CJB

After buying, selling and otherwise horse-trading, I replaced my old two
vehicles with two much newer vehicles, a 1997 Ranger SuperCab, and a 2003
Ford Club Wagon van.

Now that I'm nearly in the modern era, I was thinking that I'll eventually
need an OBD2 tester. What suggestions do you have? Are the $100+ ones
worth buying for the very occasional use I'd put to one? Is there a more
sophisticated tester that is less than $300 or so?

Thanks,

CJB

Lawrence

The one I use can be found here:
http://www.obd-2.com/
I picked up a cheap 486 laptop off eBay for about $40 to go with the
interface. What is nice with a setup like this is I can plug the laptop into
my truck and drive around town with the laptop monitoring all the info. I can
save the data to the hard drive and when I get home I can replay it and print
out what pages I need for my info and so on.

Cheers,
Lawrence

CJB

"Lawrence" <lmcclaf@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:42E61951.AC9D24BF@sympatico.ca...
> The one I use can be found here:
> http://www.obd-2.com/
> I picked up a cheap 486 laptop off eBay for about $40 to go with the
> interface. What is nice with a setup like this is I can plug the laptop
> into
> my truck and drive around town with the laptop monitoring all the info. I
> can
> save the data to the hard drive and when I get home I can replay it and
> print
> out what pages I need for my info and so on.
>
> Cheers,
> Lawrence
>

That sounds cool. I already have a notebook, so I could use it.

Thanks,

CJB

Big Al

"CJB" <colonyparkwagon@excite.nospam> wrote in message
news:wFuFe.6424$vY2.6364@trnddc09...
>
> "Lawrence" <lmcclaf@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:42E61951.AC9D24BF@sympatico.ca...
>> The one I use can be found here:
>> http://www.obd-2.com/
>> I picked up a cheap 486 laptop off eBay for about $40 to go with the
>> interface. What is nice with a setup like this is I can plug the laptop

The cheap ones give you the codes and the ability to reset the ECM. No
difference if it's $35 or $100. The decent ones also give you real time
sensor readings, lots easier to troubleshoot a problem. For example, lets
say the code is a lean condition, P0171. So now what do you do? With the
better units you can read the temperature sensor and see what it says the
engine temp is, without pulling connectors and using an Ohm meter. You can
also check the TPS and MAF outputs, and so on. Hell of a lot easier.

Al

Big Al

"CJB" <colonyparkwagon@excite.nospam> wrote in message
news:wFuFe.6424$vY2.6364@trnddc09...
>
> "Lawrence" <lmcclaf@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:42E61951.AC9D24BF@sympatico.ca...
>> The one I use can be found here:
>> http://www.obd-2.com/
>> I picked up a cheap 486 laptop off eBay for about $40 to go with the
>> interface. What is nice with a setup like this is I can plug the laptop
>> into
>> my truck and drive around town with the laptop monitoring all the info. I
>> can
>> save the data to the hard drive and when I get home I can replay it and
>> print
>> out what pages I need for my info and so on.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Lawrence
>>
>
> That sounds cool. I already have a notebook, so I could use it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> CJB
>
>
Also try http://www.autotap.com/welcome.html

Al