any advice on which diagnostic tool to get!!
 

as above, which diagnostic tools are people favouring?? i own an 04 plate blobeye sti, and have had a full turbo back 3" internal bore stainless exhaust fitted, and since then every time i give it some welly the EM light comes on, at the mo a m8 keeps turning it off, any advice or recomendations are welcome, cheers :)

I bought one off eBay for about 25 quid it was a godsend for my ast car which every tie the car was warming up the dam light came on, cheap turns it odd and tells you what's wrong, 25 quid bargain

Dam tablets lol I meant off not odd still learning to type with this dam thing :confused:

ive seen some on there for around that price, just wondering if anyone on here had used any of them, did the one you had just give you the error code or did it tell you what was wrong?

Hi there

Assuming you are running unmapped exhaust on your STi,due this i would run off the boost until your car will be mapped for those changes.Contact here few mappers which are in your area or some mappers are mobile too.

You will need something like is Tactrix cable if you want turn off the error codes(CEL).

Second though is you can go route by OBD cable and RomRaider SW

Here is link on OBD cable

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VAG-USB-40...#ht_3080wt_999

And on the RomRaider

http://www.romraider.com/

and plus this too
http://www.romraider.com/forum/topic2772.html


Jura

Yeah my obd reader told me the code and what was wrong in my case it was always misfire detected cylinder 4 lol and you can turn the cell off IMHO if your after a basic reader to tell you what's wrong and turn the cell off not much point in spending a fortune 25 quid did the job for me.

If you just want to read fault codes, get a cheap bluetooth elm obd dongle and download torque app for android. Job done. It can reset them too.

can you reset your ECU with the cheap £10 OBD/USB cable and rom raider?

the alternative is at least £150 for the tactrix... :wonder:

Yes you can reset via RomRaider Learning view,but difference between the Tactrix and this "cheap" OBD/USB cable,with Tactrix you can map your car and with this OBD/USB you can't


Hope this help

Jura

Very unlikely, to impossible that it will work on your classic. Needs SSM protocol, which you don't get alot on these testers.

EDIT: Whoops, just noticed you don't have a classic. Just saw the 2000 Subary Impreza. I have avatars turned off, so can't see them either.

Yes, but if you want to read the error codes, you'll need EcuEdit from here:

http://www.epifansoft.com/

(trial version is good enough for the first time but you'll need a license if you want to keep being able to read them)

You can sometimes map with the eBay OBD cables but after several failed attempts, I stumped up and bought a Tactrix. Worked straight out of the box so well worth it in my case.

Do you like your engine?
The EM light is telling you something, just turning it off as your mate said, isnt a bright idea, that CEL light is saying "you are killing me", and if you see how much engines are to rebuild I think you may not be giving your car any beans! :eek:
Get the car remapped as it sounds as though its not been done, this will save the det that your engine management light is warning you about, which in turn is blowing holes in your pistons and putting undue strain on your engine internals, of course if you dont want to do this and spend 5-600 quid on a remap, a full engine rebuild is around 3k, but its your car not mine ;)

Tony:)

PS, i'd put the downpipe cat/standard exhaust back on if you want to carry on driving the car.

I use an autel ms310 which provides codes and a brief discription of the code. It was 40 notes new from eBay. They also do a cheaper 20 note option. Very useful tool to have :)

Use this WiFi dongle;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wifi-OBD2-...item231c102754

And if you have an iPhone or an Android phone download Rev/Dash Command/Inovate and you can data log as well as checking and clearing fault codes all fro, your mobile!

The data logging feature of both apps is excellent and allowed me to diagnose a knock sensor fault I had at low revs.

brilliant thread.

I just bought a bluetooth :

Wireless Bluetooth CAN-BUS Diagnostic interface scanner OBD-2 OBDII ELM327

off ebay. for £13 :) :) :)

now to go download some gauge software :)

I wonder if I can redirect my display from the android to my kenwood 4028bt....

Useful links Jura thanks :thumb:

useful info, thanks folks. ordered a £10 K line obd2/usb cable.

so romraider can't read fault codes? and ecuedit is a trial version.

is there a free program perhaps that can read fault codes?

what about ecuExplorer?

Romraider can read fault codes via Learning View which i've posted above.
EcuEdit is really daddy of all Open source tuning sw

EcuExplorer i've used and is Ok for your needs,not sure if will work with this this USB/OBD cable

Jura

thanks, i just need to read fault codes, and possibly reset the ECU - don't need to tune. so romraider should do fine.

RomRaider will allow you tune your car too,but for this you will need Tactrix cable for reading codes you will not need Tactrix cable

Yes with RomRaider you should be able reset the ECU and read fault codes


Jura

Learning View from Romraider forums will let you:

# Read the knock correction table(FLKC I think)
# Read out CEL codes
# Reset ECU

Good bit of kit and very very easy to use :)

is Romraider a free download?

Yeah, its free, its a good piece of software

Here is a link http://www.romraider.com/RomRaider/Download

Had forgotten about Learning View!

ok i got connected with learning view and no current or memorised trouble codes were found - so, would it be safe to reset ECU?

also on the A/F learning #1 % airflow ranges, i am running into negative values and also for some of the fine learning knock correction table, i am running into some abnormal negative values as well.

is this of importance? it seems some values are below normal ranges, can anyone help?

http://i41.tinypic.com/r2s5me.jpg

Your AFR leaning doesnt look too bad but dont like the look of the FLKC table, I personally dont like to see any knock correction. Something in the region of -1deg is not too bad but the -4.22 at high load between 5800-6200rpm is not nice.

Has the car been remapped to suit any mods fitted ?

should be.

what would happen if i reset ECU?

reset would force ECU to relearn. Worth doing and see what FLKC it learns after a reset, could have been some poor fuel etc.

ok thanks. how should i drive it after reset?

i've heard conflicting reports on how to drive - slow, spirited, on or off boost etc and for how long should i take it a run?

i would drive steady using some boost but not full throttle. drive for 15mins then look at the learning view again. see how it is and then step up the revs and boost. make sure the car has some good fuel in it.