Hi,

Where would you recommend buying a working vag com cable

E b y site is offering cable and disk from a £5 er to 300 quid mark.

Not looking to spend hundreds otherwise I might as well go to local dealer

Do the cheaper ones work or do they have limited functionality?

Thanks

For something like a mkI Fabia you can buy a cheap kkl cable and usevcds lite for free. Otherwise you need full vcds which is £260 ish, anything cheaper on eBay promising the full version will be fake.

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Edited 5 May, 201610 yr by trundlenut

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/108170-advice-on-buying-VCDS-VCDS-lite

Just read about usevcds lite

Apparently it will not work on cars after 2005. Mine is 07 reg

Ross tech is only option. 375 quid

For £5 I'd get a cable to connect to car and other end to connect to my laptop which must be xp at latest

The disk supplied sounds like fubar then

Did scan two weeks ago at local independent and no faults were logged but maf data at idle was well out of the reference range.

Now I have a flashing glow plug light albeit intermittent. See other post

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/108170-advice-on-buying-VCDS-VCDS-lite

Just read about usevcds lite

Apparently it will not work on cars after 2005. Mine is 07 reg

Ross tech is only option. 375 quid

For £5 I'd get a cable to connect to car and other end to connect to my laptop which must be xp at latest

The disk supplied sounds like fubar then

Did scan two weeks ago at local independent and no faults were logged but maf data at idle was well out of the reference range.

Now I have a flashing glow plug light albeit intermittent. See other post

 

 

a hex+can cable is about £260 from Gendan or Illexa.

It looks like a decent setup. I don't think I can justify that outlay . Local independent charges very little money, in fact none but I insisted as nothing in life is free. His diagnostic might not be as extensive. It did give some live data, air flow etc engine temp and so forth. I don't like the absence of a cd. I bought an online workshop manual for a couple of cars and one worked for the fabia, there is no Haynes. The manual for every astra in existence didn't. Also what happens when the acomputer hard drive has a glitch. It has happened and required a full windows reinstallation.

I'd have thought Lite plus cheap cable would work just as well on a 2007 Mk1 Fabia as any other? Can anyone confirm/disagree?

Yes, the cheap cable and VCDS Lite should be fine on any MK1 Fabia.

have a 56 plate fabia and use vcds lite and a cheap kkl cable wihot any issues.

*CLONE LINK REMOVED*

Just spotted this.

It is hex and offers full vcds not lite

Although seller has 0 feedback.

Local dealer told me that for the outlay for all car diagnostics and yearly updates he had spent 10k plus

Edited 6 May, 201610 yr by Gizmo68

Thats a clone and we cannot link to cloned products, sorry.

Cheap ebay cable fine on mine too

Is there a guide anyone can recommend to fault code scanners?

It would be nice to have a fault code scanner that could read several vehicles

I understand there are a range of generic fault codes and some specific ones

What is the advantage of vag com vcds, it gives live data? Can read more fault codes? Would vcds fault code scanner work with Vauxhall or other brands of car? Also what exactly the difference between hex and k connector fittings? The cutoff for k cable is 2005 cars it seems.

I have an Vauxhall astra h and this has the pedal test. Holding brake and accelerator pedals down for 10s whilst switching on ignition allows any faults codes to be displayed on the odometer display. Worked for the cam shaft sensor fault on vvti. Fabia will not do this

Are there any major branded scanners or ssoftware that supports different car brands?

I picked up a generic OBD2 reader off ebay for about £12, bright orange it is with a cable hardwired in and works well. I just keep it in the glovebox in case anything happens out on the road. Well worth the money considering what it would cost to get a scan while you're out. It also came with a booklet with all the code in.

The KII interface (non ‘dumb’ cable, i.e. genuine Ross-Tech) will work on all MKI Fabias, in fact any Fabia up to 2010.

 

Take a look here at the Compatibility chart to see what it will work on, basically it’s anything that is not CANBUS (a simple way to check is are the bulbs monitored... do you get a warning when they are blown if you do it’s CANBUS, this is just a rough guide)

 

HEX+CAN will work on just about any VAG car, only some of the very latest Audi’s need the newer HEX-NET interface.

 

VCDS will read and clear engine fault codes on most vehicles, but it is ONLY the engine and you will not be able to do any coding changes.

VCDS will also read codes that a generic reader will not... think of VCDS as the Professor and the generic reader the student who has just gained his degree on the subject

 

ATEOTD you get what you pay for... £270 will get you full dealer diagnostics with free updates for life, they also have a resale price of around £200 so if you decide to leave VAG you can get most of your money back.

Thanks for replies. Would a generic fault code reader pick up a flashing glow plug light which went off within 10s of it coming on? Or would vag specific pick it up? I d spend the 300 quid but new cars as mentioned are not always compatible either due to hardware changes or software incompatibilities.

Thanks for replies. Would a generic fault code reader pick up a flashing glow plug light which went off within 10s of it coming on? Or would vag specific pick it up? I d spend the 300 quid but new cars as mentioned are not always compatible either due to hardware changes or software incompatibilities.

Probably, but it may produce a slightly vague fault code.

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I use what RossTech call a 'dumb cable' (cable bought from ebay) and VCDS Lite.

I registered my copy for ~ £90 as this unlocks more features such as coding.

VCDS works with Windows up to Windows 7 IIRC not XP as mentioned earlier.

It used to work on XP, not sure if it still does though?

It will also work on Windows 10

Does VCDS Lite capable of running and saving logs, to see stats such as boost?
I need to set my turbo up to make sure the actuator is set correctly. But don't want to spend a fortune.

JRJG

Does VCDS Lite capable of running and saving logs, to see stats such as boost?

I need to set my turbo up to make sure the actuator is set correctly. But don't want to spend a fortune.

JRJG

IIRC not unless it's registered. Also it won't work on a can bus car such as a MkII octavia.

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Does VCDS Lite capable of running and saving logs, to see stats such as boost?

I need to set my turbo up to make sure the actuator is set correctly. But don't want to spend a fortune.

JRJG

I will check tomorrow ir you want, have 2 versions installed an activated and non activated version.

What is coding? What are its applications?

I will check tomorrow ir you want, have 2 versions installed an activated and non activated version.

Here is a list of what vcds lite can do:

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/vag-functions.html

Bit vague on the logging. I think it might be you can only log one measuring block at a time or something, or only the first so many blocks of a controller.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

Does VCDS Lite capable of running and saving logs, to see stats such as boost?

I need to set my turbo up to make sure the actuator is set correctly. But don't want to spend a fortune.

JRJG

 

I have the registered version of VCDS Lite and it can save logs and can do more than one measuring block at the same time, if I remember correctly the unregistered version would not allow the saving of logs.

I will check tomorrow ir you want, have 2 versions installed an activated and non activated version.

That'd be great. I may be asking to lend it from you, for beer tokens of course

JRJG