Code Reader

[Guest womble]

Can anyone suggest/reccomend/advise/criticise/review a suitable reasonably priced code reader to carry with me in the glove box to interrogate fault codes and reset engine management light on "54 Berlingo Multispace 2.0HDI.

 

I realise that the market for such devices is many and varied from the "Cheap and cheerful" Chinese imports on e-bay up to professional grade instruments costing hundreds of pounds.

 

Your inputs and comments/advice on this subject would be most welcomed.

[seefive]

Can anyone suggest/reccomend/advise/criticise/review a suitable reasonably priced code reader to carry with me in the glove box to interrogate fault codes and reset engine management light on "54 Berlingo Multispace 2.0HDI.

 

I realise that the market for such devices is many and varied from the "Cheap and cheerful" Chinese imports on e-bay up to professional grade instruments costing hundreds of pounds.

 

Your inputs and comments/advice on this subject would be most welcomed.

 

I bought a cheap and cheerful one from ebay. It reads the codes OK., and comes with a code listing to tell you what they mean. It doesn't however reset the engine light, which it claims to be able to.(this was on a 2002 petrol C5, not used it on my current 2008 car)

[argoose]

Hi, I brought a maxscan on ebay for £65 works well gave same fault on a c2 as the citroen dealer. Pity it didn't come back earlier would have saved me trip to the dealer. Lent it to a mate he's got intermitant fault on his bmw. But every time rac turn up it's working again, so he trying scanner. Let you know how it goes.

[Guest womble]

Sorry to bump this thread up, still looking for a code-reader and would appreciate ideas/info/reviews etc

[paul.h]

There is going to be an article on EOBD code readers in the February 2011 issue of Car mechanics, due out 20th Jan. So may help you decide.

 

For about 2 years I have had a Sealey VS863 reader which as well as EOBD code reading also reads/clears Citroen and Renault ABS, airbag and transmission codes. It was a bit expensive but since we have 3 Citroens I thought was probably worth it. It works well, (on 2003 petrol C3, 2004 diesel C5 mark 1, 2008 diesel C4) reads live data as EOBD and can be plugged in to the PC if wanted. Only used it to read/clear one code so far which I had caused by unplugging the C3 engine temp sensor. Since I have not had any ABS or airbag faults, the Citroen part of the reader has not been used to clear anything. The live data bit is useful and has been used to look at indicated high temperature problems on the C3 and I would not buy a reader that can not do this, unless I had a one off code I wanted to clear as cheaply as possible and had no real interest in car maintenance. It did not work on a 1996 7 series petrol BMW with a suitable cable adaptor.

[Guest womble]

Thank you for your reply paul.h,

 

I will look out for the magazine when it comes out and probably make my decision then.

 

Just had a look on t'internet and the one you are using at present, Sealey VS863, seems to be the business and at the end of the day you get what you pay for. Buy cheap and you usually buy twice is an old adage.

 

I had looked at the cheap'n'cheerful stuff on e-bay but am rapidly thinking otherwise.

 

Others I have looked at in the £35-£80 bracket have included the Gendan GCR05 and the Sealey VS8700.

 

A good friend of mine is service manager at a local 4x4 dealership and they use the VS8700 instrument on Randy Lovers, apparently it is ok for getting engine codes and resetting MIL light but limited in further application. My mate has offered to lend me the tool over a weekend for evaluation and to see if it will communicate with the Berlingo so I will know more about what steps I choose after that.

[paul.h]

Haynes C5 manual often mentions Nexia and Proxia as being the ones to use for more than just code reading and Google searches show they may not be that expensive.

[Guest womble]

Just had a quick "Google" for those two and looks like they are both available for around the £100-£160 mark but both are packages and software designed for use with a PC or laptop, depends how deep you want to go I suppose which going back to my original post is way O.T.T.

 

Just need something reliable, but not too chap'n'nasty, to carry with me in the glovebox for occassional use viz. retreiving the odd engine code and resetting the MIL in the event of getting stuck somewhere.

[Guest womble]

There is going to be an article on EOBD code readers in the February 2011 issue of Car mechanics, due out 20th Jan. So may help you decide.

 

Still sitting with my bum firmly on the fence!!!!

 

Bought the magazine today and reading through the article on EOBD code readers for the budget end of the market, there is also an interesting article about how to interpret code readings for fault finding.

 

As previously stated, the jury is still out and I will reply when I have finally bought in... (Not tight with my money, just working on a limited budget and important to get it right first time)