OBD II apps

[Daniel Evans]

Is it worth spending the money to buy the OBDII wireless interface then download apps for your phone to communicate with your computer? are you gaining anymore diagnostic information that you cannot already access? beside just cool factor.

[Texas Jim]

If you car is a 2003, you can access a lot more info from the readout on the dash than you can with an app.

The apps typically read only engine codes and do not read all the other codes.

[guyslp]

The answer to your question depends entirely on two independent and interrelated factors.

OBD-II reading software, whether a phone app, computer application, or via dedicated reading device can be written in such a way that only certain codes can be read up through the ability to query virtually every known code for every manufacturer under several protocols. If the software (or firmware, in the case of dedicated readers) is set up only to query the OBD-II standard codes, and not manufacturer specific codes or SRS, ABS, and other codes then those are all you can see.

The second half of the equation is the OBD-II dongle. These can be designed to only query for certain codes or for a huge range.

Each half of the equation can impose constraints on the other. You could, for example, have the Torque Pro app, which is a very extensive and powerful app that has a great deal of add-on widgets in addition to the ones it comes with by default. However, if you have a dongle that doesn't query all the things Torque can process then you simply won't get them. The developer notes this on his page.

I've used Torque Lite, Carista, and ScanMaster Lite with a cheap ELM OBD-II dongle and have found each very useful. If I wanted to go "heavy duty" I'd probably buy Torque Pro and a much better OBD-II dongle. All three of these apps has been every bit as functional, or more so, than my Innova 3130 OBD-II code reader (which I love). Even Innova now sells a high-end dongle that's shown at the bottom of the page I provided the link to.

Brian

[Cadillac Jim]

I've been using OBD Link for years. How much you can get from it depends on the software. The free software that comes with the dongle will give you as much as the console for the PCM and some other codes, with real-time gauges and such. The extra cost software comes with manufacturer-specific add-ons that let you read the body and chassis codes, including the EBTCM codes. They have a new WiFi dongle, a Bluetooth dongle, and a wired dongle. Their software works on laptops (the best solution if you are serious about things), tablets and smartphones.

Bruce has been using another vendor to run performance curves on his STS-V that has more detailed tuning capability than my software. You should shop around.

[Daniel Evans]

thanks for the feedback