I am looking at buying a new dodge caravan and it looks as though if I want to do any work on this engine at all I will need either software and a laptop or a stand alone reader to get the info out of the onboard computer. Can anyone recommend which is the best way to go and a good brand name to buy. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Bill
I bought one of these and paid more:
Thanks for the reply Abby Normal. You would think there would be a whole lot more info out there but these things seem to be just coming online I guess
CHEERS
They have been out there for a while but are now only becoming affordable. You can go to any Auto Zone or O'Reilly's and use theirs for free. The problem is that you have to go there and sometimes your vehicle may not be able to get there to use the scanner.
Depending on options, you may not need this. For example the Magnum/300/Charger can "blink" out the codes on the plain jane models and display the codes on cars with the EVIC info center. To change many running conditions, these readers are useless because you need the dealer Starscan unit to actually change things.
Abby Normal is right from what little I have been finding out lately. I was just on this site and apparently this scan tool will do everything ACCORDING to
??? Right about what? He said the exact thing I did.
He is right about me needing a code reader to get anything out of the newer dodge caravans. My 96 caravan will blink out some of the basic codes right now. But as the vehicles get newer they seem to give up less and less information other than some very basic codes, hence the need for a code reader for the newer vehicles. In my first thread I had mentioned that I was interested in getting a code reader BECAUSE I was upgrading to a newer van and could see that if I wished to continue doing my own maintenance I would need a reader!
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