Smartphone OBD-II Scanner

Anyone use one? Are they decent? Anyone know the cheapest reliable dongle? I think I need to get one, and any advice is appreciated. I have an old HTC Droid Incredible and an Iphone 5, so Im not limited to one platform. Thanks.

No info but watching this one - I have a light on in my GM diesel, my mother's Highlander and MIL's Hyundai and I want one tool to answer all the questions.

I'm tired of taking the cars to NAPA for a free scan.

I use torque with a Vgate Scan OBD Scan dongle. Works great. Live info straight to your device. Read codes, clear codes, etc. $5 program, $25 dongle. Totally worth it.

I have Torque ($5 )for my android phone. Picked up a cheap bluetooth OBD-II scanner off of ebay for $35. Works great for scanning and clearing codes. Good bluetooth OBD scanners also have the added advantage with Torque for real time data logging of all available vehicle data.

What they said. Torque + eBay bluetooth OBD doohickey. Worked great, still couldn't figure out why the damn subie was throwing the occasional random misfire code.

peter wrote: What they said. Torque + eBay bluetooth OBD doohickey. Worked great, still couldn't figure out why the damn subie was throwing the occasional random misfire code.

Probably because it was misfiring.

I just picked up a bluetooth OBD adapter from Amazon last week and I'm using Torque with my Android phone. So far so good. Nice thing about getting the adapter from Amazon is that most vendors ship from the US so you are not waiting 2 months for it to show up from China.

I'm using one of these adapters. Cheapest right now is under $13 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004B7YXOM/sr=/qid=/ref=olp_tab_all?ie=UTF8&colid=&coliid=&me=&qid=&seller=&sr=

Heck, I paid $11 (shipped!) for my ELM327 Bluetooth dongle on eBay. Than I paid $28 for a used Samsung Galaxy S. Torque is free, and I can't think what the paid version would do that the free version doesn't.

I like the idea of having a used android as a dedicated device, rather than tying up the working phone. Even still, this is the best $40 OBD-II device you can get.

Okay, I bought as posted above and I like Evan R suggestion of spare Android devices; which I have.

I got this Bluetooth dongle, about $25. I bought the $5 version of Torque because it was so cheap and cool I wanted to give the developers something.

I've really only used it on one vehicle (2001 Dodge B2500 van), but it's worked great to read and reset codes.

Thanks guys. I just got the dongle that PseudoSport posted for $11.44 shipped. Going to download Torque on the old android phone.

I have the same one that PseudoSport has. I'm using the free version of Torque for Android (HTC Incredible 2 is the phone). So far, I've been unsuccessful at getting it to recognize my 2012 Mazda 3's ECU. I have yet to try my 1997 Dakota.

I only messed with it for a few minutes, so it could be a setting that I didn't mess with yet.

In reply to SilverFleet:

Make sure you give it time to sync up. It needs to recognize everything and it can take a minute. I have the paid version. No idea what the differences are between the free and pay version.

I haven't had a problem hooking up to anything and got my friend out of some awful deals. The car that "probably just had a vacuum leak" was throwing eight codes. He didn't buy it. Owner was unhappy.

So far mine works fine with my HTC Rezound on both a 2011 Nissan Frontier and 2007 Mazda 3. I think 5 of my other friends just picked up the same adapter and I’m waiting to hear back from all of them.

Screen shots of one of them using it with his tablet.

N Sperlo wrote: In reply to SilverFleet: Make sure you give it time to sync up. It needs to recognize everything and it can take a minute. I have the paid version. No idea what the differences are between the free and pay version. I haven't had a problem hooking up to anything and got my friend out of some awful deals. The car that "probably just had a vacuum leak" was throwing eight codes. He didn't buy it. Owner was unhappy.

The adapter and the phone were fully synced up. I gave it about 5-10 minutes. I got a message saying something about not getting a signal from the ECU or not recognizing it, and having to submit a LOG file to the developer.

I also had the car running when I hooked it up. I know from my days as an Autozone employee that you test OBDII stuff with key on, engine off. May be that's an issue?

It also could be that my car automatically hooks up to the phone over Bluetooth. It did pair with the phone, and it seemed to be communicating, so I don't know.

I tried mine again tonight. It works!

I did the key on, engine off to start, and apparently that did the trick. Once I got the car running, the phone automatically switched off my car Bluetooth connection and kept it synced to the OBDII adapter. I tested a few gauges, and everything works wicked pissah.

I still can't believe that I can do all of this stuff with the thing I use to make phone calls. We live in the future, dudes. I want my Hover Conversion next!

I've also got Torque and a cheap OBD-II dohickie. It works, but it's not heaven. Torque carries generic OBD codes, not many manufacturer specific ones. It's not great for detailed answers, or for diving deeper into the system. You're not going to get into any airbags or other areas of the car.

It is fun for driving distracted. Paying attention to your phone and the thing that are displayed on it, as opposedto paying attention to the road though.

this is a relevant discussion to my morning....

i lost my obd2 scanner in a customers car some time ago, and have been saving for another replacement. this looks to do what i need it to do, such as read and clear error codes, show sensor and IM data, etc. correct?

i followed the link psuedosport gave, and it showed a software CD. others in this thread are talking about torque for the smartphone in my pocket. do you use both, or can i use the CD on my laptop and trque on my phone?

what disadvantages are there in this to another generic 200 dollar parts store code reader?

in other words, can you give me a full education on this setup? looks like the right price, and if it reads all teh sensor data, codes, and can clear DTC's, just what i need.

so, please impart thy wisdom, GRM collective.

foxtrapper wrote: I've also got Torque and a cheap OBD-II dohickie. It works, but it's not heaven. Torque carries generic OBD codes, not many manufacturer specific ones. It's not great for detailed answers, or for diving deeper into the system. You're not going to get into any airbags or other areas of the car. It is fun for driving distracted. Paying attention to your phone and the thing that are displayed on it, as opposedto paying attention to the road though.

Yep. You have to go research the P1131 code yourself and figure out which one of the 100 things it could be.
Get a different mount so you can look at the road.

Bumping this back up, as I'm trying to troubleshoot the engine stalling on my truck when I'm driving ('06 RAM 1500). It's not throwing any codes, so I'm looking into a way to log and store real-time data so I can review the logs. Will Torque (or Torque+) with an Android work for this? Or is there something else I should be looking into?

I've had regular stand-alone OBDII scanners that have served me well for the years, but this is the first time I've seen any value in viewing and recording the monitors in real-time.

Thanks!