Best Scanner?
 

I know this gets beaten to death, but every year, more and more companies come out with new scanners/programmers for individual manufacturers. Is Foxwell the best overall scanner? Anyone using something that they would recommend? I know Autel makes some affordable scanners now and wondering if it's worth the money. I've even seen some carsoft handhelds that look interesting but kinda sketchy on chinese knock-offs.
Not really looking to go full ISTA or INPA, (already have on laptop) I would just like a more convenient tool to use for basic scanning as well as ABS/SRS/battery registration, ect. Not interested in phone apps nor do I care about coding, but if coding is included, that's just a plus.

TIA

PA Soft for $20 and it's very straight forward for basic DTCs and other stuff.

I had to transition from Carly App that was actually pretty damn good for my E70 but useless on my E53 due to lack of support and found myself using PA Soft 1.4 as I think it's pretty UI friendly.

But sucks to have to drag my old laptop that I use every time, weights a ton LOL and do wish there was an app instead with more in depth functions for the E53.

LOL Exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

Best Scanner?
 

I spent months on research and zeroed in on foxwell NT-510. Very happy with it. Love that I can add car brand modules and activate devices for testing: eg. Engage AC clutch.

Most important factor in my decision: no shitty old laptop

Hmm...didn't know you could add car brand modules, that's a plus. I'm leaning towards the 510/520 anyway.

Best Scanner?
 

520 adds Mercedes optional so factor that in. $60 per module up to five at once. Need to use shitty windows software to load but works with emulated software (I use Mac)

Can confirm: Carly has limited functionality on e53. It's good... But can't do live data or code all options in all modules. That said, it is super convenient... And I bought in before the subscription business model. It works awesome on the e70 though.

Mouse, you're my guinea pig... I'll probably pick up the same thing

NT510 will register battery I've done that. It will adjust idle rpm. I've done that too. It will not code any convenience things like doors lock at xx speed. Carly is the go-to for that.

I was able to read live data on my transmission switch to get indications that the pins were closed when supposed to be open indicating not likely the switch but external and it was.

The 520 I think I like the form factor better but I don't know any difference in the capability. Based on availability I think they might be phasing out the 510 for the 520


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AFAIK, 520 has slightly better hardware. But for an extra 20 bucks or so, worth it.

Bought the NT510 when I bought the 02 X5 for the wife.Had the software added for my 2015 Ram Hemi as well.I've used a lot of different scanners over the years on different vehicles and I was very surprised at what this tool does for the price.Haven't needed it for either vehicle(had it for approx 10 months) and hope it keeps up this way.

The 510 can't do Mercedes the 520 can do that may be an important factor.

Build quality not great on the 510: some of my buttons stick down I have to press them at the right angle to operate and the micro SD slot doesn't line up great with the hole in the case I was able to miss the slot and push the SD into the case. Fortunately I was able to open up and retrieve the card.

No lighting on the buttons is a con I often use at night and I'm pressing the help button vs down a lot.


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:iagree:

I ended up purchasing the NT644pro for $518. One of the main factors was the battery registration option. The website stated the only scanner able to do this was the NT644 pro. In addition I maintain 3 BMW's, 2 Benz's, 1 Ford Escape so that was a factor in my decision. Just really starting to get familiar with it as I just purchased it in December. Very powerful tool.

I got the LAUNCH X431 Creader VII+ a couple of years ago, and for the price, I think can't be beaten, I've used it in a variety of cars without any problem, all for les than $150
It made me abandon my Innova
(This is my suggested scanner when someone asks)

Then in October I decided to buy one Autel Maxidas DS808, and I'm pretty happy with it, but the price is not as attractive !

Would I want to use it for work everyday?NO but for the average home use it really does the trick for the money.You have to keep in mind that it's not a $3000 scan tool.:beerchug:

Nt 510 will register a battery. It will also read the battery histogram which can help you determine how long a problem has been going on and determine if something just broke or tree battery just slowly is dying.

It's a great tool to help determine for example: is the starter pulling too much current eg: of battery charges fine to 80% but car starts hard, it's most likely the starter not the battery.

I looked into the 644 and others but I found a website that showed a whole bunch of things that were done with the 510. If there is a better bang for buck scanner I'm not aware. I've added gm and will add Toyota soon.

