CarMD hand held tester?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I found on website about this hand held diagnosatic tester which able to show the codes and conditions of the vehicle as low as 100 bucks. You can check www.carmd.com but my questions is it worth it or its a piece of junk?

Thanks

Pete

2

It looks like many of the other code readers on the market. One thing to consider is, is it capable of retrieving enhanced parameter/manufacturer specfiic OBDII codes. I believe anyone in the market for a code reader/scanner should read this first before purchasing. http://www.obdii.com/scantool_selection.html

Tester

3

I think CarMD provides access to a data base to interpet codes,maybe requires some type of subscription, it is on the high end in regards to price. Depending on how good the data base is it may be a hit.

I would like to see a better version of AllData (for more than one car) at a lower price. AllData is off my list due to price. What I want is a automobile data base,cheap,schematics,TSB’s vacuum routing,trouble shooting charts.

4

You can borrow a code reader from a car parts store near you. Many of the chain stores carry them. Call first to see if they have them. You shouldn’t have to pay to use they code reader. You can also discuss the results with the counter help after they print the codes for you. You can also post them here.

5

Check out the ones at Sears, they are two well known brands. You don’t have to buy them there.

6

The Advance Auto Parts In My County Sells The Actron Brand, Starting Below $100.

It’s a good product. They have a display and are generally very helpful to customers. They occasionally put them on sale, too.

7

Whichever scan tool you get, you want one that can read any car that you want it to. Starting in 2004, more and more cars have been going to CAN protocol. By 2008, all cars sold in the U.S. of A. had to use CAN. The CAN protocol has to do with how the data is communicated within the engine control circuits and to a scan tool. In other words, the scan tool will need to know how to talk CAN. http://www.scantool.net/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=3
This short article has drawings of what the scan tool connectors, on the bottom edge of the dash, look like when they use CAN (Controlled Area Network [communication]).

On some of the scanners, you can read the user manual online. Just use google to search for the scanner model name/number and “manual”.