Advice needed for the prospective purchase of an OBD scanner

[sheffieldyorky]

Hi there Guy’s & Gals
I purchased an OBD scanner ( MAXIECU )
I tried it on an old laptop that I had in for repair and would steadfastly not communicate with the MAXIECU
So I purchased another laptop “Panasonic Toughbook CF-C1” Military Laptop which has Bluetooth v4
The scanner will not communicate with this laptop, so I purchased and installed a Bluetooth USB stick v5 and still no luck.
To put things into perspective my vehicle is as follows ;
A3 1.9Tdi 8P1 March 2009, plate - 3 door hatchback
So I am now seeking an OBD scanner that will communicate via Bluetooth v4 OR Wi-Fi
Once purchased I will update the thread on the results
I look forward to the response.
Tony

[rottenegg]

VCDS Hex-Net.

[sheffieldyorky]

Hi there
Many thanks for that

[Silverman]

MaxiECU should work fine on Bluetooth V5. Try checking your USB Bluetooth Dongle drivers or try a different Bluetooth 5 USB dongle.

[Panamax]

Or buy a decent scanner such as Innova 6100P which doesn't need to communicate with anything except your car. Brilliant piece of kit.

[silentbrown]

Does the scanner work with your phone? e.g with Carista or Torque.

If not, maybe the OBD port is dead or disabled. At one timemit was suggested that you put a hidden switch to disable it to prevent theft/key cloning via the OBD port...

[sheffieldyorky]

Panamax said:

Or buy a decent scanner such as Innova 6100P which doesn't need to communicate with anything except your car. Brilliant piece of kit.

Hi there
Many thanks for that, maybe it's partly my fault.
The majority are the United States listed which means Customs & Excise excise duty etc. etc.
From what I can see the UK listings are only supplying leads etc.
I should say in my opening message
This is to be able to run from a Windows laptop I have a Panasonic Toughbook

[the-norseman]

OBD eleven is an app based VW group scanner, about £50 works very well and can make changes to the car like you can with VCDS.

[sheffieldyorky]

Panamax said:

Or buy a decent scanner such as Innova 6100P which doesn't need to communicate with anything except your car. Brilliant piece of kit.

Hello there
Many thanks for contributing to my thread, I had already forgotten that mention that it is a Panasonic and a Maxicue scanner

[Panamax]

It's a bit of a wild world out there. As you may appreciate all OBD scanners can cover the mandatory OBD basics. As technology has developed different car manufacturers have used OBD in different ways and there are different depths of OBD detail that can be read by different scanners. Depending on what you're trying to achieve you'll probably need to look for a scanner with those specific abilities. Prices escalate swiftly as you head towards the "real deal". But that's not necessary for most of us when, at the end of the day, you can always go the main dealer (or relevant specialist) and get codes read for £60 or so.

I'd be looking for a scanner with "more than the basics" but without getting "too fancy". Specific marque forums are probably a good place to find guidance.

[the-norseman]

Panamax said:

It's a bit of a wild world out there. As you may appreciate all OBD scanners can cover the mandatory OBD basics. As technology has developed different car manufacturers have used OBD in different ways and there are different depths of OBD detail that can be read by different scanners. Depending on what you're trying to achieve you'll probably need to look for a scanner with those specific abilities. Prices escalate swiftly as you head towards the "real deal". But that's not necessary for most of us when, at the end of the day, you can always go the main dealer (or relevant specialist) and get codes read for £60 or so.

I'd be looking for a scanner with "more than the basics" but without getting "too fancy". Specific marque forums are probably a good place to find guidance.

OBD Eleven as I said above is that tool for £50ish or £200+ for VCDS.

[Panamax]

the-norseman said:

OBD Eleven as I said above is that tool for £50ish or £200+ for VCDS.

Sounds ideal.

[sheffieldyorky]

Hi there people
Reading through these contributions
Panamax & the-norseman going on what they have said I think that might be better if I clarify a few points
You already know the car so these are my parameters
1. Suitable for my car, the reason being there are so many variants of A3.
2. A major point is that once purchased I do not want to be paying for extras.
a) More money for a different or add-on operation.
b) When software updates come round not being charged extra.
3. I would like to run it through my laptop which was specially purchased for this operation.
a) Running Windows 10 pro
b) I really don’t want to be looking at a little screen.
4. I think £200.00 is a ballpark figure.
I am now on my second OBD Foxwell, arrived from China and it was broken i.e. it rattled - something adrift inside & Maxiecu works on a higher Bluetooth than my laptop v2.1 Maxicue requires Bluetooth v4 or above.
If a member resident in the U.K has an OBD scanner that meets the above criteria then please send me a P.M

[HiAsAKite]

For basic code reading and taking data from the ECU (eg temps, pressures etc) I use a Carista OBD dongle, with the Torque app on my phone (used on a C5 A6, B8 S4, and RAV4 4.3).

