fault diagnostic kit, any good?

astra99

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i need one for my peugeot 406 2001/x reg diesel,

garages trying to charge £30+ vat and peugeot dealer £90+ vat.............what a joke!

i found this on ebay if anyone knows if they are any good or will work on my car?
Diagnostic Cable Lead USB OBD2 PC Vauxhall Vectra Corsa on eBay (end time 28-Dec-10 18:46:10 GMT)
need to see if there are any faults coming up as im having trouble with my car,

also reading through another post i found this DealExtreme: $27.21 ELM327 USB Vehicle OBD-2 Scanner Tool

not sure which one will do for my car or if any of them will, also are they easy to use?

cheers
 
be careful
as your car is a 2001 and a diesel
it will not be covered by eobd protocol as derv vehicles were not required to comply until 2004 or there about so it might (strong possibility) not actually retrieve any codes from your car ..

also if the garage is competent with diagnostics then 30 quid is well spent to find and diagnose a fault
also eobd does not cover a lot of manufacturer codes and all other modules in your car so if the tool the garage is using does a universal scan for example using pp2000 you will be able to see faults in all modules ie abs and aircon ect providing the car has these

so if the garage as ive said is competent then better giving those guys your 30 quid than spending on ebay and receive a tool that may be of no use ?
 
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but what if their machine dont bring up the codes? then ive just paid them 30 odd quid for nothing lol, the fault with my car is that when driving i can hear the turbo kick in but not getting any boost from it
 
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then maybe you have a leak in the intercooler or pipes to it
or a stuck waste gate if your system is not a vgt
if there is a mil light lit in the dash present
then there will be a code logged ...

.and eobd doesn't cover your car a dedicated scanner or nowt ime afraid


if your car is suffering under boost and there is a underlying fault then a tech will pick it up on live data with pp2000

just because its not got a fault code doesnt mean the jobs screwed
a dedicated scanner should let you look at live data
also another point is
if you have a look at the cost of a tool like these they have costs over and above actually first purchase cost
in the form of subscriptions ect
the outlay sometimes can be thousands for a garage then hundreds a year in subscriptions
if you think it also takes just a code reader and a person with no knowledge of the system or car being diagnosed
you are very wrong mate
30 quid is the usual fee for scanning your car
as it uses about 30 minutes of a techs time and the equipment aint cheap
have a look at the costs mate
youl soon see that 30 quid is peanuts and if your complaining at that
wait till you get a parts bill
what amuses me is that a person is happy enough to pay say 60 quid for say a ball joint
but the ball joint was only about 15 quid and took an hour or less to do

yet if they want you to plug in thousands of pounds worth of equipment that you have paid for tech support and updates for and sometimes training
they whine ???

it defy s belief that an engine fault causing drivability problems ect is second to the poor relative that may have been a low tech answer costing very little time or cost in the outset

amazing
but 30 quid is usual going rate mate
take it or leave it
and eobd aint gonna help you in this instance
 
i paid £3500 for my diagnostics kit

and updates cost me around £800 a year as sub

so i get really p*ssed off when people think ur charging them £30 to sit in their car!!!

u just need to look at the main dealer prices to know who is offering the best deal

these cheap £40 / £50 scanners are ok but dont expect them to be capable of telling u everything there is only so much that a fault code can tell u

the rest is get ur hands dirty and check
and then check live data .etc
 
my local garage where i used to live always used to plug their machine into my cars to check for fault codes, only took them about 5 minutes, they never charged me a penny,
so i didnt know that the going rate was £30,
cant take my car to them though as i live 270 miles away from there now, also there is no fault light on the dash, im just trying to find a way of trying to fix this myself thats all, because i dont know any garages and was worried they will spend hours looking at my car and trying to rip me off not saying that the £30 fee is ripping me off just not sure that it will even bring any fault codes up as there is not fault light on the dash, no need to slate me for asking for advice m8, sorry if i offended u in some way?
 
