From: Peter J. Thomas [mailto:pjthomas@adelphia.net] wrote:
> I have been wanting an OBD-II scan tool. Harbor Freight has one for
$50
> the next closest unit is Actron's for $150. Does anyone have any
> experience or information on the HF unit? Their web sight does not
give
> much information.
I bought the one at: http://www.obd-2.com/ for use with my '96 Ranger.
It plugs into a laptop (I was given an old 75Mhz Pentium that works just
fine). It allows you to store samples when things are good to compare
when
things are bad. It also allows you to clear error codes. It was
helpful
when I kept getting the Check Engine light on - turned out to be a bad
gas
cap so it kept failing the OBD-II evaporative emission system test.
It doesn't let you "send commands" (there are commands to turn on the
cooling
fans, open the evaporative purge valve, etc.) to the OBD system, but I
doubt
the scanners do either. Actually, it does give you the ability to "send
commands" to the system. You just have to figure out how to encode the
characters for the software to send the command, it's just not a built
in
feature - but it is updated periodically so it may be added...
By the way another site with information on OBD-II is
http://www.obd-2.com/.
Tim Mullen
Chantilly, VA
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/shop-talk
|