Best OBD reader?

[Turnip Farmer]

Hey all

I'm needing an OBD reader for diagnosing a potential issue with my Abarth 595, potential boost issue.

I don't want to spend a ton of money on one but want a fairly decent one so I can rule out any codes it brings up before I take it to my mechanic.

Any recommendations or links to which ones you use would be awesome.

Many thanks for your help

[Miocene]

I bought the Carista one relatively recently and it did the job. It's limited out of the box, but you buy the subscription for a month and it gives a lot more, including the ability to change some features.

For something I'll use every couple of years it seemed like a good way of getting something decent without shelling out loads upfront.

[Easternlight]

Bump for this.
I've been using Carista for few years but they now want minimum £19.99 for a month's use.
Would like to be able to reset service and scan codes plus handbrake, rear pads, battery coding for VAG.
Can anyone recommend a non subscription reader/reset tool, or are all the £50/60 ones all pretty much the same?

[Belle427]

A chap came to buy a car from me last week and used a topdon topscan to check for codes etc.
It looked a very impressive bit of kit as i had a little play with it, not sure what price the subs are.

[E-bmw]

Easternlight said:

Bump for this.
I've been using Carista for few years but they now want minimum £19.99 for a month's use.
Would like to be able to reset service and scan codes plus handbrake, rear pads, battery coding for VAG.
Can anyone recommend a non subscription reader/reset tool, or are all the £50/60 ones all pretty much the same?

IME the £50/60 ones will not do what you want, although others may know of options.

[stevemcs]

Easternlight said:

Bump for this.
I've been using Carista for few years but they now want minimum £19.99 for a month's use.
Would like to be able to reset service and scan codes plus handbrake, rear pads, battery coding for VAG.
Can anyone recommend a non subscription reader/reset tool, or are all the £50/60 ones all pretty much the same?

I just use a topdon one that I use with the phone, it’s enough to do the basics and is about £35 to buy then it’s £40 per year. Just bare in mind if it’s one of the newer vw group cars then you will have sfd requirements to do the basics such as reset service lights and epb, so nothing short of £1500 of diagnostics equipment then £150 on a licence. Obd eleven is probably the cheapest way of doing that.

[Easternlight]

stevemcs said:

Easternlight said:

Bump for this.
I've been using Carista for few years but they now want minimum £19.99 for a month's use.
Would like to be able to reset service and scan codes plus handbrake, rear pads, battery coding for VAG.
Can anyone recommend a non subscription reader/reset tool, or are all the £50/60 ones all pretty much the same?

I just use a topdon one that I use with the phone, it s enough to do the basics and is about £35 to buy then it s £40 per year. Just bare in mind if it s one of the newer vw group cars then you will have sfd requirements to do the basics such as reset service lights and epb, so nothing short of £1500 of diagnostics equipment then £150 on a licence. Obd eleven is probably the cheapest way of doing that.

What's going on with these new cars and getting into their OBD.
I thought there was a right to access?
Has this been changed?
I noticed this on Saving Salvage's you tube channel last week, he was working on a 2026 RS3 and he said he needs dealer level diagnostic kit to work on it.

I'm only using it for my two Yeti's

[MDT]

Easternlight said:

Bump for this.
I've been using Carista for few years but they now want minimum £19.99 for a month's use.
Would like to be able to reset service and scan codes plus handbrake, rear pads, battery coding for VAG.
Can anyone recommend a non subscription reader/reset tool, or are all the £50/60 ones all pretty much the same?

you are not going to get that sort of use from a £50/60 product. This is where will only get to a very generic level of engine code reading. I got hacked off a couple of years ago when I had to code in a new battery on the BMW. At that point I started to look into this. In summary you can get a single make proper code reader for about £100/120 that will do the sort of things you are looking at.

But then as I had 4 different manufactures cars it would be 4 readers.

Then I looked at the ones where you can select up to 10 manufactures, but you are locked into that 10, by the time I added up family cars I was past 10.

So I got the icarsoft CR Max which was £350-ish from memory.

But it will do all the things I could ever want, free updates for life and will do air-bags and ABS etc and has bi-directional control too which is very handy when fault finding.

While it was more than I was looking / expecting to spend, it's been worth it several times over. Garage labour charges are kicking off at £90 an hour + vat.

Easy / flippant to say it, but pay once cry once. better to spend more than you want and get the tool you need, than save £300 and end up with a £50 thing that is no use, or as you mentioned end up paying £20 a month.....

[E-bmw]

Easternlight said:

What's going on with these new cars and getting into their OBD.
I thought there was a right to access?
Has this been changed?

No, it is just an adopted standard, there is not a right to access everything.

Whilst a "generic" cheap code reader will give you the basics, that is just the basics.

Cars are so massively over sophisticated thes days that there are often individual codes for individual models across ranges.

