buy scan tool

Could you please tell me,what a good scanner tool for a tdi jetta. Thanks

VCDS is the standard by which all other VW scan tools are measured.

VCDS is the most reliable tool.

I have no personal experience with it, but VAG401 has had some good reviews.

I'm with VCDS as well; I have had it for almost ten years and could not be happier.

VCDS is also the lowest cost fully functional tool for our cars.

I have a vag401. It’s an expensive code reader, it will read a lot of codes and read them in a vw format. Doing or adjusting anything, not so much. Read and clear codes thats about it.

I also have vcds and it’s amazing what can be done with it. Bob put it very well “lowest cost FULLY FUNCTIONAL tool for our cars”.

The VAG 401 is expensive??? Call that a matter of opinion I guess. It's $58 CDN on Amazon, paid around $300 for my other OBD2 so I thought it was fairly cheap.

Thus far, I've used the 401 to read and clear DTC's, and pull the code to program new keys. It WILL do adaptations on the car as well...check out the videos on youtube.

The 401 will NOT give you a graph to assist in setting your pump timing/start of injection. Have not dug into it enough yet to say for sure whether it will give you fuel temp and timing numbers (I think it likely will)...which would allow you to use that thing between your ears and do the job sans active graphing.

Important to note, that manuals and support are SEVERELY lacking for the 401. ie...virtually non existent, which means you're largely on your own with it.

VCDS or VAG-Com ARE well supported, and there seems to be a large number of folks who have it and use it...so getting help should be far easier.

Depending upon your intended level of "involvement" with your car, choose accordingly. I got the 401 AND Vag-com. I find the 401 to be handier than a laptop for minor stuff.

Regards,
Al

Expensive in the sense that mine was about $130 or so 5 or 6 years ago when I bought it.
You can get a code reader to read and clear for $20. I think my vcds was $249.

No graphs and I’d rather do any adaptations with the real McCoy, rather than something that is not so self explanatory. If I just need to read a quick code it works great as opposed to pulling out the laptop

Thank you Gentleman. for your input.

I have/use an VAG 1551.

Not too many people use or know much about the tool. It's kinda like the DOS version of VCDS.

Gippeto said:

Thus far, I've used the 401 to read and clear DTC's, and pull the code to program new keys. It WILL do adaptations on the car as well...check out the videos on youtube.

Click to expand...

Do I understand correctly that this does what VagTacho does regarding key codes?

Pulled the needed code from the cluster...yes.

Al

does vcds function with other cars Please

It has some OBD-II capability, but it's primarily for VW/Audi Group cars.

Might be worth taking a little time to read up on VCDS over at www.ross-tech.com

I think it's actually full generic OBD-2 capability, just no vendor specific enhancements . . .

Could be (not something I check on often), but at least at one time the VCDS/VAG-COM cable didn't interface with some cars (for example, I have an old HEX-COM cable and I can't talk to my sister's 2014 CRV with it).

Best bet is to reach out to Ross-Tech to see if the current interfaces still have that sort of limitation, as I don't know much about that stuff.

HEX-COM I think does not have full CAN bus, and there was another (MicroCAN?) that didn't do K line, just CAN bus . . . as noted, Ross Tech has specifics . . .