Car Diagnostic Software

MrKnifey

MrKnifey

MrKnifey

Soldato
Joined
3 Aug 2008
Posts
3,543
Location
Nelson, South Wales
Anyone using a good Car Diagnostic software on their PC? Obviously with the connector from USB to Car Port.. After a Multi Vehicle one if anyone has any suggestions its much appreciated.
 
depending on the car but i use pcmscan the most seems to be the one that works with most cars. for fiats and alfas i use fiatecu
 
Multi-vehicle stuff is rubbish unless you only want basic ability - depends on the sort of cars you'll read. You cannot access the majority of ECU's which would store fault codes on a BMW with a generic multi-car tool for example.
 
No worrys, looks like im going to be purchasing a few different ones. So can anyone recommend VAG, BMW, Pug and Ford?
 
crankbro said:
No worrys, looks like im going to be purchasing a few different ones. So can anyone recommend VAG, BMW, Pug and Ford?
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Well surely VAG would be VCDS. Quite pricey ~ £200 it think. At least your sorted for Audi,VW,Seat and Skoda though.
 
Jono8 said:
Well surely VAG would be VCDS. Quite pricey ~ £200 it think. At least your sorted for Audi,VW,Seat and Skoda though.
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VCDS will read anything OBD2 compatible for basic codes (like a generic code reader). I think, Petrol past 2001 and Diesel past 2004 should all work. Anything before that is hit and miss. A OLD civic worked when I tried but a 2002 307 didn't.

I would show you proof of generic code reading but it's too late. Check the ross-tech website.


For Peugeot/Citreon, you need a Lexia 3 cable I believe along with Peugeot Planet/the equivalent Citreon software.

Be warned, the cables get costly very quickly and if you use cheap eBay ones and they end up glitching with fake software on a customer's car, you're going to get entered without lube with a bill.

P.S. If you end up getting the Ross-tech cable but a old one, you'll need to search about K-Lines else you may ruin your cable.
 
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AshD93 said:
For Peugeot/Citreon, you need a Lexia 3 cable I believe along with Peugeot Planet/the equivalent Citreon software.

Be warned, the cables get costly very quickly and if you use cheap eBay ones and they end up glitching with fake software on a customer's car, you're going to get entered without lube with a bill.
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I used a clone Lexia 3 cable on my VTS, it allowed me to do so much more than a basic ELM327 cable. I could reset airbag lights, run actuator tests etc etc and it was the only thing that'd get the car to start again after it did it's mysterious cutting out when idling in traffic for a bit. I leant it to a guy at work who was able to unlock some features on his Peugeot. HOWEVER - the cable lost connection whilst clearing a fault code on my engine ECU - after that every time I tried to clear a fault with it, it'd throw an error at me. It'd work.. but it I'd get an error everytime that can't be cleared.

So yeah, be wary of cheap cables / software.
 
The basic readers all work for clearing generic dtc's and will all offer some level of logging capability - each manufacturer has its own unique set of accessible ecu featured though which you will only get with the appropriate tool, so it depends what the op wants to so but it very much sounds like he needs more than the basic capabilities
 
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