Any VAG-COM users out there?

murphaph

I have it and have used it a wee bit for odds and ends on my Passat TDI (before I sold her on) and a few mates cars. Anybody else use it?

SouperComputer

haven't had a chance to try this out yet. Hoping to give it a whirl over the next while.

What year was your Passat and did you use the shareware version or full?

lomb

any interest in selling the dongle, i might be interested.

murphaph

I have the full version. Paid Uwe his money, well worth it. His wife Linda is really nice to deal with (I wiped my hard drive by mistake once and they had no problem believing me and issued a new serial number to reactivate the s/w).

I used it on a 98 TDI. Mostly for resetting the service interval (though you can do that by pr!cking around with the buttons for setting the clock) and turning off the service indicator, checking for errors on a defective heated wing mirror. I was really glad of it when my MAF (air flow meter) died and I had to carry out the diagnosis as per the Bentley manual (that's the official VWoA dealership manual for technicians so they expect you to have diagnostic equipment for the car) because the MAFs are expensive! I ended up replacing the original sh!tty Bosch MAF with a Pierburg one designed for the merc CDI engine-perfect fit, bought it off a bloke in Boston for fcuk all in comparison to VW here.

I also used it as per the procedure following a timing belt change (God that's a PITA on the passat/A4/A6) to check the timing against the spec. Handy to have for those bits and pieces.

It's dead handy for diagnosing those dodgy coil packs on a lot of VW petrol motors. Had to do that twice-it's nigh on impossible to tell which one is dodgy without accessing the error codes from the ECU.

Oh the best thing I did with VAG-COM was adding cruise control to my TDI-it's dead easy to add the indicator stalk with the cruise switch and solder in to the ECU but you have to activate the ECU's firmware to switch it on. It really highlights what a rip off cruise control is on TDIs.

The shareware version doesn't allow a lot of the above but it allows you to check error codes I think. I don't think I'd sell it tbh. It's not that expensive and I have the original dongle (bought it when VAG-COM first appeared) which can't access some of the newer ECUs.

I hope the BMW one is as good as the VW one.

ando

so do you put the software on a laptop and connect it to the engine? I never seen this before, what do you connect the laptop to?

murphaph

ando wrote:

so do you put the software on a laptop and connect it to the engine? I never seen this before, what do you connect the laptop to?

Yup. You connect the laptop to the car's diagnostic port. It's in a different place on different cars.

SouperComputer

out of interest murphaph, where was the connector on your car?

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

out of interest murphaph, where was the connector on your car?

It's beside the handbrake, under a rubber 'tray' which lifts away to reaveal the port. See attached pic taken from Ross-Tech's website. The worst car I ever connected it to was a '95 A6, where the port is in the fuse box in the bloody engine compartment. That is a stupid place cos if you need to road test a vehicle and log data it means trailing a cable out th window. Messy. VWAG always place it inside the passenger cabin nowadays.

SouperComputer

hmm ive got a 97 petrol and couldnt find the connector. It is apparently under a panel to the right of the steering wheel. Have to figure how to get the panel off without making a mess

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

hmm ive got a 97 petrol and couldnt find the connector. It is apparently under a panel to the right of the steering wheel. Have to figure how to get the panel off without making a mess

A 97 Passat? I'd be very surprised if any B5 Passat (that's the shape that came out in Oct? 1996 but first registrations in Ireland were all 97) didn't have the port beside the handbrake cos that't where the 95- A4 has them (same B5 chassis).

SouperComputer

hmm plugged it in today and on two laptops received the message: port ok, no valid interface found

This is the cable I bought: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7985083872 any thoughts?

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

hmm plugged it in today and on two laptops received the message: port ok, no valid interface found

This is the cable I bought: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7985083872 any thoughts?

There's a thing that has to be done the first time you use it (It's many years ago so bear with me!). I'm sure it's listed on Ross-Tech's website. Did you go into options and test your com port?

SouperComputer

just discovered that only version 311.2 works with non Ross tech cables, used the older version and its working grand, now I just have to see exactly what I can so with it.

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

just discovered that only version 311.2 works with non Ross tech cables, used the older version and its working grand, now I just have to see exactly what I can so with it.

What make/model/year is your motor? Do you have registered software or the shareware?

SouperComputer

shareware ATM, looking at their website it seems to make sense. Version 3.x works no problem version 5 cannot see the interface. cant find the link that explained that though


the car is a 1997 Passat 1.6L Petrol Single Cam


Also, is there software similar to VAG-COM for other makes of car?

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

the car is a 1997 Passat 1.6L Petrol Single Cam

Well you'll be able to do the throttle body adaptation (the throttle body motor gradually loses it's home position over the years and sometimes needs to be rehomed on petrol cars). You'll need the full version for that though. I think the software is quite limited in shareware mode but have you checked your controllers for errors yet? DON'T SCAN THE AIRBAG MODULE! there is a known problem (not with VAG-COM) whereby scanning certain airbag modules causes the light on the dash to come on and not be turned off! This is supposed to apply to golfs & boras but I wouldn't risk it myself.

