Buying Diagnostic lead.

A

AdamC

Member
Following recent occasions where I have needed to have scans done, I was considering buying a diagnostic cable but cannot afford £250+ for the ultimate versions. Was wondering if anybody had any good experiences from:

VAG diagnostics Ltd.
www.vag-diagnostics.com


Would their £80 cable (which claims to be the same specification as the ross tech cable) help me to diagnose my current air conditioning issue, and also cover the Transporter T5 I am currently searching/saving for?
 
There is a shareware version of vagcom----VCDS-LITE this is free to download and the leads can be had on ebay for about £10. thats probably the cheepest option. I also use a hand held scanner that is stand alone and covers all VAG cars-even gives the meaning of the codes on the screen--cost was approx £45. maxscan is the brand also from good old ebay.
hope that helps mike
 
The maxscan isn't compatible with laptop readout.

Is it better to use a laptop or the standalone maxscan?
 
Hi timmus no I don't believe it can do that I'm not sure even the full version of vcds can interrogate the ccu unit without using another bit of kit to retrieve the csk code(think that's the right term).
Yes the maxscaner is not a laptop device as stated but sure is convenient to leave in the car for error code reading on the spot. It all depends on how far you want to go. Vcds can be quite complex in its usage and this puts many people off.
There is an other option--- scan gauge 11. A device that plugs into the obd port and the unit itself can be placed on dash or in the storage hole in the dash. These scan gauges can give you almost the functions of dis2 ie mpg instant and average plus other gauges inc miles to empty ,batt voltage, temp,etc etc. many members have these in a2's. They will also read error codes but only give you the code and no description.
Hope this helps mike
 
Have just been through this loop and ended up downloading VCDS lite & buying a £20 cable from Gendan see http://www.gendan.co.uk/product_VAGUSB.html It comes with a useful help guide on installing drivers that enable the laptop connection to the car.

The free version of VCDS lite is quite basic and allows you to scan and reset codes. It has a few constraints like not allowing you to scan all components in one instance and it doesn't decode all the fault codes - although these are easily available from the Ross Tech web site. VCDS Lite can be licensed for $100 to enable these two functions plus adding quite a few more see http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/vag-functions.html I believe this does allow changes to be made but I'm not quite sure as to the extent of this feature.

The full VCDS version is $250 (up to $700) and requires the VCDS cable, which I'm assuming contains the license for the complete bells & whistles capabilities.

Cheers,

Andy B
 
a2sumo said:
...
There is an other option--- scan gauge 11. A device that plugs into the obd port and the unit itself can be placed on dash or in the storage hole in the dash. These scan gauges can give you almost the functions of dis2 ie mpg instant and average plus other gauges inc miles to empty ,batt voltage, temp,etc etc. many members have these in a2's. They will also read error codes but only give you the code and no description.
...
Click to expand...

For some reason, mine hasn't read codes which other people have found on my car via VDCS. So I don't know if it is just that only certain codes can be read via OBDII, or whether there is some sort of issue somewhere with the diagnostics on my car only being read via the can bus.
 
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