Are these Code Reader Scanners any good?

I can get this one for about $100.

Which is about the price the dealership charges me for scanning my truck when the check engine light comes on.

I would rather scan it myself and then do my own work, and not have to lose my truck for the day.

The truck is 04 Dodge Ram with Hemi.

 

You do know Autozone will scan your codes for free, right?

 

Interesting...

 

No, I didn't know that...

Glad to know I have wasted around $400 in the past 5 years...

 

Sorry, better to find out now than never.

Also, there's a little ritual you can do with the key, it differs between manufacturers and models, but you can look it up and try it. You can make the light flash in a Morse Code type way, write it down, and decipher it. It takes more effort and about the same amount of time as driving to your local Auto Zone, but it works in a pinch.

 

that will work fine with your truck. from around '07 i think, Chrysler switched to the CAN setup if memory serves me correctly. it's been awhile

 

I still wouldn't mind the reader. Just so I don't have to wait in line and have some inept parts counter kid give me the wrong information.

 

And doesnt know absolutely anything about cars? yes i hate them guys

 

I just don't want some kid telling me the EGR valve is shot, and swap it out, only to find out that he "meant" PCV.

Can't get mad at anyone if I read it myself and make the mistake.

 

http://www.allpar.com/fix/computer-codes.html

There are all the fault codes you'll need along with how to get them through self-diagnostic

 

Cool!!! Printing it out and putting it with my shop manual!

 

They will give you a printout of the codes detected, after which point you can ignore whatever the guy who handed it to you is saying. I have heard and overheard many misinformed and crazy interpretations given by parts store guys when they read those codes, but the codes themselves are what you're after. (I have also met parts store guys who knew exactly what they were talking about... But not many.)

Me personally, I would love to have a reader. But I only own one post-1996 OBDII car and it doesn't throw a check light often enough for me to justify buying one. I do work on other people's cars almost enough to buy one, but going to Autozone is convenient and free. Same deal with the specialty tools such as ball joint presses and whatnot. I just borrow those type things because I don't use them often enough.

 

Well, more research into that site, and my model truck doesn't respond to the odometer readout triggers, and I will need the code reader.

I DID print out the codes, though.

As said above, I too would love to own one, and between my truck and my wife's car, we have had the codes read over 20 times in the past 5 years, so it would be in my better interest to own the code reader.

We didn't have to pay for all 20, since most were under warranty.

 

I have an inexpensive one that I bought at Sears to use on my daughter's '95 Ranger. It gives a code that the included book identified (but didn't really explain) so I came to the computer, typed the code into Google and got the information I needed. It will also clear the codes from the computer.

Bruce

 

I've never had a problem w/ a parts store guy giving me a false reading/information on a code read.

However, I do know the guys at the only parts store I go to, and they will let me take the reader out and do it myself if I want.

I haven't bought one, but have thought about it, but talked myself out of it several times.