[Aaron Cake]

With my recent CEL light problems, and my warrenty basically over, it's time to take matters into my own hands.

However, it has become abundantly clear that in order to diagnose this car, I will need a scan tool.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I've been looking around, and have decided that I would like a tool that can display freeze data as well as a live stream. Some of the cheaper ones don't do that.

Summit Racing has a few in their catalog which look good, but I don't know anyone with first hand experience.

I would like to stay away from laptop based solutions, and stick with a standalone unit. Being able to transfer data to a computer would be nice, but not a requirement. I am willing to spend some money here, but under $500 Canadian (um, around $400 US) would be reasonable.

 

[Guillermo]

Most of them are made to be connected to a Palm pilot.
I'm sure you can buy a used palm pilot on Ebay for cheap.

 

[sunhunter]

I got one that connects to my laptop from http://www.obd-2.com/
I don't think that it has PDA interface, well, I mean software at least.
It works well and was a something like $120. I almost got one that was $85, but decided that the slightly more expensive one would be better since it was created by someone who was involved in creating the obd2 specifications and I am guessing it has better support. In the diagnostics software you can select the make as honda to get the honda specific code descriptions (if you have a code to read). My O2 sensor failed and I kept tabs on the engine data until finally I replaced the sensor a few months later. The software can act as a real time display as well as a data logger.

Hunter

 

[LoNOx 1]

I use the same one.

Use Windows 3.1, 95, 98, BOB, ME, 2K, XP computer, 386 or higher, optimized for low cost laptops.

The above quote was copied from http://www.obd-2.com/#home
I have an older Pentium 300 IBM laptop with a whopping 2 gig hard drive that I use. It is very functional and the developer has GREAT tech support. He has responded within one day both times I emailed a question. I looked at the site tonight and downloaded the latest upgrade from 1-31-05.
It is a great investment. I used it last week to find a failing ignition coil on my wife's 2000 Maxima.

 

[Aaron Cake]

I'm looking for a standalone tool, not dependant on a Palm (yuck...I hate Palm ) or a laptop.

I believe I mentioned this in my first post.

 

[Guest]

Hi Aaron

___Standalones are usually overly expensive and lacking features of a SW with OBD serial connector solution.

___For a place to start, Batauto.com periodically does reviews on both SW and HW based OBD-II scanners including the highly recommended OBD-2.com’s. After reading a few of them, you can decide what is best for your particular situation.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:1pyiy421][email protected][/email:1pyiy421]

 

[Willie Williford]

The oneI use is at http://www.autoxray.com
And I love it.
I wish I had it from "day one".
Purchased 03/23/03 and have a removeable holder for it in my vehicle. It will also reset CEL light..............

 

[Aaron Cake]

Yes, I have been looking at the AutoXRay as well. It seems to have an impressie amount of features for the price, and is available from Summit for around $400. I think that's the unit that I will end up with.

 

[figgy]

I have a PalmOS one and while it is nice, it doesn't do a good job at saving data easily. It is all too easy to erase over your running data or have it reset and have you lose your existing trip data.

Because I don't have a portable PC, and I have a Palm, I went with the Palm.

However, if you have a laptop PC, I would go for the laptop software over Palm. The fact that the laptop is bigger in this case actually means it is better. I believe the PC software lets you do a lot more and keep archives and trip data much more easily than the Palm.

The Palm stuff is perhaps a step better and likely cheaper than a dedicated tool, but it is limited.

Still fun, however.