OBD Scanner or Reader?
June 29th, 2010 | 
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What to look for when buying an OBD II Scanner?
How do I know what to look for before I buy an obd2 scanner? My car is a 2004 model, and most scanner models say anything after 1996 is fine. I don’t know how they work, do they only work if the engine light is on? How much should I be spending for a pretty good one? Any samples/links/model numbers would be helpful before I decide what to buy. Thanks a lot – Martin Stuart
The changeover from OBD1 to OBD2 was in 1996. The government regulated that the cars manufactured after that date will have to be installed with the latest OBD2 management system. A good quality generic scanner starts around $220-$250 and keep on going up in price depending on the extra functions it has. I use a SNAP-ON M.O.D.I.S. in my shop. It ran me down close to $7,000 for the base unit only. I also purchased the extra plugs for the most common vehicles we service for their specific applications. Most code readers will give you the mandatory standardized Generic fault codes, but might not cope well for the other extra Manufacturer Specific fault codes. For normal individuals who just do their own vehicle’s maintenance, and do not depend on this work for a living, any quality brand scanners like the Actron or Equus Innova are there best choice. From there the next choice is if you should go for a simple but quality obd fault code reader with the ability to show up the generic fault codes flagged by the management system with the ability to reset them after the repairs are done, or else take it a step further and invest in the bigger tool, the diagnostic obd scanner. This has all the function of the fault code reader and much more like monitoring individual sensors, freeze capture display when a fault occurs, very handy on intermittent faults, emissions test similar and accurate enough as a smog test station, print facility of the various tests, save test data and various voltage output monitors.
Personally if I was not into this business I’d still probably go for a generic diagnostic obd scanner. You never know what holds in the future, and I do not like it when I find out that my tool is within less limits than I need it to be for the job. So for some hypothetical example, if you have a code reader and you need to do some more deep scan testing for this type of fault, you are now stuck. Your options now are either have the car at a specialist, or else buy an obd diagnostic scanner. And nobody likes buying the same or similar tool twice!
You can have a look at new bargain prices on eBay or Amazon where there is a lot of power-seller competition, so they end up reducing the price as much as they can to capture the most buyers from their competition. Their gain is your gain too in this situation.
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