Are OBDII scanners any use

Only one I've tried is the VAG-COM, which does alot more than OBDII but only for VAGs, it's very good.

diagnostics

I'm still waiting to find somebody with a diesel I can plug mine in to! :)

That's the problem with the current availability of scanners is that you have to buy several if you want to cover every vehicle. OBDII and EOBD provide for a legally required minimum of diagnostic data that must be available to generic scanners. They've recently become available for Europe because EOBD covers all european petrol vehicles from 2001.

With a handle like Dervman I thought diesel should be your thang!

It is and they are, but Ford don't yet sell a Ka TDCi...

Low cost £50 - £150 usually all you get is codes. Then you have to look up what it means. And then work out what is really wrong. Code for 'Emissions system failure' has resulted in people replacing carbon canisters and lots of other emissions related bits.

Dealer make specific ones do a lot more. Translate the code and go though a set check procedure to identify the part of that system that is the cause Things like adjust parameters, load balance checks etc. Expensive, anywhere up to £35Kish and need a different one for every make. Still hasn't prevented lots of people paying for expensive repairs or at best a new petrol cap when the code said 'emissions system failure' - when the problem was taking the petrol cap off while engine was running resulted in a loss of fuel tank vacuum and this means vapour is leaking = a fault.

Otherwise it's a Snap-on diagnostic system and a vehicle specific interface and program rom. Often some secondhand on E-Bay around £3-4K, option packs around £150.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

I was looking up the list of OBDII codes and they're a lot more specific than "Emissions system failure". Have you any personal experience of what codes the car ECU will give out on OBD only. Obviously the above isn't much use to anybody.

John Egan ( snipped-for-privacy@gofree.indigo.ie) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Don't get hung up on OBD. Most OBD cars in the UK will still be in the dealer chain under the three year warranties - most cars in the independent repair sector will be on proprietary diagnostics - dozens of cable looms and software modules needed to cover everything.

That's true for now, but these cars are going to be coming into the independent sector from now on and OBD seems like a cost effective way of reading what's going on in the ECU. The code is only a starting point anyway, which is why I think it is ridiculous to pay the sort of money for the other systems, just to pull a fault code.

independent