March 2011
Merging Two Great Tools into One

Buying an auto scanner is like buying your first torque wrench: something every mechanic has to have and one that says you have arrived as a mechanic.  Today’s vehicles rely heavily on Control Units (CUs) to gather diagnostic information and send it to the car’s On-Board Diagnostic systems (OBD).  Mechanics, and almost anyone else, can connect to a port on the car (usually under the dash) if it’s older than 1988 and retrieve error codes and diagnostic information.

 

Today, most cars require an OBD II scanner that also supports Controller-Area Network (CAN) protocols so that all the vehicle’s CUs can be connected with the OBD diagnostic system.  Most mechanics purchase an OBD II code scanner with features to display trouble codes, diagnostic data, graphing and resolution suggestions.  Some devices offer high end add-ons for ABS brakes inspections, emissions and heating and air conditioning.  Assessing all of these features, an OBD code scanner quickly rises to one of the most important tools in any toolbox.

 

There are scanners that combine all of the powerful diagnostic capabilities of an OBD scanner with the analysis, processing and display capabilities of a computer.  The ElmScan 5 Compact USB OBD-II Scan Tool delivers on that idea.

Easy enough for a do-it-yourself mechanic or a seasoned professional, the ElmScan 5 will surprise you with its many easy-to-use features, such as the following:

• With the ability to hook up to any OBD II CAN compliant port, the data is transferred through a USB connection.
• All the software necessary to read the diagnostic information and provide detailed displays is included the installation package. 
• Customizable views of the software are available to capture and graph car performance. Such features make it a snap to tune a car, since the vehicle’s system can be checked while running and compared to stored results.
• Customizable graphs can be created so that only vital information is displayed instead of wading through miscellaneous information.
• A complete list of possible resolutions to error codes is included as well as the ability to turn off the engine light and delete stored codes.

In addition to all the easy-to-use features, another great reason to buy this software and scanner is the low price.