The reason I ask is that we are in the market at the business I work at for a new scanner.We presently have a Snapon MT2500 commonly called the brick.Well we now cannot buy the updates due to Snapon discontinuing the brick.Was interested in finding a replacement not necessarily Snapon if there is something else worth looking at.Any ideas would be welcome.We are not a full on shop,just have fleet vehicles that need diagnosing for check engine lights etc.Thanks

 

How involved are you wanting to get with your diagnostics?
scanning codes can easily be done on OBD2 vehicles with your SCT products, then throw a laptop into the mix and you can datalog specific "PIDS" and watch your waveforms.

 

Don't really need to get to involved if we can help it.We generally just find out what is causing the check engine light and replace the item.The more a scanner can tell us obviously the better,but we are definitely not trained techs.

 

just buy a hand held scanner, i bought one from Mac that reads/clears codes, check OBD2 monitors and is USB updateable for manufacturer specific codes. It was around 75 bucks.

the next step up from mine has live data graphing capabilities

 

Now is that also able to be used on multiple vehicle brands as we need Domestic and Asian.Have been trying to find brand names of various scanners and have come up with Actron,OTC,Launch,ScanGuage will look at the Mac also.

 

typically from what I've seen, OBD2 has become more "generic" with "specific" codes. What I mean by this is multiple vehicle manufacturers are using the same OBD2 diagnostics systems, which in turn makes it easier and much more uniform for the late model mechanics to diagnose.

OBD1, there was several vehicle manufacturers with their own ideas on code retrievals.

Find a code scanner, contact the manufacturer and double check that your vehicles are supported, I do not know which "Asian" vehicles you are referring to but assume you may be talking about toyota.

 

yes it can be used on anything, and for the specific codes even if it can't define what the code means it can still retrieve the code for you

ET50 is the basic model, i have the ET80 if that helps you at all

 

Thanks for the advise guys,once you start getting into it there are a bunch of scanners for every application.We primarily have GM vehicles(trucks) but now that will probably change to Ford soon and we also all like to play on our own vehicles which are Fords,Toyotas and Subaru's so the more capabilities a scanner has the better.Did a training session yesterday on the Solarus Pro from Snapon online and it was very much like the MT2500 we already have but now we are stuck at 2004 models as no upgrades available for the 2500and we have various newer trucks.

 

Stick with the snap on. IMHO
The generic OBDII scanners just can not even compare to the professional grade of tools.

 

We have a snap on scanner and it does what we need, but if your gonna do something new talk to your snap on guy...ours works out killer deals on trade ins and they always seem to have the best, most reliable stuff

 

We have definitely been happy with the Snapon,and that is definitely a possiblity in our next purchase as we are familiar with most of its functions.The training program on the internet is pretty useful as there were definitely some functions on there that I did not understand how to use.The problem for me is that I do not use it that often so it has yet to become second nature.

 

we use a snapon computer as well.. it does every vehicle and year.. reads all the codes and shows active data.. i wouldnt get anything less..

 

What is Snap-On getting for their replacement model?

 

For the Solus Pro which is similar to the MT2500 we got a estimate of $4100 taxes included.They also have a model called the Ethos which is below the Solus that is quite a bit cheaper and then another two above for 8K and up.Would be interested to know what you guys that are running Snapon which models you have and what you think of them.

 

Anyone running the Advantage pro or Modus by chance from Snapon?