Thus only "dealer level" or expensive gear will manage the more complex functions.

AGAIK to get a reasonable mid-range reader to do most stuff on most manufacturers start at around £300.

A decent independant garage will likely spend thousands on just one "reader".

[hellorent]

Have a look at the Kingbolen Ediag Elite.

[stevemcs]

Easternlight said:

What's going on with these new cars and getting into their OBD.
I thought there was a right to access?
Has this been changed?
I noticed this on Saving Salvage's you tube channel last week, he was working on a 2026 RS3 and he said he needs dealer level diagnostic kit to work on it.

I'm only using it for my two Yeti's

Ah - but they are allowing you access to it…. It’s just you now need to pay if you want to work on it.

Renault do exactly the same, as do fiat or whatever group they want to be known as.

[MK3 Dan]

MDT said:

you are not going to get that sort of use from a £50/60 product. This is where will only get to a very generic level of engine code reading. I got hacked off a couple of years ago when I had to code in a new battery on the BMW. At that point I started to look into this. In summary you can get a single make proper code reader for about £100/120 that will do the sort of things you are looking at.

But then as I had 4 different manufactures cars it would be 4 readers.

Then I looked at the ones where you can select up to 10 manufactures, but you are locked into that 10, by the time I added up family cars I was past 10.

So I got the icarsoft CR Max which was £350-ish from memory.

But it will do all the things I could ever want, free updates for life and will do air-bags and ABS etc and has bi-directional control too which is very handy when fault finding.

While it was more than I was looking / expecting to spend, it's been worth it several times over. Garage labour charges are kicking off at £90 an hour + vat.

Easy / flippant to say it, but pay once cry once. better to spend more than you want and get the tool you need, than save £300 and end up with a £50 thing that is no use, or as you mentioned end up paying £20 a month.....

Completely agree with this!

I did the same with an icarsoft. Didn't really want to spend that amount on a reader but it is one of the best purchases I have made for a while.

Only had it a few months but been used on a number of different cars, checking faults, bleeding ABS pump when replacing it and clearing service indicators when home servicing, Easily paid for itself already.

[2172cc]

Thumps up for this one I got recently on eBay.....very easy to use and already done two jobs that have been an issue for a while.

Well worth a look

[jimmyjimjim]

Does it support real-time transmission fluid temperature?

I'd like to pick up an ODB2 reader (ideally the cheapest one possible)...that supports this in order to change the fluid on my wife's RAV4; part of the process is to drain the excess once it's in a particular temp. range.

[Stu R]

I've used a cheap chinesium ELM327 bluetooth obd2 from amazon and an app called car scanner for iOS for probably 10 years, both are no frills but been solid and I've only had to break out the Autel for far more serious stuff.

[E-bmw]

jimmyjimjim said:

Does it support real-time transmission fluid temperature?

I'd like to pick up an ODB2 reader (ideally the cheapest one possible)...that supports this in order to change the fluid on my wife's RAV4; part of the process is to drain the excess once it's in a particular temp. range.

If the car exports that data through OBD, which I am guessing it will from what you say, then I would have thought any reader that supports live data will do it.

[ARH]

Stu R said:

I've used a cheap chinesium ELM327 bluetooth obd2 from amazon and an app called car scanner for iOS for probably 10 years, both are no frills but been solid and I've only had to break out the Autel for far more serious stuff.

Been using the same but Android for years, not had anything I could not diagnose and cost less than £20. Get a good elm327 though. I have a basic Vlinker thing.


https://www.carscanner.info/choosing-obdii-adapter...

[Easternlight]

Thanks for all the replies.
I think I knew that there wasn't a cheap way of doing this.
I didn't mind when Carista was about £10/11 for a month. Easy way to reset the service reminder.
£200 is getting a bit rich for the little I do now, it will buy me 10 years of Carista.

[Ritchie335is]

jimmyjimjim said:

Does it support real-time transmission fluid temperature?

I'd like to pick up an ODB2 reader (ideally the cheapest one possible)...that supports this in order to change the fluid on my wife's RAV4; part of the process is to drain the excess once it's in a particular temp. range.

You can use an IR thermometer on the sump.

[jimmyjimjim]

E-bmw said:

jimmyjimjim said:

Does it support real-time transmission fluid temperature?

I'd like to pick up an ODB2 reader (ideally the cheapest one possible)...that supports this in order to change the fluid on my wife's RAV4; part of the process is to drain the excess once it's in a particular temp. range.

If the car exports that data through OBD, which I am guessing it will from what you say, then I would have thought any reader that supports live data will do it.

A google search suggests the reader I have (Ancel AD310) may not, though then again it may. Equally I've a bluetooth dongle, and a search suggests it then depends on the app. I'll get off my arse and give it a go at some point this weekend.