Which Scanner?

[X5Sport]

Apologies if this has come up before, but a search did not find it - although it could have been buried in posts rather than a thread title.

There is a lot of discussion about BMW scanner devices on the Board I just wondered if there is a definitive answer for which scanner to buy, and which not to buy, and the best places to look for said devices?

I have looked on fleabay and discounted the 'from China' options as they seem too cheap and it costs as much in shipping as the unit itself. Prices do seem to vary and I expect a unit from the USA will attract import and VAT duties? I am discounting the GT1 system as I can't get the right laptop as it appears to be fussy about what it will actually work with.

What additional hardware is needed?
What OS do these devices really need? Can you run Win7 64-bit, or must it be a 32-bit OS like XP?
What do potential buyers need to look for on their own vehicles to make sure these things will plug in?
What must users not do in order to avoid 'bricking' their pride and joy?
What can you do with these things?

Might it be worth a How To type guide to help people out?

I know the E70 & E71, and probably the new X1 and X3 aren't compatible, but my E53 and E46 might be OK (both are 2005 Diesel models with the 3.0 litre IL6 M57 engine) so should work with something, but what?

[phill]

Think some people on here use the peake unit, but I was thinking about Autel 702EU, this has gone up in price massively in the last 12 months, think it was about £70 to £80 last year.


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[lezmtaylor]

x555 (Mitch) has borrowed mine and seems very impressed with it, and no doubt will make a few comments.
Lez

[Sanj]

[quote=""lezmtaylor""]x555 (Mitch) has borrowed mine and seems very impressed with it, and no doubt will make a few comments.
Lez[/quote]

He did - to me. Said it was too complicated for you and would take it off your hands for a small fee. He's a great friend!

He loves it Lez! Bring it to the next meet buddy!

[X5Sport]

Does the Autel unit allow you to reconfigure the vehicle settings for various functions such as alarm chirp, or the way the locing operates as examples, or do you need a different system for those options? I see what you mean about the Autel price, it's nearly £400 now. Still the full price of te BMW scanner version 1.4 is high if you buy OEM rather than the copies found on fleabay.

[x555]

[quote=""lezmtaylor""]x555 (Mitch) has borrowed mine and seems very impressed with it, and no doubt will make a few comments.
Lez[/quote]
As Lez said he kindly lent me his (thanks fella )and i have had a little play and so far i'm impressed
I already have a peake code reader see here.... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PEAKE-DIAGNOSTIC- ... 5640897bfb
and although it is very good and reads the engine codes well and has diagnosed a few probs for me very accurately it is limited compared to the bmw 1.4.9 scanner that Lez has lent me.
I also own a resler which is very usefull for activating VR and TV in motion etc but is also no where near as usefull as Lez's scanner.

I haven't used the Autel scanner so i can't comment on that one but for the money i would say that the 1.4.0 scanner is great it doesn't only read all the codes but also gives you a description aswell so unlike the peake reader you don't have to trawl through pages to find the codes.

I even tested it out the other day as i loaned it from Lez to try and sort out my PDC problems but for one reason or other it isn't picking up a fault code, so i thought it cant be that good then so i took of the rear left pdc sensor and then re scanned the car and fair doo's it picked it up straight away.

I am in no way involved in the selling of these devices and also don't intend to 'bad mouth' any other devices (as i have the other two myself ) i just thought i would give an honest opinion of my experience and perhaps help others who may be considering purchasing a scanner.

HTH ........... now when i am felling a little better i may have another play around with the scanner and check out it's full capabilitys....but so far so good imo

EDIT: forgot to say that the only advantage is see over owning/using a resler so far is that you can't enable VR with the 1.4.0 scanner but you can with the resler and navcoder.