful info, though.

[fanta]

Do you work on cars?  Because, why?

Unless you happen to personally know a good mechanic, the alternative is generally to take your car to a shop that gives the mechanic incentive to fix your car as fast as possible without regard to doing a good job...  I'm not sure if this practice is widespread but one way of doing that is paying the mechanic by the job hours the job is rated for, not by the hours actually worked... I don't know maybe that is legal for mechanics, kind of like how it's legal to pay service staff less than minimum wage as long as they make it up with tips...

Also, I enjoy fixing stuff.  It's fun and easy for me, and it fits with my personal philosophy of self-reliance.  well okay it's not always fun but usually I can't afford to pay someone to fix my car for me.  Also, the experience gained in messing with cars is cumulative.  It's not something anyone can do, but for me, I've by now been messing with the cars I own for about 15 years and I've got a pretty good idea what I'm doing with some stuff.

Certainly, even if you never plan to so much as change a flat tire, if you're buying a used car, you should buy a simple code scanner for around $150 to $200 that will tell you not only if the check engine light is truly off and not just burned out / unplugged, but also, will tell you if it has been merely turned off and is perhaps waiting to turn back on...  

An unfortunately common trick that people employ when they are selling a used car is they will use a code scanner to turn off the check-engine light, and it may stay off long enough for a good test drive, and the poor person who buys the car from them has the check engine light come on a few miles or a few days down the road.  I've had it happen to me in fact... the wires leading to the O2 sensor were destroyed, yet somehow, miraculously, the check-engine light wasn't on... The guy who sold it to me was a service manager for a dealership...  

I suppose you could take the car you're planning to buy to a mechanic to check it out for you, but there again, you're relying on someone else to run the appropriate code scan... which they may or may not do... you'd be amazed how much incompetence and ambivalence is infused into the industry... after all, the auto repair industry has no incentive to develop any sort of troubleshooting competence.  

Also, the cars I buy are generally under $3000.  It's just not worth it to spend the time and money to have a mechanic check these out.  For $2 or $3, I expect to have to fix some stuff.  I just check for rust, loose joints...

How to buy a used car. real good tips

how to do a legal vehicle saftey inspection

and of course, you should hook up a code reader and make sure the check engine light isn't in limbo, i.e., hasn't been recently reset.  When it's reset, on newer model cars, you can see this on the code reader... certain modules will show a sort of 'pending' status meaning you have to drive the car a while until they report they are 'ok' or not.

check out the you tube videos.  That guy is a real sweetie!  

[fanta]

Are you a DIYer or a collector of junk and unfinished projects? I say this after seeing your living room or whatever and reading about all of your vehicles in various stages of disarray.

heh... yes and yes.  I'm trying to get rid of the unfinished projects and not accumulate new ones...

If you surf through that David's Farm guy's collection of youtube videos, at some point he talks about his problems with OCD and hoarding... fun stuff!

[pmcd9]

That David's Farm site is really interesting.  At first you think it's gonna be just a bunch of jackass videos of him and his friends doing stupid shit with these junker cars out on his farm, and there is a lot of that, but there's also a lot of other stuff too like the videos linked above and some really strange stuff with him feuding with his ex wife and accusations of spousal and child abuse.

[fanta]

Imagine making a youtube library of fairly open and honest and unreserved diary entries about one's life.  Obviously a lot of us would have a problem with doing that because of the privacy angle.  It's an interesting subject to think about, don't you think?  What is this privacy, and why do we cling to it so, and are we perhaps a little misguided in doing so?  Would a series of quasi-personal diaries be interesting and add value to the lives of others in a positive way?  Is it an unnecessary privacy fetish that is standing in the way of touching the lives of others in a positive way like that?  I know that I am better off for having lurked through David's farm a bit.  It was a positive experience because the guy is a positive guy.  I could have been doing a lot of other things with that time that would have been selgiraffe and totally asocial, like, sort my collection of pennies, or whatever. 

[AugustWest]

Imagine making a youtube library of fairly open and honest and unreserved diary entries about one's life. 

It's been done, sort of...

[fanta]

okay peepsels

well here is the update

I boughted this tool:

http://www.etoolcart.com/scan-tool-trilingual-obd-ii-can-and-abs.aspx
Manufacturer: Actron
Manufacturer Part No: ACT-CP9580
Our low price: $162.29

It sells for $230 or so at local places like Autozone.

In the end, in this price range, you have to compromise something.  The main consumer scan-tool makers have a strange matrix of features whereby you don't get more features for paying more, rather, you simply get different combinations of features.  Unfortunately, the ability to talk to the Air Bag computer is not one of the features available except on scanners specifically for air bags... these scanners do airbags and nothing else... :-( 

So basically, the main features you are looking at is the ability to do ABS diagnostics, or not, and the ability to do pre-1996 cars, or not, and also the ability to record data and play it back, or not... and also the ability to report the status of the car's IM monitors... e.g. complete, incomplete, OK, not OK.  This is invaluable for troubleshooting emissions, and for evaluating a used car you are considering purchasing (hint:  NEVER buy a car if any one of the IM monitors has an incomplete or not ok status unless you know what you're doing or you know you'll never need to pass an emissions test AND you don't plan on reselling the car)

Both Actron and Equus/Innova have on their web sites a comparison chart which shows which models have which features.

I went with Actron because the interface and user manual seemed on balance to be a lot more polished and easy to use and comprehensive than the Equus/Innova.  It's still pretty sucky in some regards, but oh well, given the price of $160, it was by far the cheapest option that still have a comprehensive feature set.

-----------------------

And then there are these nifty little gadgets:

http://www.scangauge.com/
http://www.roadico.com/roadi-products.php?#turboGIII

I got a scan gauge II at autozone for around $160.  This thing is great.  It displays an array of metrics, up to 4 at the same time, including such things as your more or less instantaneous liters of gas used per hour.  The turbo gauge is similar, but suffers from the shortsightedness of the designers in that it doesn't give you real time feedback on gas consumption, making it basically useless for the purpose of adjusting your driving style to save gas.

The scan gauge lets you see so many things, including the system voltage... great for diagnosing charging and alternator problems.  It even has a fairly comprehensive code reader/scanner built in, so it might be the only code reader you ever need. 

I really like the scan gauge because after simply driving around with it for 10 minutes, I gained significant insight into my gas consumption, into what does and doesn't burn more gas... Invaluable, especially if you have a stick shift.. you can see in what situations shifting into a higher gear saves gas, and in what situations it actually burns more gas... coasting in neutral generally uses several times less gas than *any* situation.  Turning on the A/C increases gas consumption by a third, when at idle. 

The only criticism I have is that the gas consumption sometimes drops to zero when you use engine breaking... this doesn't seem like it should be accurate... But what do I know... maybe it more or less is accurate?

One caution with the scan gauge is that it would be a good idea to tape up the exposed unused RJ port.  You don't want to discharge static electricity from your hand into this puppy as you could fry the internal electronics.

[Nabubrush]

What is this privacy, and why do we cling to it so, and are we perhaps a little misguided in doing so?

Are you Mark Zuckerberg?