car diagnostics :D

jamoor · 7 Feb 2007 at 17:29

After bieng asked to pay £35 at the dealer/indy for him literally to plug in a box of tricks to my car to find out whats wrong with the parking sensors, I was annoyed, so I invested in my own little diagnostics kit

How cool is that

it tells me everything that's wrong with it

I don't have a clue what the first one is about, but the second one, it actually tells me which sensor is to blame.
Good spending of £75 imo

NickXX · 7 Feb 2007 at 17:50

Alternatively, you could have just listened to each of the sensors to work out which one was not working... but hey, you're loaded anyway

jamoor · 7 Feb 2007 at 17:54

NickXX said:
Alternatively, you could have just listened to each of the sensors to work out which one was not working... but hey, you're loaded anyway

Yeah, the airbag light comes on every now and then, which needed to be reset so I did that too, so that's a fiver saved

. There was a fault code for that too "passenger occupancy sensor" but I have reset it all so will see if it reoccurs in the next few days.
I can also set the auto lock when in motion which is cool, it also reads data live so you can see lots of information which means nothing to me whatsoever.

hummaia9 · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:01

I opted against the carsoft route and got a hand held OBD reader for £50

NickXX · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:04

jamoor said:
Yeah, the airbag light comes on every now and then, which needed to be reset so I did that too, so that's a fiver saved . There was a fault code for that too "passenger occupancy sensor" but I have reset it all so will see if it reoccurs in the next few days.
I can also set the auto lock when in motion which is cool, it also reads data live so you can see lots of information which means nothing to me whatsoever.

It'll come back on. If it's like the e46 one, it will be down to a sensor in the front passenger seat - has a tendency to break, but is a cheap fix from an Independant IIRC.

I'm getting a remap done next week, so will get all the autolock stuff done by the guy at the same time. Tell me if you find anything cool on there. I want to set the auto lock and the auto dipping passenger mirror (for when you stick it in reverse). I'm sure there was some other stuff I wanted too.

jamoor · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:07

NickXX said:
It'll come back on. If it's like the e46 one, it will be down to a sensor in the front passenger seat - has a tendency to break, but is a cheap fix from an Independant IIRC.

I'm getting a remap done next week, so will get all the autolock stuff done by the guy at the same time. Tell me if you find anything cool on there. I want to set the auto lock and the auto dipping passenger mirror (for when you stick it in reverse). I'm sure there was some other stuff I wanted too.

I *think* the auto dip mirror is only on cars with elec seats.
I would do a remap, but am thinking of getting the pierburg MAF for now.

jamoor · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:07

hummaia9 said:
I opted against the carsoft route and got a hand held OBD reader for £50

do they have the same level of detail?

Maybe I am just amazed by it because I have little techincal experience

NickXX · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:40

jamoor said:
I would do a remap, but am thinking of getting the pierburg MAF for now.

I'm tempted too - let me know how you get on with it. I would get one, but not totally sure it's anything more than a placebo effect. If my current MAF fades, I will get a Pierburg replacement though.

NickXX · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:42

jamoor said:
do they have the same level of detail?

Maybe I am just amazed by it because I have little techincal experience

I believe they can do all the data read outs, but they can't change settings (auto-lock, etc). However this isn't too much of a problem if you have everything set up as you want it already.

There was/is a group buy going on at BMWland.

Wicksta · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:44

Can you do things like recode the LCM for LED rear lights with carsoft?

hummaia9 · 7 Feb 2007 at 18:45

jamoor said:
do they have the same level of detail?

Maybe I am just amazed by it because I have little techincal experience

As Nick said, its not as detailed but much simpler to use and obviously more mobile

Tom|Nbk · 18 Oct 2008 at 18:22

Epic bump.

Just got myself a Carsoft/OBD Cables.

Already diagnosed one of the issues with my car (Faulty Camshaft Sensor) and have just enabled Autolocking doors.

Something which BMW wanted £25 to activate

So it's already paid for itself!

Some of the live data stuff is incredibely cool as well. Even though it may be useless for me.

jon.bda · 18 Oct 2008 at 19:36

We have a Snap-On MT2500 at work, the amount of electronics on stuff nowadays you'd get nowhere without a scanner...

Tom|Nbk · 18 Oct 2008 at 19:39

but does that cost £50

For £50 the amount that Carsoft can do is pretty impressive.

SB118 · 18 Oct 2008 at 20:08

Where are people getting these cheapo readers from? I'm thinking of getting one for when the wife breaks her Corsa....

edit, i'm seeing usb/serial/obd2 readers for £30, is that right? Or are they just the hardware and you need to find working software? (the adverts are a bit of a blur)

mrk · 18 Oct 2008 at 22:46

Tom|Nbk said:
Epic bump.

Just got myself a Carsoft/OBD Cables.

Already diagnosed one of the issues with my car (Faulty Camshaft Sensor) and have just enabled Autolocking doors.

Something which BMW wanted £25 to activate

So it's already paid for itself!

Some of the live data stuff is incredibely cool as well. Even though it may be useless for me.

Can you tell me where you got your kit from ?

I'm interested for when stuff does go wrong I know exactly where to look and also the live readout data!

Dogbreath · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:15

jamoor said:
A
I don't have a clue what the first one is about, but the second one, it actually tells me which sensor is to blame.

And this is how people waste hundreds of pounds replacing sensors that are perfectly fine. The diagnostics DO NOT report which sensor is faulty, they report which sensors are reporting values outside the expected range, a completely different thing.

MikeHiow · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:20

jon.bda said:
We have a Snap-On MT2500 at work, the amount of electronics on stuff nowadays you'd get nowhere without a scanner...

A mate of mine has one of these, and I've borrowed it on a few occasions, fantastic bit of kit!

TaKeN · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:50

talk to my car (google it)

Sells a lot of car diagnostic equiptment, and cheaply.

Although it definately won't do anywhere near the amount of stuff that Jon.bda's bit of kit will do.

[TW]Fox · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:52

Dogbreath said:
And this is how people waste hundreds of pounds replacing sensors that are perfectly fine. The diagnostics DO NOT report which sensor is faulty, they report which sensors are reporting values outside the expected range, a completely different thing.

It's a parking sensor, if it was displaying values outside of its expected range, its broken.