OBD II Code readers

[steve911]

In light of the increasing requests for for code deciphering for the Gen 3 cars, I decided to look at purchasing a consumer model code reader to add to my tool collection (you can never have too many tools).

I was surprised at all the different brands of readers out there for purchase. Is there a particular brand/model that not only reads the code, but also translates the code number into english that is a favorite. What are the must have features and the nice to have ones?

 

[Camfab]

I recently purchased a very unique reader myself. It's made by Davis Instruments and it's called "Carchip EX by Drive Right". It's about the size of your thumb and it plugs directly into the port where other readers go. The difference here is that it comes with a cable that allows you to take the chip out of your car after a period of time and download all it's contents to your PC. It can monitor any five functions at your request and then display those graphs onto your PC. It's like a weak version of EFIlive. It also allows the standard code reading functions as well as the ability to erase codes. In my case I had code stating the warm up cycle for my right bank o2 sensor was not functioning properly. I then requested the reader to graph my o2 sensor voltage over a period of time. It cost about $130 at the local Autozone and I believe you get 300 hours of use out of it. It must have some sort of count down timer in it.