Another code reader question.

bluespit

bluespit

Senior member
 Near Chester
Site Supporter
I’m going round in circles with this but need to make a decision soon.

I have 5 code readers already none of which will work with my 2010 e89 3.0.
Carisa, worked fine with my previous golf but the subscription has expired; Carly, given the dongle by a pal but can’t work out how much the subscription is or even if it’s worth having; an Ancel 310 that works fine with one of my other toys but won’t talk to the BMW at all; and two cheapo things that haven’t talked to my cars for years.

So my current Tri-lemma is do I renew Christa, £80 per year, sign up for Carly? £?, or buy yet another reader, Foxwell 510 E is recommended I believe but is another £120.

Oh and there’s no point in a pc based thing as I’m all Mac and iPhone apart from one old dodgy Samsung that I used with Christa.

I don’t have a reason to need anything but I like to be prepared just in case. Not really that bothered about fiddling I just want to be able to ready the codes of any issues that may arise and tell the car when it’s been serviced or had new brakes or whatever.

Help an old man get some peace and solve my problem please 🙏 (not too technically though- buy this, plug it in and read that, is where I’m at)

Thanks
 
Two questions…how long do you think you’ll keep an E89?…Do you use an Android phone?
 
So, after a massive battle with Carly, it does actually work and is pretty easy to sort things out. I've reset my airbag light and coded out the voltage checks for LED's on the E86 and also done a few bits to my F31, so it does work. If you can stomach the cost, it is very easy. Plug in the dongle, connect and then just select the options you want.

But it depends on what you want to do? I wanted it predominantly to check out some codes and then code out lights as I change them to LEDs, especially as neither car has Xenons and the Philips Ultinon LED's are a straight replacement and very good.

I haven't tried it on an E89, but the F31 is a 2016 car and it works fine.
 
B21 said:
Two questions…how long do you think you’ll keep an E89?…Do you use an Android phone?
Click to expand...
Two answers;- hopefully several years to come and as I said in my post we’re all apple but I do have an ancient Samsung that ran Carista until the subscription expired

Don’t know what I’ll use it for until I need it. I imagine it’ll be forever resetting things after I’ve fixed them or finding out what needs fixing when things go wrong. I’m fine with most mechanical issues but would probably need the code reader to help me find out what was wrong.

For example, my avatar toy is more modern than it looks, and for ages kept throwing a MIL. The code related it to a failing cat, which seemed very unlikely but when I probed further with the Ancel it was the down stream lambda that was giving erratic signals. Further investigation revealed a partially severed wire and the fix was a £30 lambda and not a £700 cat. The carista solved an equally odd problem with the Golf relating to the brake light switch and a failed cruise control error
 
Bu99er, just realised I’ve put this in the wrong section. Mods please move if possible!
 
I would just buy a Creator 410. BMW specific and will do all models up to F series. Works well on the E89, gives live data and you can register batteries aswell.
Around £50 on eBay.
 
bluespit said:
Two answers;- hopefully several years to come and as I said in my post we’re all apple but I do have an ancient Samsung that ran Carista until the subscription expired

Don’t know what I’ll use it for until I need it. I imagine it’ll be forever resetting things after I’ve fixed them or finding out what needs fixing when things go wrong. I’m fine with most mechanical issues but would probably need the code reader to help me find out what was wrong.

For example, my avatar toy is more modern than it looks, and for ages kept throwing a MIL. The code related it to a failing cat, which seemed very unlikely but when I probed further with the Ancel it was the down stream lambda that was giving erratic signals. Further investigation revealed a partially severed wire and the fix was a £30 lambda and not a £700 cat. The carista solved an equally odd problem with the Golf relating to the brake light switch and a failed cruise control error
Click to expand...
So your choices are:

If you want a very simple tool by a Foxwell/Creator type device..reads codes does some very basic resets but that's about it..

If you want codes /data logging / coding options then its a Carly app based product or a higher end dedicated tool typically in the £150-£300 area

Personally I'd buy a cheap android phone get a dongle and get Bimmergeeks Protool for a one off fee of about £130..that this side of a full blown BMW dealer classs system is the amateur's gold standard..the IBM PC tools are a bit more capable but as user friendly as a cornered shark.

No point IMHO goimg with Carly or other rental models if you plan to keep the car,

I'm also a 100% Apple user..but, I just keep the android phone fully charged, switched off and in the car..ready for any issues.

I've used it twice in anger on the road..lost a cylinder on the motorway and discovered a failing coil pack, then the water pump failed 400 miles from home on a sunday evening..I was able to diagnose the fault, reset it andf then monitor coolant temp in real time to see if/how it was going to fail!
 
After using Carly for a year (it did everything I wanted, but I wasn't going to carry on paying £80 a year) so I bought a Launch X431 for £120 a month ago to re-callibrate the rear air springs on my 5 Series and it does everything on all BMWs and will update as necessary. I plugged in in on my Zed and read everything and found no faults, but I knew there wasn't any, but as least I know it works.

But all code readers are only as good as the person using them and aren't a magic fix some people think they are. They will give you a code, you then have to find out what that is and fix that and try again. Google is your friend here.
 
Just been using my Foxwell 520 pro.
Just found out i can activate boot lid to open through Foxwell, wonder if i can with roof half open.
Can't do motoring without it.
 
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