Best choice for a simple code reader?
- Thread starter 1972nail
- Start date
Simple as in quick to use, or easy to understand?
Most scanners are pretty similar for use. Plug and play kind of thing.
I’ve got a C310 (so upgrade of the one you suggested) and always found that Carly is much easier to understand and navigate.
But read about the 110 as well and it’s widely used on BM’s so any of those three are going to be good IMO!
Most scanners are pretty similar for use. Plug and play kind of thing.
I’ve got a C310 (so upgrade of the one you suggested) and always found that Carly is much easier to understand and navigate.
But read about the 110 as well and it’s widely used on BM’s so any of those three are going to be good IMO!
If you have an android phone then a ELM327 Bluetooth dongle and the app called torque. Get them for about a fiver each and work a treat for reading and clearing codes.
Cleared codes on both the zed and the wife’s Astra. Bought and extra dongle so I have one in the zed and my daily.
Cleared codes on both the zed and the wife’s Astra. Bought and extra dongle so I have one in the zed and my daily.
I've tried cheap generic code readers and they didn't give sufficient information in some cases with previous cars and no info at all on our Z with the transmission warning light problem I had. So want to invest in something which will be better than basic but not OTT. I will need to dismantle the doors to tighten the problematic window bolts soon (one dropped out with a clunk last week) so I need something to work with air bags.
I have both the C110 and Carly, both work well enough if it's simply code reading/clearing you want but I've found the C110 to be pretty slow to use and often takes a while to move between screens and don't think it's capable of reading as many modules as Carly, but it is significantly cheaper!
The strong argument for Carly would be it's ease of use and ability to perform coding but at £100+ for the adaptor and app it is quite pricey, it is also a bit hit and miss on 'live data', this function doesn't work on my 3.0si N52 engine which is annoying as it's the main reason I bought the bloody thing!
The 'free trial' for Carly is useless, will only be usable if you buy the full version of the app... and even then there are 'add ons' at further cost. I've heard good things about the torque app mentioned by srhutch so that could be the way forward if you wanted to use your phone as a fault code reader
The strong argument for Carly would be it's ease of use and ability to perform coding but at £100+ for the adaptor and app it is quite pricey, it is also a bit hit and miss on 'live data', this function doesn't work on my 3.0si N52 engine which is annoying as it's the main reason I bought the bloody thing!
The 'free trial' for Carly is useless, will only be usable if you buy the full version of the app... and even then there are 'add ons' at further cost. I've heard good things about the torque app mentioned by srhutch so that could be the way forward if you wanted to use your phone as a fault code reader
1972nail said:I've been putting off buying a code reader for a year now but I think I'd better do a bit of research 'just in case' I need one soon. Having read a few threads on various forums it would appear that a favourite is the BMW C110 +.
Comments please.
I picked up a iCarsoft i910-II pretty cheap from amazon (£55) and am happy with it.
If you get it, no need to update the software as it is already on the latest, so ignore those comments that said they bricked it updating the software. They downloaded an older firmware from the iCarsoft site and tried to put a lower version over a higher versi;on.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LLBKUHK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
When I had an airbag fault, I tried purchasing one of these hand held code readers off Amazon I think it was a BMW C110 +. It cleared all my faults except my airbag fault. I also tried BMW scanner 1.4 and dongle on a laptop, that also wouldn't clear it. In the end I purchased ISTA-D installed on a laptop and it had not problems clearing it.
)Update on this....i still haven't bought a code reader. The current options I'm considering are the Creator 110, 310 and the 501. I think the 110 can't clear some service lights or reset some things but what's the difference between the 310 and the 501? Anything I've read online is a bit confusing and doesn't really define differences in the two.
I had the BMCables kit on a windows laptop which can do everything. Problem was I didn't really understand it (or everything in German!) and bottled out when I got warnings like "continuing will delete this module"! So I packed it up, sold it to a forum member who understood it and went with TorquePro. That does enough for me so far.
BMCable OK but 0% help on the programes, which to be honest is what you WILL need. Read about INPA and EDIBAS on the net and see if you can grasp it. Some of it is really clunky but it does work. I found old XP laptop (SP3) to be the best bet for using. Their apps CD is atrocious and half the time will not load, copy the whole thing to your hard drive and load it from there. You may have to go searching for the .exe files to get them to work though. As long as you are not too impatient it does eventually all work 
1972nail said:
That's what I use, couldn't get their software to work on my Windows10 laptop so I downloaded EasyBMWtools (it's free) https://mega.nz/#!kAASwa7I!AJLVnnEBwLgzDPzBeQ4uQo60p1lbU2BsZofE-TBYGmk their cable is fine though, works a treat, obviously there's a larger learning curve than things like Carly and Torque but it does everything. Couldn't bring myself to pay Carly's ridiculous subscription fee for a very basic product.
