ODBII Sensors

[THRobinson]

Hey guys... I have one of those bluetooth ODBII plugins that connect to the phone, and more often than not when I have an issue (ie. flashing red lightning bolt) the software says no error codes found.

I've tried 5 or 6 different android apps.

Are the handheld ODBII scanners better than the ones that connect to the phone? or are they about the same and equally as useful?

I know the garage has a much bigger more expensive tool to plugin, which isn't gonna happen for someone like myself. Just wondered if the bluetooth plugins are limited? or all ODBII scanners are limited the same.

 

[canadiankodiak700]

For a free app, use torque, or pay a small fee and get torque pro.

If it's just one of the cheap $5 to $25 Chinese built elm327 obd2 readers from ebay/amazon, they are hit she miss, and they fail randomly after working fine.
It's well worth the money to buy a quality one like the obdlink mx+
Also an investment into the alphaobd app is money well spent once you have the obdlink mx+.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[THRobinson]

Sounds like then the cell phone app is as good as a handheld unit then? Handhelds are just better in the sense that you won't drop/break your cell phone when working on a car?

ELM327 off eBay about 8yrs ago... exactly what I have.

Was debating if it was the problem? Bluetooth ODBII's in general were flakey? or to buy a handheld unit, but thought Android apps can at least be updated.

That said... the obdlink mx+ is more than a handheld unit.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_p=05326fd5-c43e-4948-99b1-a65b129fdd73

 

[THRobinson]

Why was this moved here? It's not 3rd Gen Dodge specific... or even Dodge specific

 

[WY-Dave]

There are 3 ver$ion$ of handheld readers, 1) Basic OBD, 2) OBD+ABS and then 3) OBD+ABS+SRS

is you look at the bottom of the amazon listing, you can see the $159 abs/srs reader

https://www.amazon.ca/Launch-Scanne...B089GGR2GC/dp/B089GGR2GC/ref=dp_ob_title_auto

 

[CVX20]

I bought a Foxwell code reader/ scanner a couple of years ago when I had my BMW X5.It came loaded with software for the X5 but I paid an extra $50 for the Ram software as well.You can load any vehicle for an extra $50 or it will come with just generic OBII codes for all systems. Having wrenched for a living for 35+years(a lot of years at dealers)I've used the really expensive scan tools and I can't believe how much this tool does for the money.Lifetime updates supposedly also although I haven't tried that.Live data,freeze frame snapshot,graphs and can control most outputs.Great little tool for a couple hundred bucks.