Bought a $400 scan tool that turned out to be a fancy paperweight

Two winters ago I was chasing a ghost misfire on a 2012 F-150. My old code reader kept giving me P0300 and nothing else, so I dropped $400 at a truck stop on one of those no-name multi-brand scan tools. Biggest waste of cash I've spent in this trade. It read the same codes as my $40 reader, the live data froze up every 10 seconds, and the ABS bleed function it promised was a flat out lie. Took me three days to figure out the real problem was a corroded ground strap behind the battery, nothing the fancy tool even hinted at. That 400 bucks could've paid for a decent used laptop and a proper clone cable. Now I stick with the basics and save the fancy gear for jobs that actually need it. Anyone else get burned by a cheap everything-in-one tool that promised way more than it could deliver?

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richard_wells5926d ago

Been there myself with a similar tool a few years back. Those all-in-one gadgets look great on the shelf but they usually half do everything. My old one would give me a code, then freeze up the second I tried to watch live data, which is exactly when you need it working. That corroded ground strap story sounds painfully familiar, too. I fixed a dead brake light once that turned out to be a rusty bolt on the frame, and the $300 scanner I had never even pointed me in that direction. You aint wrong about the laptop route, either. Sometimes the cheap setup with a little patience beats the shiny box every time.