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[Impact Pete]

I'm after some advice on a car diagnostic tool, I've looked around and obviously you get ones ranging from £10 on ebay to a whole lot more, yes the cheap ones boast a lot for such a price but when you look further into them they obviously don't do a lot of what dearer models do.
So what would people recommend for a diyer who dabbles with repairs on my own and others vehicles at the weekend. I have a Kia and a Transit van and know from experience the kia has two diagnostic sockets from memory one in engine bay for abs and air bag etc which cheap code readers won't link to or pull codes.
I've also read that some of the cheaper models won't work on vans.
I could live with a cheap one just to help with minor stuff but it would be nice to have one that reads airbag and abs faults (basic stuff) and clear codes.

Hope this makes sense interested to know what others have what price and what their limitations are. you get what you pay for is probably the correct answer but please humour me...

[X30XE]

Laptop and ~£20 cables specific to your vehicle databus is the most likely to do more than just OBDII.  Plus some software aquired by "internet resource mining"  

Best to get more than one software as well to check they agree on the fault codes. Some are wildly innacurate.

Pre 2001 petrols are not req to be OBDII compliant, Pre 2004 diesels likewise.

In my experience, if it's cheap it's shit. Pure and simple. And even if it's expensive as frig, they only stay in business by charging you more when you need that extra doodad thingamy to make it go kerchunk kerchunk... 

[zirk]

As said really for day to day Code reading and Live Data, then Free upwards if using Lappy with Cable / Bluetooth / WiFi for ODB2 compliant Vehicles, Pre ODB2 depends on the Vehicle Manufacture, some Generic Hand Held Units will do some but not all for around 60 to 100 notes.

Where your going to struggle is things like ABS, SRS, GearBox, Audio, etc. for each Vehicle Manufacture let alone getting something Generic.

for Vauxhalls the Android App 'Scan My Opel Pro' is quiet good on a cheap budget.

[omega2018]

i have one like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262809744026

if you know your way round a laptop with bluetooth and are happy installing software and fiddling with it, i would try it, you only have £3.99 to lose

mine reads the codes and can reset them iirc also has some nice monitoring features, graphs etc.. 

one the other hand if you want something that will work perfectly and off the shelf you're looking at a lot more money

[Impact Pete]

i have one like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262809744026

if you know your way round a laptop with bluetooth and are happy installing software and fiddling with it, i would try it, you only have £3.99 to lose

mine reads the codes and can reset them iirc also has some nice monitoring features, graphs etc.. 

one the other hand if you want something that will work perfectly and off the shelf you're looking at a lot more money

Have looked at another throw away purchase http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192053243716?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT I watched the youtube video with the guy boasting how good it is but the video is misleading he says it can clear all sorts of codes, air bag abs etc but it can read them but not clear them

[zirk]

i have one like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262809744026

if you know your way round a laptop with bluetooth and are happy installing software and fiddling with it, i would try it, you only have £3.99 to lose

mine reads the codes and can reset them iirc also has some nice monitoring features, graphs etc.. 

one the other hand if you want something that will work perfectly and off the shelf you're looking at a lot more money

Have looked at another throw away purchase http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192053243716?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT I watched the youtube video with the guy boasting how good it is but the video is misleading he says it can clear all sorts of codes, air bag abs etc but it can read them but not clear them

For 10 quid its a simple Code Reader and Resetter, probably wont do all pre 2001/2004 vehicles though, main advantage is you dont have to mess with the dongles / pairing etc which can sometimes be challenging on some of the cheapo Chinese stuff.

As said in my other post, anything other than simple ECU engine codes then you going to struggle.

[Impact Pete]

i have one like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262809744026

if you know your way round a laptop with bluetooth and are happy installing software and fiddling with it, i would try it, you only have £3.99 to lose

mine reads the codes and can reset them iirc also has some nice monitoring features, graphs etc.. 

one the other hand if you want something that will work perfectly and off the shelf you're looking at a lot more money

Have looked at another throw away purchase http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192053243716?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT I watched the youtube video with the guy boasting how good it is but the video is misleading he says it can clear all sorts of codes, air bag abs etc but it can read them but not clear them

For 10 quid its a simple Code Reader and Resetter, probably wont do all pre 2001/2004 vehicles though, main advantage is you dont have to mess the dongles / pairing etc which can sometimes be challenging on some of the cheapo Chinese stuff.

As said in my other post, anything other than simple ECU engine codes then you going to struggle.

Hi yes appreciate that, I had my kia plugged into an autel machine, that didn't look cheap but it still only found basic issues with my abs, and didn't want to pay kia to tell me what I eventually found out was just a relay on the abs via simple circuit testing.

I suppose I'm just after a simple starter to play around with on mates cars etc I just enjoy fault finding and either fixing or sending someone to somewhere to be fixed with the right info so they don't get ripped off

some good points so far

[omega2018]

yes go for the £9.99 stand alone one the bluetooth ones can be a pain to get working.

alternatively you can pay £2K for one

[zirk]

i have one like this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262809744026

if you know your way round a laptop with bluetooth and are happy installing software and fiddling with it, i would try it, you only have £3.99 to lose

mine reads the codes and can reset them iirc also has some nice monitoring features, graphs etc.. 

one the other hand if you want something that will work perfectly and off the shelf you're looking at a lot more money

Have looked at another throw away purchase http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192053243716?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT I watched the youtube video with the guy boasting how good it is but the video is misleading he says it can clear all sorts of codes, air bag abs etc but it can read them but not clear them

For 10 quid its a simple Code Reader and Resetter, probably wont do all pre 2001/2004 vehicles though, main advantage is you dont have to mess the dongles / pairing etc which can sometimes be challenging on some of the cheapo Chinese stuff.

As said in my other post, anything other than simple ECU engine codes then you going to struggle.

Hi yes appreciate that, I had my kia plugged into an autel machine, that didn't look cheap but it still only found basic issues with my abs, and didn't want to pay kia to tell me what I eventually found out was just a relay on the abs via simple circuit testing.

I suppose I'm just after a simple starter to play around with on mates cars etc I just enjoy fault finding and either fixing or sending someone to somewhere to be fixed with the right info so they don't get ripped off

some good points so far

Fair do's, just dont fall into the trap that a lot Code Reader Newbies do and that is every time the Code Reader reports a Sensor fault they replace the Sensor. 

[Doctor Gollum]

How much time did you spend faffing and worrying about the Abs issue, not to mention missed appointments/cancelled trips etc?

I'll wager that it was worth a damn site more than an hour at Kia

[Impact Pete]

I saw Kevin Wood post about oxy sensors when I asked about a code he suggested replacing the sensor was not necessarily the issue

[Impact Pete]

How much time did you spend faffing and worrying about the Abs issue, not to mention missed appointments/cancelled trips etc?

I'll wager that it was worth a damn site more than an hour at Kia

In some respects yes but Kia wanted £80+vat an hour and didn't give me much assurance that they would find anything different to what I already had, plus once I found the right wiring diagram for the system I spent less than an hour fixing it