Does anyone have any experience of this system? I'm looking forward to giving it a go when I have the cash to buy all the bits.
What is it capable of? Is it easy to use? Is it worth the money?
From what I've read it's more involved than most manufacturers systems.
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I only have the shareware version at the moment, but it seems great.
The cable was £25 off ebay, an autonostics one, took a while to find the instructions and driver online, and the seller was rubbish.
The full software version is £70 which is fine by me.
VAG-COM's own cable and software bundle is about £130 I think, but is probably worth it, as they don't support third party ones, and their own cable includes a security dongle which saves messing with activation codes which are very strict with VAGCOM, if you have to reinstall, or make changes to registery etc.. you have to deactivte/uninstall, otherwise, if you reinstall, you can't use the original code they gave you!
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Ive got the genuine item bought a few years ago. hex usb cable so no numbers to remember. It will deal with dual -K line vehicles but not canbus vehicles which is needed for the newer cars.
So far as I have seen the cheapy cables will not do everything that the real cables will - Ive not seen a cheapy canbus cable for example. many cheap cables will also only work with a very old freeware version of the software.
It does everything that the VAG tools will do. There are instructions but you will find it helpful to have access to a decent manual for your car. There used to be a copy of the A4 & A6 manuals online - but they've gone :(
Very good for diagnostics on vag cars. Esp if your dealer is one of the ones that charges for resetting every damn light. It will reset service intervals (I understand that there isnt an easy way to reset the service lights if a car has extended servicing - the usual method is only for fixed interval cars) vag com lets you set the time or miles to next services (diff counters for major/minor services on our A4)
they ve been working on a bmw & mini version for some time now - would have thought the same cable will work for that too.
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Do you reckon my 02 reg Toledo TDI will be CANBUS?
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I use it on a 2000 Passat which isn't the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned(!!) so I find it essential. It displays all of the diagnostic error codes . I've also used it to :-
- diagnose a bug*ered MAF
- reset the throttle body adaptation - you need to do this as the drive-by-wire throttle gets all confused if you disconnect the battery
- change the central locking settings - turn off the ridiculous 'double click' feature on the key
- clear the airbag warnings after I spent a week replacing the heater matrix (another long story)
I paid about £20 for a cable on Ebay.
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