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Post by valhalla on Aug 8, 2020 23:05:48 GMT 1
A quick update on this tool;
Overall it is doing the job, but not quite as brilliantly as the Autel MS908. I think that would be a fair assessment of the situation, but much as I had expected.
It has its own way of going about its work, and it happens to be slightly different to the way the Autel does its job!
To illustrate this, I put the Autocom across the V50 2010MY that I had in earlier this week. Even allowing for the fact that this is a Focus Mk.2 in drag, it was still slightly problematic to get what I wanted to get done in the same sort of timescale that the Autel would have done it, despite being a "home-grown Volvo on a Swedish tool" The Intelligent System Scan (ISS) is not as intuitive as the equivalent function on the Autel, and doing a "clear all DTC's" does not seem to be possible, so it's a bit of a drag to service a car that has got a few faults spread across a few controllers.
I think that the main issue is my own competence with the tool, so I will reserve judgement until I can have more practice (and maybe read the manual!).
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Post by valhalla on Aug 21, 2020 23:33:06 GMT 1
The assessment above, from the 8h August, still stands; it's OK, but it isn't what the Autel used to be....
I've had the same "fun and games" as before, making later Freelanders talk to the device by manually selecting them to be earlier Freelanders. It seems silly that 2014 is not covered, but 2013 is.
On one hand, though, I'm impressed with the updates and support, much more like a professional tool, and less like an expensive knock-off in the way the things are rolled-out. Full marks also to Diagnostic Connections for reinforcing that support through Emails and updates.
The main thing is, the money isn't going straight to China, so the moral victory is with the Autocom. My customers are appreciating this as well, and I have had one or two nods of agreement, so this is reinforcing my business, not undermining it.
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Post by studabear on Sept 14, 2020 12:05:43 GMT 1
I'm currently looking at A Autel Maxicom MK808 for home usage. Looks like it's quite a competent bit of kit for what I need.
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Post by valhalla on Sept 14, 2020 16:30:22 GMT 1
Yes, I would agree that the Autel toolsets are all very competent. Almost too much so.....to part with them when the time is up for replacement!
I think the MK808 is almost all of the tool that you will need - it doesn't have the potential for some of the add-on's that the 908 tools have ('scope, guided-diagnostics, etc. etc.) but has everything that is good about the main interface software, which is extremely comprehensive. Not sure about one or two of the "output tests" ie. bidirectional controls, but I think it will do most of those anyway. The live-data and fault read/clear is all exactly as the MS908 series, which is second-to-none.
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Post by givusaclue on Sept 16, 2020 21:19:50 GMT 1
I just bought the ms908s pro from hickleys, cracking tool, but worth looking into the cost of annual updates Before purchase as they’re not cheap, mine was on a 2 yr warranty & updates deal, but at £1195/yr + vat it’s a consideration, this guy seems well thought of as far as backup goes mobileecotuning.com/product-category/diagnostic-tools
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Post by valhalla on Sept 16, 2020 23:11:41 GMT 1
Yes, indeed, the cost of the annual updates was a big part of the deciding-factor to go away from Autel for me. The Autocom CARS software is nearly half that price, and I think Autel have started to price their way out of the market because of their decision a few years back to suddenly hike all the software renewal prices.
The concept that the software is good by being copied from elsewhere made the near-£1200 price tag even worse to swallow, as I don't mind paying for original work, but top-dollar prices for non-original work......
The Telegraph has run a big campaign, and an article or two in the last week, about the data-scraping that has been going-on in China of-recent. It should come as no surprise, as this style is endemic to the country.
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Post by valhalla on Sept 25, 2020 23:36:19 GMT 1
The Autocom CDP+ had a good day today;
I was struggling to get a forced DPF regen done on a (lockdown) Skoda Roomster 2013, and the VCDS was not able to get me to an idle-speed, stationary regeneration at all. It transpires that this model of R4 1.6 diesel does not offer this mode of forced-regen, but the VCDS was making a bit of a dog's dinner about the alternative, the driving mode forced-regen.
I set the Autocom up in-place of the VCDS on the basis that the team in Sweden have probably coded the routine their own way, rather than copying what everyone else has done, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had done an excellent job of leading me through all the prerequisites and cautions, and handling the regen in a professional way out on the open road. Fortunately for this particular Skoda, the soot mass was just within the limits for a forced regen (it had been through a few "repair agents" that all failed to get anywhere with it, and had come close to precluding any rectification by myself), and the default screens on the Autocom are efficient in the information you need to see to keep this process going out on the road; the main things being the exhaust temps throughout the system, and the soot mass calculated throughout the regeneration.
The VCDS would have done this, but the front-end to that would not have been so easy to manipulate. I'm vey happy with the Autocom tonight, it did its job 100%.
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Post by valhalla on Oct 5, 2020 0:03:20 GMT 1
Not a good day for the Autocom yesterday; vehicle in-question was a Honda CR-V 2015 1.6 diesel (so 4th gen CR-V, which I believe ran from circa 2012 to 2017? possibly launched earlier)
The long and the short of this was a problem in the F/N/S door window switch module, and it never occurred to me that the Autocom would have nothing, whatsoever, on this model of CR-V, not even an adjacent year or two. I tried to scan with the nearest car available - previous gen CR-V - but it was just hopeless.
The Autel just breezed this, even though it hasn't been updated for quite a while now, with a full suite of modules and bi-directional controls, even in the central electrical functions. I only found this out after I had already gone through the wiring "the old fashioned way" as follows;
Luckily for me, it turns-out for the first time in its history with me, AllData has a comprehensive OEM data resource for this sort of Honda, so I was able to pull-up the OEM wiring diagrams within a few minutes, and thus was able to deal with the car from first-principles. The problem lay in the communication layer of the "smart switch module" rather than any particular power problem, so I was able to determine that the switch was not turning-on to run the window, nor indeed to communicate back to the central electrics. Yet, despite this, no fault code seemed to crop-up on the CEM. The LINbus was active into the switch, but no response back from the switch.