even if there are no fault codes which if theres a problem there more than likely will be
the live data and actual running fault can be detected in live data on most occasions
also in some tools you can check the turbo waste gate or vane control solenoid and or look at actual maf sensor flow and boost conditions
also a look at injector return or leak off can be achieved and volume of injector ect
so not just a fault code reader but a diagnostic platform
mdern cars are part computer so it takes a computer to interface with the car to find out whats going
one other thing reading codes is a part of diagnostics not the be all and end all
plugging a computer in will not fix your car only point to the part or parts responsible
also if your car is serviced regularly has air and fuel filter been changed lately?

oh and i was not slating anyone just barely giving facts as to why the costs are as they are
 
ok mate thanks, im willing to pay the garage the £30, just thought one of those machines will do the same thing (obviously not lol) i think that it maybe the waist gate thats stuck, is this easy or expensive to fix? just so i know if the garage try to charge me loads for money and rip me off lol
cheers
 
in all mate it could be egr valve or a split pie or somic without the car ime pretty much shooting in the gark
but hopefully the garage dont rip ya off
its sometimes a myth that all garages do this
but there are some that will.... i see your scepticism to be honest
but maybe someone in the forum is close and could help you out just give a general postcode someone might be near and do you a favour
all in its worth a go ?
but as for specific cause its an hdi mate injectors and egr and also a few other problems could cause your symptoms

best of luck on it mate :goodluck:
 
in all mate it could be egr valve or a split pie or somic without the car ime pretty much shooting in the gark
but hopefully the garage dont rip ya off
its sometimes a myth that all garages do this
but there are some that will.... i see your scepticism to be honest
but maybe someone in the forum is close and could help you out just give a general postcode someone might be near and do you a favour
all in its worth a go ?
but as for specific cause its an hdi mate injectors and egr and also a few other problems could cause your symptoms

best of luck on it mate :goodluck:

i live in worthing, west sussex, if anyone is near?
cheers mate hopefully the garage wont rip me off lol, im dropping the car off at the garage some time tomorrow anyway, i need it fixing for christmas cos ive got to drive 270 miles lol
 
my local garage where i used to live always used to plug their machine into my cars to check for fault codes, only took them about 5 minutes, they never charged me a penny,
so i didnt know that the going rate was £30,
cant take my car to them though as i live 270 miles away from there now, also there is no fault light on the dash, im just trying to find a way of trying to fix this myself thats all, because i dont know any garages and was worried they will spend hours looking at my car and trying to rip me off not saying that the £30 fee is ripping me off just not sure that it will even bring any fault codes up as there is not fault light on the dash, no need to slate me for asking for advice m8, sorry if i offended u in some way?

im not offended in any way m8

just stating a point
if u were near me i would of checked it out 4 u
but ur toooo far

all i can say is who ever checks it out make sure they run live data .etc
 
i need one for my peugeot 406 2001/x reg diesel,

garages trying to charge £30+ vat and peugeot dealer £90+ vat.............what a joke!

i found this on ebay if anyone knows if they are any good or will work on my car?
Diagnostic Cable Lead USB OBD2 PC Vauxhall Vectra Corsa on eBay (end time 28-Dec-10 18:46:10 GMT)
need to see if there are any faults coming up as im having trouble with my car,

also reading through another post i found this DealExtreme: $27.21 ELM327 USB Vehicle OBD-2 Scanner Tool

not sure which one will do for my car or if any of them will, also are they easy to use?

cheers

Hello m8
For your car you need a Lexia3 interface with PP2000 software.Is not so expensive on ebay and it is the dealer tool.
 
I am not being funny mate but do you think buying your own diagnostic equipment will fix your car?. £30.00 is quite cheap for a garage it is usually 50.00 upwards.Diagnostic equipment is good but can you read the codes and more so are you competent enough to repair the car. Peugeot are not the best of cars to work on imaho. good luck with whatever you choose.
 
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