My "SES" light keeps comeing on. I'm looking into buying a scanner tool for my car. It is a 96 z28. I don't wanna have to pay the dealership another $96 to do a diagnostic again. I don't have much money to spend. I did a search and i saw one from harbor freight for only $50. Has anybody used this one? Would it be able to tell me if a certain cylinder was misfiring? It seems like a good deal for only $50. Or should i spend more money on one like autotap or something. Would autotap be able to tell me certain cylinders?

 

Do you have a laptop? If you are fairly good with a computer try http://www.obd-2.com/ . My Z is obd-1 but my grand prix is obd-2. I have found this scan tool very useful. It isn't as fancy looking as a-tap but it gets the job done. I think that not having the graphics as fancy as a-tap helps out my ancient laptop too.

The tech support is great also. Send him an e-mail if you have any questions.

Good luck

 

The Harbor Freight tool is not a scanner, only a code reader. It should pull a code if the SES light is on. Brent Franker, who is a moderator on this board, gave it good marks. The Auto X-Ray EZ Link scanner is probably the cheapest scan tool you can buy. It's around $200, but only does the basic scan stuff. Injuneer Fred has a write-up somewhere about all the OBDII scan tools. Check J. C. Whitney's site, as they have a few to look at. The pc/laptop ones are another alternative.

 

I second http://www.obd-2.com if you have a laptop. You can check all the sensors, pull codes, and log data.

 

Do you think the obd-2 is better then the autoscan? Is it easier to use? Will it tell me which cylinders are misfiring?

 

ttt

 

autoscan? Do you mean Auto-Tap?

I can't give you a good comparison. The only scan too I have used is the one I gave you the link for. I believe it does track misfires.

As for ease of use. It took some messing around to get it to work to suit me. I had to change the port speed of my serial port on my laptop. This is easy.

Then I just had to get used to the layout and how things worked. I only had to email tech support once and they responded well.

Go to the website and ask them about the misfires, they will be very helpful.

I tried to check mine but my laptop has to be connected to the car to see what values I can check. It is hard to do that when I am typing on it right now. I have to clear a SES light later today. I will try to remember to check on the misfires then.

Good luck

 

sorry yeah i meant autotap.

 

Alex Pepper's software (http://www.obd-2.com) will tell you which cylinders are misfiring along with the misfire history.

 

How much does the unit cost? I coudn't tell really.

 

$122 quantity one
Your choice of one of three possible OBDII gateway interfaces:
ISO - for European, Asian, Chrysler
VPW - for General Motors
PWM - for Ford
DOUBLE COMBO - contains any two of the above gateways $142
TRIPLE COMBO - contains all three gateways for use on all vehicles $162
TRICOM - one piece car connector interface, hardware processing, for all vehicles $182
Only one cable and connector needed, combo router box selects correct vehicle.


I will say one last time, shoot them an e-mail they will be very helpful. I got the tricom model through a group purchase at ClubGP.com. E-mail him to see if he would do a group purchase and get some other people to go in. I have used mine on my sisters van, my Grand Prix, and my friends Acura. I don't think I could be happier. I also got a great deal by doing it through a Group Purchase.

I don't know how you would go about doing that here. I think to post to the group purchase forum the seller has to be a paying advertiser of CamaroZ28.com. Maybe someone could give you some ideas there.

Good luck

 

thanks jwberk. I think it would be benificial to get the tricom that way if one of my friends needed it i could help them out to. But is the program for it in stuff they give you or is it the program you put on your laptop. Because i don't have a laptop but my friend has one. I'm could borrow it if i really needed it but if i couldn't use it would i be able to use a different laptop?

 

Yes you do need a laptop. You download the program off of the website. The cable is shipped to you. And you get an email with a serial number and instructions on how to enter it.

I would recommend the top model. It is nice to be able to trouble shoot any vehicle and the tricom is supposed to have a faster rate of transfer, I think. This will help when you try to run diagnostics for tuning.

You can email them to make sure. But, there was a reason I got the tricom instead of the triple combo. I believe it was because of the speed. I needed it to monitor Knock retard on my supercharged grand prix. So I wanted it to be as fast as possible.

 

can i use different laptops. I mean can i have the program on more then 1 computer. Or is it once i install the computer on 1 laptop i got to use the computer everytime?

 

Yes, you can install the software and use it on multiple computers. You'll just have 1 cable though.