Re: OBD II code readers

From: jon@dakota-truck.net
Date: Mon Aug 07 2006 - 11:31:46 EDT


"Jason Bleazard" <dml@bleazard.net> wrote:

: On Fri, August 4, 2006 5:11 pm, jon@dakota-truck.net said:
:>
:> I have this one, from Harbor Freight:
:>
:> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46030

: Weird... I can't seem to get in to their web site right now. Keeps going to
: one of those annoying domain squatters. Maybe it's just the corporate
: firewall.

   That is weird.

:> I notice it is currently available to ITC members for $35.

: What's ITC? I guess if I don't know, I must not be a member.

  
   That's their "inside track club"; you can pay $10 per year and
you get a separate section of the web site which has better prices
on select items than the normal and sale prices. I buy enough stuff
from them that it has paid for itself many times over. :-)

:> You just
:> plug it in and it will spit out the PXXXX style codes, one at a time.
:> After the codes are finished displaying, you can unplug the reader,
:> or if you leave it plugged in, it will automatically clear the codes.

: Lemme guess, does it look kind of like this (eBay): http://tinyurl.com/ms236 ?

   Yep, the name is different, but that looks like the exact same unit.
Probably they are all made by the same factory in China. :-) That price
is really good too.

: I thought I'd kind of prefer to have one with separate read and erase buttons
: so we don't have to worry about it erasing the codes before we get a chance to
: write them down. How long does it pause on each code?

    I'm not sure; none of my OBD-II vehicles appear to have codes at
the moment. :-( In reading the manual though, I notice that it says
it will cycle through the codes four times before it clears them, so
if you don't want them cleared, just unplug it before the end of the 4th
cycle.

  (You can download the manual in PDF format from the Harbor Freight
web site; well, once you get to a place that can get to the web site
anyway.) :-)

:> I have a software based OBD-II code reader and scanner that runs
:> on my laptop, which obviously gives a heck of a lot more information,
:> but it only works on Chrysler vehicles.

: I had looked at those briefly, but I couldn't find the adapter hardware for
: less than $85. Did you come up with something cheaper than that?

   Definitely not. :-) I've had it for several years now, but as I
recall it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $300.

-- 
                                          -Jon-

.- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -. | 67 Dodge Coronet, 70 Plymouth Barracuda, 76 Peugeot TSA | | 78 Dodge B100, 90 Dodge Dakota Convertible, 92 Dodge Ram 4x4 | | 96 Dodge Dakota, 96 Suzuki Intruder 1400, 96 Kolb FireFly | | 99 Jeep Cherokee 4x4, 01 Dodge Ram 3500 CTD | `--------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'



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