It can clear codes, but without subscribing the the Carista app (or other subscription apps) for more functionality, does not do much more.


I think you are looking for more capability than this, so sounds like, as others have said, VCDS which is the proverbial dogs danglies - or possible some of the intermediate apps
Plus you mention you really want to be able to do this via laptop, with fullsize screen, keyboard etc.

I'm not aware of which of the intermediate apps work on a laptop (VCDS does).

The low risk option (and probably most future proof) is VCDS.. but it may be overkill for what you want to do.
You can also mess things up with it if you don't know what you are doing/start changing settings willy-nilly...

[the-norseman]

If you are adamant about doing it on a laptop then VCDS is the "proper" tool to have. Not only will it scan and give you descriptions of codes but you can do a lot more with it, coding etc.

[rottenegg]

Yep, VCDS is the only one that does everything.

If you want to do some proper logging of up to 12 PID channels at once, nothing else comes close. You can't always rely on basic fault code readers. Sometimes you need to datalog a journey and analyse the data.

VCDS also has the best translation of DTCs. Car manufacturers are supposed to adhere to the same OBD2 standards, but the Germans don't. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Japanese etc do, but VAG, BMW and Mercedes have their own proprietary PIDs. Generic OBD2 scan tools often don't report the correct information, unless you spend a lot of money on Snap On Verus Pro, ThinkTool Pro, et al. Also look for bi-directional control ability as most cheap scanners can't do that.

Be mindful of OBD11's subscriptions and 'credits' payment system, it's utter dog shyte. Do yourself a favour and just get VCDS enthusiast if cost is a factor.

[sheffieldyorky]

Thanks to everybody who has given me valuable advice.
Based on this advice I have now purchased the following item ;

===============================================================

Car Diagnostic Tool Scanner *FOR* VAG, AUDI, SEAT & VW CARS -PRO VERSION
eBay item number:284903449322
£64.99

================================================================

This should arrive estimated between Wed, 10 Aug and Fri, 12 Aug
So once again many thanks for all your input.
As and when I receive the item I will update the thread.
If anybody out there has a similar item please feel free to contribute to the thread.
Kind regards
Tony

[Sticks.]

Am I due a parrot here or is that just the cable? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284903449322?hash=item4...

[Skyrocket21]

What are you trying to do with it?

If it's just to reset and read codes, then any obd2 vag reading scanner will do it, Autel etc.

If you want to do anything else then you need Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-V2 https://www.gendan.co.uk/product_VCV23.html

There is OBD11 which is a subscription and points system, they supposedly stop working etc, runs on bluetooth. I think you can even get an adaptor for your phone to run certain apps, but it won't do VCDS stuff.

Other undeveloped one is Carista,

Depending on what you want to do, don't waste your money,

BTW with the ross-tech VCDS it's better to buy an unlimited VIN version because they retain their value, they get funny on their help forum if you buy second hand. You'll also need a laptop a cheap one or old one is good enough, obviously needs a decent battey.

[sheffieldyorky]

Sticks. said:

Am I due a parrot here or is that just the cable? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284903449322?hash=item4...

Skyrocket21 said:

What are you trying to do with it?

If it's just to reset and read codes, then any obd2 vag reading scanner will do it, Autel etc.

If you want to do anything else then you need Ross-Tech VCDS HEX-V2 https://www.gendan.co.uk/product_VCV23.html

There is OBD11 which is a subscription and points system, they supposedly stop working etc, runs on Bluetooth. I think you can even get an adaptor for your phone to run certain apps, but it won't do VCDS stuff.

Other undeveloped one is Carista,

Depending on what you want to do, don't waste your money,

BTW with the ross-tech VCDS it's better to buy an unlimited VIN version because they retain their value, they get funny on their help forum if you buy second-hand. You'll also need a laptop a cheap one or old one is good enough, but obviously needs a decent battery.

I am going to take on-board the above two comments and see how it performs.
It’s on eBay so I’m not unduly worried.
I will let the Forum know my progress.
Supposed to be delivered “between Wed, 10 Aug and Fri, 12 Aug” BUT that’s only an estimate