Hello everyone. I was wondering if any of you would be able to point me in the right direction. Having read that so much could be gained from purchasing VAG-COM and a data cable, I set about finding one on ebay. I purchased an OBD2 (Version 409.1) USB cable which came with a version of VAG-COM and the USB driver. I chose this one as it stated that it was compatible with my 1996 8V GTI. I followed the instructions that came with it but I don't seem to be getting any joy, as in it wouldn't locate the device. I decided to just plug it into the car and see what happened. The light on the device came on so I thought my luck was in. I could only get it to work on COM1, which I assume is ok? The main problem I'm having is that whatever I try to do nothing seems to really work. I guess I assumed it would be fairly straight forward!? Has anyone had similar problems or have any advice? Thanks in advance. Louie
Go into the vagcom options match up the com number to the com number in the device settings menu in windows Depending on which usb hole you plug the lead into the com number will change so gotta check in windows device manager to make sure it matches up
Thanks, I'll give that a try tomorrow. Part of me is thinking I shouldn't have purchased an item that was advertised as Cheapest on Ebay!
i bought the cheapest vc cable i could find on the whole of ebay, and it still works fine the trick is in the setup, need to get the drivers right, find out the com port number from device manager then select the right port in vag-com. as above the port number can change if you plug the cable into a different usb port. also on some laptops you may have to go into device manager and manually change the port number as sometimes com 1-4 are already in use
Ok, this is much clearer now. Thank you! If they made it Mac compatible, I might have stood a chance!
Hey guys. Thanks for your help with this. Managed to identify the VC cable and port as described and just gave it a trial run. As far as I can see the only fault code that came up was the front drivers side speed sensor, which I guess isn't the end of the world?! I was quite surprised nothing else came up to be honest, or maybe I'm just being cynical! I did try to run individual tests on other areas of the car but said it couldn't connect. Are the features of VC fairly limited or should I be able to test pretty much everything? Thanks once again for your help, really appreciated.
depends on the car whats available, on the mk3 you'll just have ecu, abs, airbags and maybe immobiliser depending on the age of it
got mine off of ebay, couldnt get mine to conect properly. phoned up help like twice, tried diff ports ect. i had win 7 on laptop at the time, guy told me to go back to vista. he said you will get more chance of it working with older systems. i fiffdled with it for a couple of days and ended up sending it back. looking at the all in one hand held code readers. cant do as much on them but suppose to be a lot easier
Back to vista after W7? Just proves he doesnt know what he was on about. W7 & vista kinda run the same in the background, It would have mode no difference. Its all about the drivers...
right click shortcut and run as administrator often fixes problems with older software. afaik 409.1 doesnt work on 7 very well, better to switch to vcds lite
