ODBII tool review

I've just reviewed this sub-£60 OBDII tester on Amazon, reduced by a tenner on Prime:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/scanner-Launch-Creader-Diagnostic-Functions/dp/B06W5V24JN/

I've had a few cheap ones like bluetooth OBD adapters and cheap hand held code readers/clearers, but for the price, the live data, colour screen and graphing functions give this the edge.

No connection, just a happy customer and serial Amazon reviewer

HTH

Nick

Care to copy and paste the review for members who don't use Amazone?

talkingcars wrote: Care to copy and paste the review for members who don't use Amazone?

I think this is Nik's Amazon review

This is simply the best OBDII reader I have ever owned and as my hobby is cars, I have tried a few. To put it in to some sort of perspective, it will read and clear the faults of virtually any OBDII compliant UK car and it will also read live data too. It won't read specialist car dependant settings like SRS, gearbox etc and it won't allow you to actuate senders like the mirrors or windows. For that, you need to spend hundreds of pounds on something like a Delphi diagnostics interface and a decent laptop to run it on. But for diagnosing faults and clearing faults, this is absolutely perfect and much easier to use than bluetooth OBD dongles and mobile phone apps like Torque for Android.

What you get out of it does depend on the car and the age of the car. For example, my 2005 Kia Sportage and 2004 MG TF shows 6 live sensors: O2, fuel, speed, RPM, engine coolant etc. My 2006 Nissan Micra shows lots more.

One of the most useful features that will be supported on all OBD compliant cars is reading the O2 sensors. You may just have 1 sensor, but most likely you will have 2 sensors: one before the cat and one after the cat. Being able to show the response of the O2 sensors before and after the CAT will tell you a lot about the state of the catalytic convertor, the sensors themselves as well as the fueling of the car. Quite often, as the sensors work together, a failed secondry sensor can drag the first one out of spec and cause the engine MIL light to illuminate. The car may store a code that says "O2 Sensor 1 bank 1 out of spec" so you would assume this sensor is faulty and spend over £100 to replace it just to find the problem doesn't go away. The problem being the secondry sensor failing caused the engine management system to drag the first one out of spec, but because it is the first one and is monitored first, it illuminates the warning light first. This reader will allow you to monitor how quickly both sensors react and you can quickly determin which, if any, are at fault or whether it is the cat itself. That one diagnostic actually saved me about £135 on a Nissan Micra O2 sensor because the code stored related to sensor 1 being faulty, but this showed that sensor 1 was reacting within spec, whereas sensor 2 had virtually no response. The same test pointed me to a small leak in my exhaust system between the 1st sensor and the cat on my Kia. So far, this tester has saved me about £300 in just about 6 months because just reading the fault code would have led me to wrongly purchase two 02 sensors!

Being able to graph the sensors over time is extremely useful too. You can go for a long drive with it plugged in and don't have to sit watching the sensors respond, you can check the graph when you get back. You could look for O2 sensor issues as above, or you can check your thermostat is opening and closing by graphing the coolant temperature (handy on the MG!). There is simply so much you can do with it.

The tool itself is very easy to use. Plug it in and it turns on. Click Diagnose and it will talk to the car and check for faults. You can record data to print it later from a computer via the supplied USB lead and you can update it via the internet. The screen is nice and clear and very easy to read and it fits nicely in the hand.

For the price, it is excellent. Much better than a bluetooth one and will do most things a home mechanic would want to do. I keep mine permanently in my glove box and am always lending it to people who find it easy to use too.

I've taken a couple of pics, but I don't currently have any fault codes to show you. If I get one, I'll update the review with a picture to show one