Unpopular opinion: those cheap scanner tools from Amazon are actually decent

I've been turning my nose up at $40 OBD2 scanners for years, telling everyone to buy Snap-on or Autel. But last week my buddy used one to diagnose a misfire on a 2017 F-150 in 2 minutes flat, same codes as my $2000 setup. Has anyone else had good luck with a budget scanner when you least expected it?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_martin2215d ago

Except those cheap scanners can't do half the stuff I need them to. My Snap-on gives me live data on every sensor and lets me run active tests that have saved my ass more times than I can count. A basic code reader might get you by once but it won't help you track down a intermittent short or program a module when your truck really starts acting up.

harper69315d ago

For real though, those cheap ones surprise me every time.

emmag2215d ago

gotta push back a little on that. cheap scanners have come a long way but they can't do live data or active tests, which is where the real diagnostic work happens. mary_martin22's spot on about the intermittent short thing. i picked up a $40 reader once to keep in my glovebox and it gave me a code for a misfire, but it couldn't tell me which cylinder or if it was a coil pack vs injector issue. you end up just guessing and swapping parts, which gets expensive fast.