There are many diagnostic tool for cars on the market from super cheap to super expensive.

But this is the best OBD Bluetooth scanner I have found, for the money.

Buy the Vgate iCar2 on eBay UK here http://ebay.to/2yMs6UF

Buy the Vgate iCar2 on eBay USA here http://ebay.to/2jafIZm

How It Works

This diagnostic tool for cars works by connecting to the OBD (OBD2) port on your car and communicates with your Android smartphone via Bluetooth. The Vgate iCar2 diagnostic tool for cars is the best I have found so far. It is has been superseded by the iCar3 now but the iCar2 hasn’t failed to read an ECU for me so far.

What You Need

For the diagnostic tool to work you need to install an OBD2 app on your phone. I highly recommend Car Scanner, it has a free version which does almost everything you can image and more.

While expensive ($500+) diagnostic tools for cars are usually excellent and support most if not all OBD2 vehicles, their problem, for lack of a better word, is that they are very expensive. If you just want a diagnostic tool that can read fault codes, clear fault codes and even show you live data the iCar2 will probably be enough and it probably costs less than a single diagnostic from a main dealer.

Cheaper Diagnostic Tools for Cars

At the time of writing the iCar2 is around $25 dollars, which seems cheap compared to the pro level diagnostic tools but there are even cheaper OBD Bluetooth adapters available. However my experience of these is that they do not cover as many cars as the iCar2 ie you plug them in and they can’t connect to the car. They have more limited protocol support and the build quality can be very flaky. I’d say the build quality of the iCar2 is first rate.

In my experience the Vgate iCar2 is the best compromise.

The Vgate may not have all the bells and whistles of the expensive readers, but it does all the jobs I think most people will ever need. And if the generic apps (like Car Scanner) don’t have what you need, you can get some professional features by downloading a car manufacturer specific app from the Google Play Store.

One thing to note with the Vgate Bluetooth code reader. It supports Android only.

Buy the Vgate iCar2 on eBay UK here http://ebay.to/2yMs6UF

Buy the Vgate iCar2 on eBay USA here http://ebay.to/2jafIZm

Find OBD apps to work with the Vgate here https://play.google.com/store/search?q=obd&c=apps

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