It can be quite difficult to find the module containing what you need: example my wife's aux water pump isn't working but I can't find where to activate it. On my car I can find the activate option and the rpm of the motor. She has the 2000.7 model X5 which still had the 20 pin engine connector under the hood and I think the aux pump runs when it is called on. My 2001.5 seems to always run the aux coolant pump.

Her pump never is running I haven't figured out if the pump or the control/fuse etc is to blame. I finally found the damn thing so I can try to direct drive it and determine if the pump works. On my car I was able to find the active test function and just turn on the pump to confirm it works. Nojoy on mine.

So here also a thing: I had my inspection light come on and wanted to reset it before it's on too long and won't reset (this happened to me with oil light: don't go much past red oil light you can't reset it even the dealer had problems).

Anyhow when I used nt510 to reset inspection light it wouldn't work until I also reset oil service. (During reset function it asks to confirm reset then a second screen comes up: wish to [also] reset oil. If you choose no it did neither.

On my wife's oddball under hood connector the oil service reset didn't work I had to use a jumper in the connector.

On mine I didn't use the oil only reset function yet but with the post 2001 you can reset from the dashboard as long as you didn't go too far past the red light.

I have the 510 too and all other kinds of scan tools also.

The 510 is great feature wise. I have bmw, ford and Chrysler unlocks on mine.

As stated it works great.

Its only drawback is its SLOW. I mean 100 MHz pc vs 3.2 or more ghz pc slow.

Go find something to eat while waiting for it to scan the vehicle the first time slow.

Smoke 4 cigs while waiting on it to scan the car slow.

Watch paint dry slow.

Watch plants grow slow.

You can cut the grass completely waiting on it to scan a Chrysler slow.

Bmw's scan a bit faster but not by much.

I can go find my notebook computer plug up a drop cord and drag it to the car. Connect the laptop up to power and cables and plug into the obd port. Boot windows. Run the emulator, boot windows inside the emulator, fire up pa soft, connect to the car and scan codes and read the codes and reset the check engine light if needed in the time it takes the 510 to do a scan.

SLOW.

But it works great if you have the patience for it and its small enough to keep in the car without hassle :)

It's too bad someone doesn't sell laptops with a working BMW software suit installed. Maybe the "scanner" guys would see what they are missing out on.

:iagree: A computer is just second nature to me but that is my living so...

@crowz. Yep quite pokey but I only bother to do a full scan once a month or so and I just let it run while I'm driving somewhere so it takes none of my personal clock cycles.

Once you get used to the like of start it do something else for a minute then same to get the VIN read etc, it's not terrible to bounce between modules etc. It does take 6-8 seconds to do stuff a computer would have done in 1/10s so pokey is very accurate. Nonetheless I am not aware of a better bang for buck scanner.

The Schwaben/Foxwell scanner I have is dedicated to BMW/Mini. I have never noticed it is slow. I watch it scan. It only takes a few minutes to do a complete scan of all modules. I am never in a hurry and don't know why I would ever be.

Mine doesn't seem to be slow at all.It'll run through all the modules in a couple of min. like you said.:dunno:

"a couple minutes" is slow. There is a very small amount of data being moved I could probably type faster.

It takes upwards of 10-15 seconds to enter a module it's not speedy

It often takes me 10 minutes to find wrenches I drop. Why does it matter how long it takes?

It's nice to "know now" when searching for problems. You have more patience than the average guy but that attitude is a good one.

Hi, long time lurker with a 2005 E53 3.0d.

I've done a fair bit of searching on the various forums and bought the iCarsoft scanner which is ok for fault resetting but not much more on the e53.

I have a K+DCAN cable on order from Bimmergeeks but I have always been curious to know if the NT-510/520 will reset the adaptations on the ZF 6HP26 transmission? I iCarsoft will reset the failsafe mode but not reset the adaptations.

Thanks :thumbup:

Just FYI, I've read that resetting the EGS/TCU for the 6HP26 is not recommended unless you have been working on the trans and have changed parts (mechatronics or mechanics).

Simply resetting the adaptations in the hope of "fixing" an existing problem doesn't really work. The EGS/TCU should quickly return the adaptations to the previous values, as it's designed to do.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, as you may well have been doing trans work. Just sayin' :thumbup:

Thanks - I've changed 4.5l of the fluid and since then it certainly needs a reset :( I'm ordering a set of solenoids as well, so it will be handy to do the reset.

I have seen the reset function on my NT510 For the transmission

Thanks!