Last weekend I was 250 miles from home and I noted a CEL warning. It was Sunday and I had to make a decision what to do. I checked the oil level, the car seemed to be running fine and there was no oil pressure warning, so I drove home. The next day I checked out the problem and cleared the fault with my Ross-Tech rig. Does anyone have a suggested hand scan tool to have along for such times?
I have a V-Checker V202 runs around $100 from ECStuning, but if you keep your open you can pick them up used for $50 or so. There are two models the 202(blue) has more functionality than the 1029(black), so be careful when looking at prices. Reads VW specific codes as well.
I have some sub-$20 standalone OBD scanner in the wife's Toyota. For my B5.5, I have a cheap Bluetooth/OBD transmitter coupled to Torque on my Android phone. Either one will work for emergency CEL work. If you spend more than $30 total, you spent too much.
Sirwired, I like the idea of using the smartphone app. I searched around for both adapters and apps. An app would have to be iOS (what I have). I like the idea of being able to use it with either iPhone or iPad. Torque is for Android, so that is out for me. I hope to find an app that can also recognize VW specific codes. If I find one, I'll report it.
Has anyone heard of Carista (caristaapp.com)? Looks like they have an OBD connector and app (both iOS and Android) that can (may) read VAG specific codes (at additional cost). I'm going to get more information.
Looking at the website, they claim it can be used with any ELM327 transmitter (which describes pretty much all the cheap ones on Amazon), so it's cool you don't have to use their $40 official one.
As far as features go, the B5 is not on the list of cars where "advanced" diagnostics are supported. But if want to give it a whirl and get back to us, great.
As a side-note, Torque (the most popular Android OBDII app), with a lot more features than carista, and will run on pretty much any Android phone or tablet. Torque has data logging, customized gauges, etc., all of which can be very useful. You can go to Wal-Mart or whatever, buy the cheapest pre-paid Android phone on the shelf, (or get a used phone off eBay) and it should work, as long as it's a model that will let you refuse to activate the thing.
+1 on Torque, even if you bought the other one stand alone tool.
It's amazing how much power a simple app (with the adapter) can offer. One thing to note: the cheap adapters on ebay/amazon might or might not work with your car. I have learned that you can buy an "original" ELM adapter (the cheap ones are clones) that works with all the cars. My advice: buy one that says "it will work with all OBD2 cars" not one that says "it might".
I just received the VAG305 scanner that I ordered (via Amazon, $20). It did correctly identify the code that I had spotted on my Ross-Tech rig. It has four main categories of scan: ENGINE, A/T, SRS, and ABS. My DTC is in the engine category, the others correctly read: "NO CODES". With it came an instruction booklet with a code listing. Also, a mini-CD that contains the DTC library (including codes that are not listed in the manual). However, my computer CD transport will not accommodate mini-CDs. I consider it a worthwhile purchase for Passat owners (mine is a B5). The price is right.
Getting back to the Carista scanner, I left a question on their FB wall asking if their product will correctly identify DTCs, etc. for the B5 cars. No answer yet.
Glad it worked out for you, I love mine. I too learned quickly that not every code is listed. I just take the codes I pull off the reader and look it up online myself.
It looks similar to the Autel one I describe above. Perhaps it is a Chinese copy of the Autel one or maybe the other way around. Talk about Chinese fortune cookie factories.
Yes from what I can tell they are pretty much the same.
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