Will carMD be a good investment prior to maintenance or service on a 2001 C240 Mercedes? Have you used it?
I have a better tool. Unless your doing the work yourself, I don’t see the wisdom, other than wanting to know the code before you take it in. If the ‘Check Engine’ light is not on, there’s no reason to run codes. BUT DO NOT CLEAR ANY CODES! Clearing the codes before you have someone work on the car will only confuse the technician, since they rely on the codes and accumulated data to help diagnose any problems.
And, it will not save you money. The mechanic will still run his own diagnostics with much better equipment that this ‘toy’. The only advantage is to know any codes before the tech sees it, but it also doesn’t totally reveal what is required to fix it. The code is but one step in the process.
I have a CarMD but my experience with it was better. I found it very helpful in telling me exactly what was wrong with my vehicle and how much the repairs would cost at the shop. That was the big money saver for me. I needed an O2 sensor and it told me what I would pay at the shop. I got aftermarket products and did it myself. Saved me a ton on the first usage! My brother in law is an ASE master tech at a dealership and we hooked up his SnapOn device and it matched exactly what the CarMD “toy” told me. He said the same thing that any mechanic will still run a diagnostic but thats true for everything he said… Even if you go into the shop and they write a quote and you come back next week they still have to run another diagnostic before they fix it. I also got the recall and TSB info online. My only knock (no pun intended) on it was that they dont give how to repair information which would be nice for more complex tasks… Incidentally my brother in law said the same thing about clearing the codes and how he hates getting vehicles like that. He was actually quite impressed with my CarMD and liked that I still had to come to him to clear codes. He said that if I fixed it properly the lighjt would go off on its own, which it did:) Not sure what you have to pay for Mercedes labor but if its like my BMW dealer its plenty. I get sick just driving by even more so when I don’t have any idea what’s wrong beforehand…
Waste of money in my opinion and how do they know what a repair is going to cost?
Get an O2 code, they provide an O2 price, and the problem is not the O2 (not rare either) and then what?
BustedKnuckles is right and consider CarMDs marketing; back ads of magazines and late night infomercials. That’s where all the hokum ends up; with weight loss scams, male enhancement products, water to gas/hydrogen gimmicks, time share scams, etc.
It’s worth it if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. From the tone of the OP, I figured he didn’t.