ok, I know this has probably been beaten to death but - I remember hearing that all cars produced after a certain year, I think it was 98 would have a serial connection that you can interface to diagnostic gear - or a laptop for that matter, what is this called exactly and does anyone have any idea what kind of software I could use to pull some diagnostics from my Max?

thanks

 

I recently picked this up for me and I like it, simple and easy to use and cheap. Lots of good data and can pull codes.....get it from ebay

http://www.davisnet.com/drive/produc....asp?pnum=8220

 

this is what i have for my laptop. a few others have standalone testers but i had a spare laptop and preferred the faster speed and larger screen. check it out HERE

 

this is the product:
http://obddiagnostics.com/order.html

this is the software:
http://obddiagnostics.com/ProgWin.html

just to save you 60 bux or so

 

yeah, all vehicles made in 1997 and later are required to comply with the OBD-II standard for diagnostics

 

e55amg has a obdII to serial that runs to his ipaq or laptop. he used it on a code i threw it was a beautiful thing.

 

wait...will this work for 2k2.....i guess so...

 

cool stuff.
but now, how is one software different from the other. which is the "better" one. 1 is under $100 and the others are over $100. anyone care to shed some light.

 

sure does. ive used it on blu's car and sr20 was the one who pointed it out to me.

 

http://www.ghg.net/dharrison/obdscan.html

here is another one. Full package

 

thats the one i linked.