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Car Diagnostics Tool/Scanner?


Verner

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Hi Everyone,

Just looking for a little advice please.

I am going to get one of those little Diagnostics Scanner/Tools for my 987.

Can anyone recommend one, in say the sub £200.00 category?

 

Please?

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Verner

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I have a foxwell which is a very cheap one (£30 ish) I can ready fault codes & remove them if required and a load of other things). I don't think for £200 you will get a unit that allows you to access and change settings on your car so I would try a cheaper one like I have if that's all you want it for. 

 

 

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iCarsoft 2.0POR.  Not sure which 987 you have but the 2.0 has all the extra features for electric handbrake and other more modern module reading.  I have a 986 so bought the slightly cheaper 1.0.  Good, well build unit, feels much more like a proper tool than the cheaper ones and reads all Porsche features, not just OBD2 engine and emissions related stuff.

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one thing I would say is give very careful consideration on what you want to do with it.

if you think you may want to run actuations and deeper levels of diagnostics, then an entry level durametric could be for you. (of course, you'll need an old lap top running XP which is another cost).

my point is, don't buy a scanner and then end up wishing you had (or need) something better and end buying that after.

(i sold my iCarsoft Por v2.0 when I bought my durametric... but ending up buying another as it's handy to sling in the car when on road trips...!!!)

but anyway - either are great bits of kit, and the iCarsoft is very well made and also very easy to use.

cheers.

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Just now, beaks said:

one thing I would say is give very careful consideration on what you want to do with it.

if you think you may want to run actuations and deeper levels of diagnostics, then an entry level durametric could be for you. (of course, you'll need an old lap top running XP which is another cost).

my point is, don't buy a scanner and then end up wishing you had (or need) something better and end buying that after.

(i sold my iCarsoft Por v2.0 when I bought my durametric... but ending up buying another as it's handy to sling in the car when on road trips...!!!)

but anyway - either are great bits of kit, and the iCarsoft is very well made and also very easy to use.

cheers.

as an aside, if anyone local to me needs their car plugging in and looking at, always happy to help out. 

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22 minutes ago, beaks said:

as an aside, if anyone local to me needs their car plugging in and looking at, always happy to help out. 

Does it tell you rev range data?also what can it do that icarsoft cant?tia...

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Verner, I did this bit of research about a year ago. I came to the following conclusions: 

- Cheapest option. A generic fault code reader, £20 or so from eBay. Will read the standard 'core' OBD codes and reset them as well. This is not Porsche-specific and won't do any of the Porsche-specific stuff, just the universal codes as they would appear on any car. Come as Bluetooth dongle things which work with an app on your 'phone. 

- Mid-range option. iCarSoft POR1 or 2. The 1 was the earlier model, the 2 does a few things that the 1 doesn't (such as actuating the ABS system to make bleeding the brakes easier) but there's not much in it. Around £140 for the model 2, a bit less for the model 1. What this allows you to do is reset the service indicator on the dashboard which can't be done by the generic code readers. These are physical bits of kit, looking a little bit like a hand-held games console. 

- Expensive option. Durametric. Allows all of the above but can set several of the options on the car as well - things like whether it chirps when you lock it and so on. This is software with a lead so you need an old laptop to run it on. It comes in two types: 'Amateur' which will only work on three cars before locking up and 'Pro' which will work on as many cars as you like. I think these were around £400 for the amateur version, over £1000 for the pro. 

- Dealer option. Porsche PIWIS. Allows you to do everything including resetting the car, adding new modules if you plug them in (cruise control etc), re-finding things like heated seats if the car has forgotten them etc etc etc. I think that some enthusiasts have PIWIS but can't imagine there are many as it's probably frighteningly expensive. 

I need to buy a system as well (I never did so having done the research!) and thought that the iCarSoft POR2 was probably the way to go. They all seem to be £136 on eBay, with free delivery. (Interestingly a second-hand one come up on eBay a couple of weeks ago and went for something like £137!) 

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On 2/22/2021 at 2:24 PM, beaks said:

one thing I would say is give very careful consideration on what you want to do with it.

if you think you may want to run actuations and deeper levels of diagnostics, then an entry level durametric could be for you. (of course, you'll need an old lap top running XP which is another cost).

my point is, don't buy a scanner and then end up wishing you had (or need) something better and end buying that after.

(i sold my iCarsoft Por v2.0 when I bought my durametric... but ending up buying another as it's handy to sling in the car when on road trips...!!!)

but anyway - either are great bits of kit, and the iCarsoft is very well made and also very easy to use.

cheers.

Thanks for the great advice. I am just looking for a basic tool to let me know what problems there are should they crop up. My Tech/Mech lives about 30 miles from here, so if anything does come up, I can inform him to be prepared when coming across to sort issue out. If that makes sense?

 

Thanks again,

 

Verner

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