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It's a great choice for owners who plan to keep higher-mileage vehicles on the road indefinitely, and a good choice for hobbyists who buy and sell cars regularly -- or for the person friends seek when they're in the market for a used car. The MaxiDiag MD code reader is built by a company known worldwide for professional automotive diagnostic equipment and products that compete with those manufactured by Bosch.
The MD is similar to our best overall pick, the Innova CarScan Pro, with pro-level features at a consumer-targeted price. That means all the essential reading of OBD2 codes, clearing and analyzing features and bidirectional control, which lets you target which systems will be analyzed and to disable or enable certain features built into the car builders' control programs.
The MD OBD2 scanner is packaged in a more rectangular shape, which some people might prefer, and its hard plastic case is surrounded by a thick rubber grip that adds another layer of impact protection.
On the downside, its screen is narrower than the CarScan Pro's, and it has fewer keys. Operation can require an extra layer of menus. Nonetheless, you won't go wrong with the MaxiDiag MD scan tool. It's everything an auto hobbyist is likely to need. It comes from a company with a professional history, known for good product support. With four keys and a simple menu, the Ancel BD delivers the basic functions every scan tool should. It also has a handy dash-vent attachment for easy, safe display while driving, and it can present a range of live operating data-temperatures, fuel use, spark advance and more while the vehicle is under load.
The "hybrid" part comes when you pair the BD scan tool to a smartphone via Bluetooth, then switch to operating it with Ancel's app for Apple or Android. With the graphics capability of your smartphone, the BD offers even more data presented in various forms, including gauges and graphs.
It can also record familiar trip-computer functions like average speed, time and fuel consumption. It offers strengths inherent to both dedicated OBD2 scanners and Bluetooth dongles in a single device. Ancel builds a wide variety of automotive diagnostic equipment. Anself sells a strange range of hundreds of products, from telescopic back scratchers to inexpensive condenser microphones to watt solar panels to yoga balls straight outta China.
Sound dicey? Maybe it is, but here's what you get for your fourteen bucks: The cable, a manual and a CD with software that can turn your Windows laptop into an OBD2 scanner. The manual is not always easy to understand, but you can glean chunks of useful information.
At the very least you can probably leverage the cable to run more familiar apps like Torque Pro for PC on your laptop, and that could provide most of the functions expected in an OBD2 scan tool and more. The point? You can go with an established product, play it safe and spend more, and probably get what you pay for including, with the right brands, good support. Or you can roll the dice and try some of the really cheap stuff that's out there on the web. We're reasonably sure you could get the Anself OBD2 to USB cable to work to read a lot of the check engine light codes a vehicle generates, and clear them, and maybe even learn a bit more about what's going on in the car.
The consequences of failure probably aren't catastrophic. The likely worst case is that you throw in the towel and bring your vehicle to a local auto parts store for a free code read. If this "onboard diagnostics" stuff sounds intimidating, the basics are actually fairly simple. It started in the s, when the US government mandated that all vehicles beginning with the model year be equipped with a standard self-diagnostic system called OBD2 for onboard diagnostics, generation 2 , primarily to monitor emissions control systems.
Since then, OBD2 has grown ever more sophisticated, monitoring ever more systems, but the process remains the same. When OBD2 records a problem, it creates a fault or diagnostic trouble code, then lights a warning on the vehicle dash often that ubiquitous check engine light.
Read more: Best radar detectors for Fundamentally, an ODB2 scan tool reads and reports those trouble codes. It plugs into the car's diagnostic block, often called the OBD2 port -- an easy-to-identify, trapezoid-shaped female connector, noted in the owner's manual and typically located under the dash or near the steering column. Then it scans the OBD2 system to find the faults or trouble codes. Now, those codes are in fact codes , or five-place alphanumeric designations.
Code P, for example, means the catalytic converter is not operating properly. The most rudimentary OBD2 scanners still simply report the error code and you will have to check a reference manual or head for the internet to learn what P means. But in , the right, still modestly priced OBD2 scanner will tell you what the code definition is in English or multiple languages without having to look it up.
All OBD2 scanners should be able to clear the code, though the check engine light will likely flash again within a few miles if the actual problem generating the code hasn't been fixed. And there are a lot of codes -- upwards of 5, and more all the time, according to experts. P means "catalytic converter not operating properly" no matter the brand or vehicle.
Then there are a few thousand more codes specific to the vehicle manufacturer such as Chevy, Ford or Toyota and only Chevy, Ford or Toyota. A better OBD2 code reader will read the manufacturer codes, too, and explain those in English. Most will confirm the vehicle's VIN and show you a Freeze Frame, or a rundown of key data points in the car at the moment the check engine trouble code was triggered, to help pinpoint what caused the problem.
Most will report Live Data -- a potentially long list of data points like fluid temperatures, engine speed and load, fuel injection and spark rate, sensor operation and so on while the car is running. It's like the full set of gauges most car model types no longer have and then some, and another valuable diagnostic tool. Many OBD2 scanners will conduct a simulated smog test, checking the same things a service shop will check before it signs off on a smog certificate -- and give you a good idea if the car will pass or fail in its current condition.
They'll save or print reports with potential causes and possible repairs. The best can send commands to a car's individual control modules and even turn them off and on.
They let you make finite adjustments that the vehicle manufacturer allows in its control software and calibrate the tire pressure monitor system, or TPMS. OBD2 scanners are less expensive than ever, but competition makes the supply side of the market wilder than ever. Anyone who has carefully shopped for a mattress will understand. There's a handful of established players, a bunch of upstarts and a vast expanse of noise. Even the respected companies will build essentially identical scanners with different model numbers and insignificant appearance changes to sell through different retailers sometimes at different prices.
Differences are sometimes hard to discern. Depending on where you live and what you drive, a decent OBD2 scanner can pay for itself in relatively short order, if only through the fuel and time saved by avoiding trips to the local auto parts store for a free code read. OBD2 code readers don't have to be expensive, but every car hobbyist or do-it-yourselfer should probably have one in the tool kit.
The list of the best OBD2 scanners above runs the gamut from the least expensive way to check engine trouble codes on your vehicle to excellent car enthusiast-type devices to a probably-too-expensive, full-professional mega scan tools. We evaluated reports from testing labs and scanned user ratings at popular shopping sites.
Before you choose an OBD2 code reader, consider the following pointers. And before you click "Confirm Order," have a look at our pro tips below. Its primary purpose: What do you plan to do with an OBD2 scan tool? If you just want to know what that check engine idiot light in the dash is telling you, or you want to independently evaluate what a repair shop is reporting and maybe turn the light off if it's lit for something like a loose gas cap or a replaced EGR valve, you don't need to spend much.
Even when the problem is solved, a basic OBD2 scanner remains a valuable tool if you or someone you know is looking for an inexpensive used car. If, on the other hand, you're an automotive enthusiast, a frequent do-it-yourself person or the friend nonenthusiasts come to for car advice, it's certainly worth spending more.
More expensive scanners can have broader make and model coverage. An OBD2 code reader with the right features will help you look deeper into a car's control systems, troubleshoot problems and settle on appropriate repairs. A better one can help you analyze vehicle performance, optimize efficiency and better understand how a vehicle works. The best are good enough that, if you intend to make money fixing cars, you could use them to get started.
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