Hi fellow bargain hunters,
After paying $45 bucks today to clear a code that may or may not return in the future, think it might be a cheap investment to get one of these electronic devices.
I had a half arsed look on eBay I can see a range of them starting from $50 to $250+ - all different brands and models.
I just wondered if anyone has one themselves which they liked and would recommend?
Ay cheers for the suggestion - did you get the full version of the app or the 'lite' version?
THe free 'lite' version is… adequate for checking that the dongle & phone is paired and reading your car's ECU correctly. The layout/formatting etc is rubbish, because it's essentially been untouched for updates in years. It isn't a good representative of the full version.
The paid, full version is DEFINITELY worth buying if your dongle works. Cleaner, neater, and you can get the 3rd party plugins etc for specific makes & models.
With my $12 adapter & Torque, I managed to successfully diagnose a generic Engine Fault light - turns out the accelerator pedal sensor was intermittently non-contacting. A cleanout and re-tension of the internal spring contacts, and I successfully saved myself a $90 ECU reset, $300 pedal, plus labour and the hassle of dealing with the dealer that's 100km away.
At $6 or so for Torque plus the dongle, it's definitely paid for itself!!
+1 for the Torque app and a cheap Chinese OBD2 bluetooth adaptor.
does torque actually clear codes?
Yus
I use a generic bluetooth OBD2 adapter and Torque on Android phone. It did most of the clear code with that combo, though there are system faults that aren't recorded in the ECU and cannot be cleared with a generic application.
I got a $3 blue obd2 connector off ebay and use torque on android. Works fine, have used it many time to clear errors
Look maybe I'm over thinking this but there are so many different ones of these bluetooth scanners I can't make ear end to arse end of them — most of them have people complaining about them, then you got other people saying its a copy of a 'good' one, and a copy of a copy of another good one.
Its like half a dozen blokes over in china are slapping them together and its roulette on if you get one that works correctly.
I don't care if I got to part with money of $50-$150, I just want one that is either highly regarded as overall good quality and from a semi reputable brand.
If you own a VW/Euro car.. look up OBD Eleven. It's an OBD scanner too, but has a lot more detailed and indepth capabilities.
The ebay scanners and torque will give you generic fault codes (Which help to point you ni the direction of a check engine light etc. ) but the obd eleven, will tell you exactly what is wrong. You can also play with coding to enable features that you'd normally need to go to the dealer to activate etc.
[By play with coding , i mean, it has built in functions that adjust some code FOR you automatically, to enable features. You don't need to code anything yourself.)
That said, if you dont have a euro car, I think if you just find an ELM327 OBD adapter, you'll be fine.
Example here : http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2016-HHOBD-ELM327-Car-OBD2-OBDII-…
and here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hot-Mini-ELM327-OBD2-II-Bluetooth…
I have the second one, and it works perfectly fine. Never had an issue. Clears fault codes .. however, if you try to clear a fault code without actually fixing the problem… the fault code will come back. So if you think you've fixed it, but the check engine light comes back after a few drives.. you probably havent solved the issue.
I got a VE commodore so as long as it gives me the codes I can look them up, fix the issue then delete them.
I took a punt on the 2nd one you suggested with the blue, I paid more for a pint at lunch today - if its crap well I'm not going to cry to the poor house at least.
I'll get the torque plus app and have a look.
Thanks for the help everyone.
I have this one $14 - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ELM327-OBDII-OBD2-WiFi-Car-Diagno…
Works with Torque on my phone - can read/diagnose/clear codes as well as many other functions.
Worth the few $'s in my opinion and has worked on all of my cars so far.