Please spec me a: Obdii reader

sports_brah · 12 Mar 2013 at 16:20

Looking to search out some fault codes on a car. Looking for cheapness here, sub £20.

I can connect it either to a Nexus phone or a windows laptop.

Any suggestions, as there seems to be a million and one options.

Thank you.

sports_brah · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:07

anyone? thanks

Brookert · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:20

What car do you have? If it's Vag, a vagcom cable is dirt cheap on ebay

Del Lardo · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:27

I bought one of these. It works

King4aDay · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:28

Bluetooth ELM327 (~£9 from ebay) and Torque app (£2.95) should do the trick.

muon · 12 Mar 2013 at 21:35

Well at sub £20 it has to be a Chinese Elm327 clone.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELM327#Pirate_clones

AshD93 · 13 Mar 2013 at 06:37

Brookert said:
What car do you have? If it's Vag, a vagcom cable is dirt cheap on ebay

And if they're really cheap, they'll end up messing up someone's car.

If you have a Nexus, look for Bluetooth Adapters that work with Torque (It's a code reading App on Android)

rossk26 · 13 Mar 2013 at 07:47

This any good?

Third Opinion · 13 Mar 2013 at 08:39

rossk26 said:
This any good?

Thats the one I have. Used it on 3 cars so far with no problems (Vectra, Alfa and Fiat).

You will need software though. The disk sent with it seemed to have some dodgy serial generators from some Warez site.

rossk26 · 13 Mar 2013 at 08:41

Third Opinion said:
Thats the one I have. Used it on 3 cars so far with no problems (Vectra, Alfa and Fiat).

You will need software though. The disk sent with it seemed to have some dodgy serial generators from some Warez site.

Looks like software comes with the reader? I will get the torque pro app as well.

So are these Chinese knock off's still ok?

paradigm · 13 Mar 2013 at 08:49

AshD93 said:
And if they're really cheap, they'll end up messing up someone's car.

Lol what?

Never had a problem with any of my VCDS cables, you just have to know what you are doing. Then again, if all you are doing is reading fault codes and resetting them/service lights, you can't do any damage, at all.

Third Opinion · 13 Mar 2013 at 08:55

rossk26 said:
Looks like software comes with the reader? I will get the torque pro app as well.

So are these Chinese knock off's still ok?

The cable is fine, the software is dodgy IMO. They are all trial versions of loads of programs with some dodgy serial generators thrown in.

I used Pro-scan to turn off the engine light on a friends Vectra.

But I use the cable with Multiecuscan for the Fiat and Alfa.

Is the Torque app for Android? If so are you sure you want a USB cable?

Amos91 · 13 Mar 2013 at 09:03

rossk26 said:
Looks like software comes with the reader? I will get the torque pro app as well.

So are these Chinese knock off's still ok?

As said, you'd probably want a bluetooth one to work with Torque.

rossk26 · 13 Mar 2013 at 09:09

olivercamos said:
As said, you'd probably want a bluetooth one to work with Torque.

Yeh I'm after the bluetooth version. I wasn't sure if the USB cable was to initially set up the device.

Or should it be ready to go straight from the box?

This one?

Or this one?

Third Opinion · 13 Mar 2013 at 09:24

rossk26 said:
Yeh I'm after the bluetooth version. I wasn't sure if the USB cable was to initially set up the device.

Or should it be ready to go straight from the box?

This one?

Or this one?

I use the Blue one with my Tablet, worked ok. I would probably buy it from the UK though. Those are both from China.

rossk26 · 13 Mar 2013 at 09:37

Third Opinion said:
I use the Blue one with my Tablet, worked ok. I would probably buy it from the UK though. Those are both from China.

How about this one?

derk · 13 Mar 2013 at 10:28

King4aDay said:
Bluetooth ELM327 (~£9 from ebay) and Torque app (£2.95) should do the trick.

Bought the same for a e46 330d, totally useless, connected ok but displayed nothing.
I have an HTC though and this could be the issue as the app doesn't like HTC much

King4aDay · 13 Mar 2013 at 10:38

halz said:
Bought the same for a e46 330d, totally useless, connected ok but displayed nothing.
I have an HTC though and this could be the issue as the app doesn't like HTC much

Was it an issue with the bluetooth pairing? Apparently getting the right pairing code can be a bit tricky. Try emailing the Torque author, he's supposed to be very good at sorting out problems.

derk · 13 Mar 2013 at 10:45

No it paired up straight away, I just couldn't get any codes off it.
The only thing it did was display engine speed.

King4aDay · 13 Mar 2013 at 11:11

That is pretty useless, you're right

Mine's in the post at the moment (was researching this myself just as the OP posted), hopefully I have more luck.

Please spec me a: Obdii reader

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