A secondhand unit is on the way, so I will soon be proved wrong on this diagnosis....
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Post by valhalla on Oct 20, 2020 23:26:45 GMT 1
Another Skoda TDI, another mixed success with the Autocom; it doesn't read-out enough live data to do a proper diagnosis, which the VCDS can read-out more comprehensively. So in the case of the Skoda today, I had a very constipated DPF system, faults flagging for "DPF efficiency poor" and "pressure signal plausiblity", and an immediate suspicion that this car had the very common problem of a goosed differential pressure sensor on the back of the engine. Having confirmed the actual running pressures with a Mityvac on the DPF pressure lines, all I wanted to do was read-out the ECM interpreted diff pressure. Which the Autocom CARS cannot do, but VCDS can (and therefore VW have provided this information out from the ECM, so it ought to be possible on everything that reads it). Anyway, the sensor was deemed U/S, and it proved to be so when I put a new Bosch sensor on this afternoon and idled the engine with the VCDS connected to the diagnostic port.
On the same hand as the Skoda above, however, it was far easier to force a regen with the Autocom on the seat next to me, rather than the VCDS toolset, which is clunky and not intuitive. Needless to say, I couldn't say how much soot I had lost off this DPF today, as I had no pressure signal to use, but the lights are all staying out at the moment.....and the soot-loading model on this particular BMM engined car is utterly useless - it does nothing that can be read over any of the scantools, unlike the previous Skoda.
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Post by valhalla on Oct 21, 2020 23:13:47 GMT 1
All scantools failed on one of the cars today; a very tidy Mk.5 Civic Aerodeck 2000MY with an ABS lamp illuminated.
I had to show my "helping hands" how to do this job the old way, which turned-out to be faster than I had anticipated, and that was to pull the four ABS sensor leads at the wheelarches and probe them with the Picoscope. Dead easy to see that the R/N/S sensor was duff, but that the reluctor was likely to be OK. Whether I can put the light out with anything, once a new sensor has arrived and been fitted, is anyone's guess. I suspect I may then have to show "helping hands" how to put a light out "the old way".....
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Post by givusaclue on Nov 1, 2020 18:58:11 GMT 1
Well the new ms908s pro Is quite impressive, coded in a s/hand sgw module on a 5 series bmw that another garage couldn’t do, the owner was going to go to somewhere he knew in Leicester which is about 70 miles away, did flash coding for replacement module, all good, not at all unhappy, it does flash updating on Merc, bmw & mini in with annual subs
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,971
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Post by remmington on Nov 1, 2020 19:22:20 GMT 1
All scantools failed on one of the cars today; a very tidy Mk.5 Civic Aerodeck 2000MY with an ABS lamp illuminated. I had to show my "helping hands" how to do this job the old way, which turned-out to be faster than I had anticipated, and that was to pull the four ABS sensor leads at the wheelarches and probe them with the Picoscope. Dead easy to see that the R/N/S sensor was duff, but that the reluctor was likely to be OK. Whether I can put the light out with anything, once a new sensor has arrived and been fitted, is anyone's guess. I suspect I may then have to show "helping hands" how to put a light out "the old way"..... How are you getting on with the "helping hands" OK I hope?
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Post by givusaclue on Nov 1, 2020 21:12:11 GMT 1
All scantools failed on one of the cars today; a very tidy Mk.5 Civic Aerodeck 2000MY with an ABS lamp illuminated. I had to show my "helping hands" how to do this job the old way, which turned-out to be faster than I had anticipated, and that was to pull the four ABS sensor leads at the wheelarches and probe them with the Picoscope. Dead easy to see that the R/N/S sensor was duff, but that the reluctor was likely to be OK. Whether I can put the light out with anything, once a new sensor has arrived and been fitted, is anyone's guess. I suspect I may then have to show "helping hands" how to put a light out "the old way"..... How are you getting on with the "helping hands" OK I hope? He could always furlough him if it doesn’t pan out
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Post by valhalla on Nov 1, 2020 23:40:52 GMT 1
He's doing alright, but I share him across the business a bit - he's on a "retainer" for doing the joinery and projects on the buildings, but lends a hand in the workshop as-and-when he is spare, and that means he gets plenty of variety in his work. It might sound ad-hoc, and it is, but I can just about manage things like this.
What it means to me is that I can set him stripping things down and cleaning them whilst I get on with the spannering, but I have also have him getting good at building-up brakes in the proper way, which I know some garages don't seem to have time to do......
I have said to him, "If you're finding it too repetitive, it means you are getting the hang of each job".
That said, I still find that I'm having to spend a lot of time checking and re-checking all the work he has done, and not everything "sticks" in his head the first, or second, time around. It is very strange being in this position; things I have done almost in my sleep for 35years, I'm having to remember each time that it isn't all that obvious to another person.
He likes helping with the "real diagnostics", which is the electrical and electronic work. This is the best help I can get, as a spare pair of hands to hold some probes into a harness whilst I operate the oscilloscope is almost invaluable. We have shaved literally hours off the electrical diagnoses by having a spare pair of hands.
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Post by motorwise on Nov 15, 2020 20:38:52 GMT 1
I'm currently looking at A Autel Maxicom MK808 for home usage. Looks like it's quite a competent bit of kit for what I need. more than competent ... buy it you'll love it and updates about £100 a year on the 808 .... i use launch, autocom and snap on as well but this is my quick "go to" tool
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