Foxwell NT520 Scammer

[bullet7]

I must say I am a little cheesed off with Foxwell. When I bought my scanner 5 years ago it came with the promise of lifetime updates. It seems the 'lifetime' lasted less than a year. I wanted to check out an issue with the Smart Tyre TPMS system this week, but for some reason the software on the scanner has always assumed that it was of the Beru type. So I thought I would check to see if there were any updates and the website happily announces:

Sorry, updates for this tool are no longer available.

• Tools of this generation were all discontinued in 2019 (or earlier).

• New software updates ceased a year later, in 2020.

• The update servers were finally decommissioned after 5 years, in April of 2024.

I don't understand why they fail to offer updates still, because surely the software will be the same for other model scanners of theirs?

[Simpo Two]

I was going to say you'd made a typo but perhaps not....


Internet says 'Most Foxwell tools come with free software updates for at least the first 3 years from the date of purchase.'

But if your car is, say, a 2019 model, and your software is 2019, does it need updating...? Or maybe you changed the car of course.

[john ryan]

The Foxwell doesn't work for Smartire as far as I recall.

[bullet7]

john ryan said:

The Foxwell doesn't work for Smartire as far as I recall.

I get that, as there is quite a number of other things a Foxwell won't do either. It was just the principle of the 'updates for life' that effectively lasted less than one year. It still works, but I'm now thinking about buying somebody else's scanner..

[p4cks]

The thing is with these 'for life' type guarantees it's not guaranteed for the length of your lifetime, it's for the lifetime of the product which is dictated by the manufacturer, which could be absolutely anything.

[Phil57DBS]

john ryan said:

The Foxwell doesn't work for Smartire as far as I recall.

nor, among other things, for resetting the re-learning parameters of the ZF6HP26 or ZF8 gearbox !

[bullet7]

p4cks said:

The thing is with these 'for life' type guarantees it's not guaranteed for the length of your lifetime, it's for the lifetime of the product which is dictated by the manufacturer, which could be absolutely anything.

This is true of course, but I would have expected (and did expect) something a little longer than a year!