Looking for an OBD II reader for a VW Jetta

**kyleeborg** · 10-16-2008, 03:49 PM

i'm buying one for my boyfriend for his birthday. but i just want to make sure the one i get him will work with his car, 96 VW Jetta GL 2.0 Liter 8 Valve. can i buy basically any of the ones i see? the prices are are in such different ranges, i thought i'd ask first. thank you.

k.

**Bugbyte** · 10-16-2008, 08:39 PM

The king of VW OBDII is the VAG-Com. According to this, it will work with your 1996 Jetta. It has all of the VW specific codes built in, so it is very much like OBDII plus more.

However, if he wants this to use with a car PC, you are better off with something standard like an Elm scan.

**judoGTI** · 10-16-2008, 11:39 PM

I will say VAG-COM has been one the best things I have bought for my car. Its cheap, you get great, personal support from the team there and its solves SO many headaches. The guys at Ross-Tech are a class act.

It pays for itself in 1-2 dealer visits you save.

PS this works perfectly fine with my car PC too.

Bug - you sort of hint that the VAGCOM wont work with CarPCs?

**Bugbyte** · 10-17-2008, 10:21 PM

You know, I actually have never tried it!

I just ASSumed that with a proprietary interface that it wouldn't work with the standard Road Runner type stuff. My VAG-COM is the USB model and the RR plug-ins look for an ELM serial or USB-serial. Or so I thought. What software are you using with it?

My VAG-COM certainly paid for itself when it identified a faulty water temp sensor. For $30 I bought the replacement part and did it myself. I'm certain a trip to the dealer would have been more than the cost of the cable.

**judoGTI** · 10-18-2008, 11:35 AM

Oh I dont know about RR, Im still using FrodoPlayer so you can assign buttons to launch an exe, and everything else with connection etc is handled within Vag-Com.exe

Works really well for me, I just leave the ODB-II plugged in, and mine is also a USB connection (I cant remember which one off the top of my head, KEY-USB maybe..?) and it fires right up.

I bought mine 5 years ago so it has paid for itself probably 30 times over by now, its really great software.

There is also a program called lemminwinks (sp) that you might like if you do anything else with your VW. It allows you to advance timing, add more fuel, etc... Its cool, but be careful because with that you can mess up you car, unlike VAG-COM which is very safe.