Spent $180 on a cheap scan tool, it lied to me about a misfire

Picked up a no-name OBD2 reader off Amazon to save cash, but it kept saying cylinder 3 misfire when the real issue was a clogged fuel injector. Wasted 2 hours chasing the wrong part before borrowing a buddy's $600 Snap-on scanner that caught the actual fuel trim data. Anyone else get burned by budget scan tools that only read codes instead of live data?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.kevin20d ago

My $80 Bluedriver caught the same clogged injector with fuel trim data, so @the_rose, your $180 tool being dumb means you overpaid for a paperweight, not that budget tools are the problem. Price doesn't fix bad software, and Snap-on just charges triple for the same O2 sensor graphs.

the_rose21d ago

HOLD UP. I gotta disagree here. A $180 tool is NOT the same as a $40 code reader, and you kind of got what you paid for. Even my old $150 Autel reads live fuel trims and cylinder contribution tests, so if yours only spits codes, that's on the pick, not the price. I've had cheap readers save my butt on a dying crankshaft sensor and a vacuum leak that took forever to find. The real trick is knowing what your tool CAN do and using it that way, not expecting Snap-on magic from a box that weighs less than a phone.