Best diagnostic tool?

[Mikey360 68]

What's everyone's personal favourite? 

I've used a few of the cheap ebay ones that link up to your phone, looking for a more professional one.

[Mark101 536]

Best diagnostic tool? My ear

[AutoJacob 34]

Got a snap on ethos, works sweet and tells me what I need to know.. even does key programming etc, comes with 2 or 3 years updates and warranty.

Edited March 31, 2018 by AutoJacob

[EPV 631]

Aren’t the snap on proper ones about £2k?

[twerp 69]

Autel

[AutoJacob 34]

38 minutes ago, EPV said:

Aren’t the snap on proper ones about £2k?

£1800 incl vat from my local snap on man.

[justina3 518]

I went for the launch x431 from my local factors was £1450 I tried the Ethos even got the old version which never failed but just rolled out of date, we already have key programmers so didn’t need that feature this time, be lost with a good diagnostic Machibe I don’t understand anyone who trades in cars could survive without one. 

[Mark101 536]

11 hours ago, Mikey360 said:

What's everyone's personal favourite? 

I've used a few of the cheap ebay ones that link up to your phone, looking for a more professional one.

Luckily, my partner workshop will do free diagnostics for me and they are 2 minutes away.  Maybe you could come to the same arrangement with yours?

[metcars 395]

Funnily enough my old launch died yesterday!

[justina3 518]

1 hour ago, Mark101 said:

Luckily, my partner workshop will do free diagnostics for me and they are 2 minutes away.  Maybe you could come to the same arrangement with yours?

We started off doing the same thing, but once we started moving more and more cars I could see it was starting to get a pain pulling there fitters off every five minutes for plug ins 

the second have value on these machines is high you could always bite the bullet is marks suggestion doesn’t work then if you find your not using it you can easily sell it on.

 

2 minutes ago, met said:

Funnily enough my old launch died yesterday!

I wouldn’t call that funny  I remember when my old ethos went out of date range I could have cried 

[MSP Motors 39]

i have 4 cheap laptops and i have ista,diagbox,vagcom, Renault clip, Vauxhall, ids, star and my favourite.....autocom which i use most. In my experience I find it a lot easier to have the right tools for the job. I even had to lend my £100 laptop to my garage the other day as they could not program injectors on a transit connect with the snap on tool they have.

[Frankieola 22]

29 minutes ago, MSP Motors said:

i have 4 cheap laptops and i have ista,diagbox,vagcom, Renault clip, Vauxhall, ids, star and my favourite.....autocom which i use most. In my experience I find it a lot easier to have the right tools for the job. I even had to lend my £100 laptop to my garage the other day as they could not program injectors on a transit connect with the snap on tool they have.

Sorry if I'm just being thick, how did you get all these? 

[justina3 518]

Vauxhall Star is a bril bit of kit does a bucket load more than an obd reader 

[andymc1973 199]

2 hours ago, MSP Motors said:

i have 4 cheap laptops and i have ista,diagbox,vagcom, Renault clip, Vauxhall, ids, star and my favourite.....autocom which i use most. In my experience I find it a lot easier to have the right tools for the job. I even had to lend my £100 laptop to my garage the other day as they could not program injectors on a transit connect with the snap on tool they have.

What did they all set you back?

[Cruise 1]

I Second the Autel, excellent bit of kit and good value for money 

[It's me 613]

4 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

What did they all set you back?

depends where he bought them from

i see my fantastic launch crp129 has now price crashed on aliexpress

i updated mine a few months back via the internet and its dongle,super tool that works out of the box fast

ive loads of laptops but hated the time the various programmes took to communicate with stuff like renaults or fiats so they are all stuffed in the bottom of the filing cabinet for emergancies

 

[metcars 395]

7 hours ago, justina3 said:

We started off doing the same thing, but once we started moving more and more cars I could see it was starting to get a pain pulling there fitters off every five minutes for plug ins 

the second have value on these machines is high you could always bite the bullet is marks suggestion doesn’t work then if you find your not using it you can easily sell it on.

 

I wouldn’t call that funny  I remember when my old ethos went out of date range I could have cried 

If it wasn't for the abundance of chocolate I'd be in tears too

[justina3 518]

2 minutes ago, met said:

If it wasn't for the abundance of chocolate I'd be in tears too

I tried coffe even that didn’t work to be fair my garage only had one tech that could use there machine they run a Bosch system and he is always flat out so me punching him for pesky vw fault codes every five mins was always gojng to be temporary measure 

[Boydy1985 0]

S and B, The Lauch X431 that you have are you able to do forced Regens on the likes of a 2010 Mercedes C220 and a 2012 Audi A5 3.0Tdi for example?

 

I use a Delphi Clone which is really good but doesn't seem to be that good On Bmw or Mercedes

[metcars 395]

Are these Chinese 'clones' really worth a punt these days. Back in the day they were stinking cheap (almost disposable) but I don't see any great bargains these days?

[twerp 69]

10 minutes ago, Boydy1985 said:

S and B, The Lauch X431 that you have are you able to do forced Regens on the likes of a 2010 Mercedes C220 and a 2012 Audi A5 3.0Tdi for example?

 

I use a Delphi Clone which is really good but doesn't seem to be that good On Bmw or Mercedes

I would be tempted to buy the cheap iCarSoft MB V2.0 for £135 for just your Merc

Does practically everything

[Stalker 180]

1 hour ago, met said:

Are these Chinese 'clones' really worth a punt these days. Back in the day they were stinking cheap (almost disposable) but I don't see any great bargains these days?

That because EBAY aren't supposed to let sellers sell fake/counterfeit goods.... You have to look elsewhere

[andymc1973 199]

is there no "one tool fits all" available? or a device with multiple brands on

[Mark101 536]

6 minutes ago, tradex said:

We have a cheap Foxwell that gets a lot of use and seems to do most brands and has very good real time data, I think it was something like £500 a few years back, so more like £40 now.

Talks to pretty much every system on the car and for a budget scanner is to be recommended. 

We just had two issues this week that it helped clear in real time, a stalling Focus which was an intermittent brake pedal switch, and a Clio climate fault caused by a duff roof sensor. Had a bad steering sensor on a Punto before that. 

I agree with those that say,  they couldn't work without a decent scanner. 

Excuse my inexperience - when you say it "cleared" the faults - did you need to replace the sensors or does this simply clear the fault?

[Mark101 536]

7 minutes ago, tradex said:

 it does a lot but won't repair things. 

New pedal switch, new temp sensor motor unit, new rack needed......but yes it clears codes once repaired

You need an 'all systems' scanner, geek speak for does much everything. 

Foxwell do blowouts and you can sometimes catch a real bargain. Nice guys to deal with too in our experience. 

I thought it sounded too good to be true - can you tell I'm no mechanic!