SouperComputer wrote:

Also, is there software similar to VAG-COM for other makes of car?

Well VAG-COM works for most VW group motors (VW, Audi, Seat & Skoda). Uwe is developing the same software for BMW and Mini. I'm not aware of the same software being available to joe public at this sort of cost for other makes of car. I know that there are wickedly expensive pieces of software that do exactly what VAG-COM does for VW.

There's a yahoo group for VAG-COM where you'll get lot's of free advice and there are VW manuals available for dowload from dodgy russian sites (requires googling) that contain the dealer procedures which take up where your bog standard Haynes manual says 'take it to your dealer for x'.

SouperComputer

yea, iI avoided scanning the ABS and airbags, for some reason i just didnt like the idea.

Got error 17978, engine start blocked by immob. Sure enough the odd time it has cranked but not fired.

ill check the coil connections etc and see if that helps.

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

yea, iI avoided scanning the ABS and airbags, for some reason i just didnt like the idea.

Got error 17978, engine start blocked by immob. Sure enough the odd time it has cranked but not fired.

ill check the coil connections etc and see if that helps.

It's perfectly fine to scan the ABS. I've done it plenty. YOU MUST NOT BE DRIVING THE VEHICLE AT THE TIME THOUGH as the calipers can lock at random during the communications process!! The ABS light will come on and on some cars the chime will start up when you scan the ABS. Yje 17978 rings a bell. I thinks it's a common one on the petrol motors, remember a mate's RS Octavia throwing that one. A quick google might point you in the right direction. Incidentally if an error is truly spurious it won't stay in memory because if it doesn't repeat after 40 keystarts the ECU sensibly deletes it. You might try using your other key for a few months to see if it cranks without starting. Could be a dodgy key with a failing induction loop or dry solder joint inside.

tigerman

Hi, i build my own interface, I can scan 2002+ audi + older models with it, It has built in circuit protection in case you have aftermarket radio. The ebay ones are as cheap as their price.

My one is in a aluminium enclosure that is very durable,

I use it on 1.8T

tigerman

The only car you need the computer to reset the service light are the old audi a6/audi 100 and some 95/96 audi a4. All others can be done by hand, Everyone agree?

murphaph

tigerman wrote:

The only car you need the computer to reset the service light are the old audi a6/audi 100 and some 95/96 audi a4. All others can be done by hand, Everyone agree?

I'm not sure tigerman. I did use it once on a 95 A6 to reset the oil/service lights bt I don't know if I cold have done it manually. I originally wanted to build my own interface but back in the days the OBD-II connector was impossible to find so I just bought the whole thing from Ross-Tech for $99, registered software and all. He i a sound bloke-all future software upgrades are free to those who supported him in the early days. Did you build in optical isolation into your interface tigerman?

SouperComputer

The only car you need the computer to reset the service light are the old audi a6/audi 100 and some 95/96 audi a4. All others can be done by hand, Everyone agree?

worked by hand on mine anyway a couple of months ago.

murphaph

One interesting (ok, nerdy) thing you can do is test your instrument cluster. It's address 17. You can perform the 'output test' on it and it will move all your needles to max and back to a predetermined point (I think the temp & fuel gauges go to the halfway point and the speedo goes to 65mph). You can recalibrate them if they've drifted. I remember reading that some fathers who lend the car to son have calibrated their speedos to read 'fast'!! The output test will also turn on each warning light and all the segments of your lcd in turn so you'll know they're all ok. It will sound the chime too at some point.

If you lose a key VW charge you to synchronise the newly cut key's transponder to your ECU-VAG-COM can do that for you and save you a few quid.

I turned off the service interval cos I always serviced my car on 5k intevals regardless. You can't really turn it offbut you can set it to 2 years or something like that. You can set the interval to whatever you want.

On a factory fit radio the VAG-COM is very useful for tracing a flaky connection to a speaker. The radio will log to intermittent open and will reveal itself upon interrogation. Very easy. Unfortunately aftermarket radios don't allow this.

VAG-COM is very useful when buying a motor. The previous owner, unless very tech savvy won't be able to hide any errors.

SouperComputer

sounds interesting, must overcalibrate the speedo and wreck the wife's head!

so what would you check for when buying a car, ECU wise? Just leave it to do a full auto scan while you eye the car over?

I got the software for my ipaq, all I need now is a DB9 coupler!

murphaph

SouperComputer wrote:

sounds interesting, must overcalibrate the speedo and wreck the wife's head!

so what would you check for when buying a car, ECU wise? Just leave it to do a full auto scan while you eye the car over?

I got the software for my ipaq, all I need now is a DB9 coupler!

Yeah, full autoscan excluding the airbags. I'd love to know for certain about the airbag issue and whether or not it's just Golfs etc. I scanned a blokes bora and the light came on and stayed on. I warned him beforehand that it would happen. The car was under warranty and he got an updated airbag controller fitted without the bug (scanned it afterwards and no probs).

If no errors show up then drive the car hard on a test and rescan. It's not a clean bill of health of course-it's not gonna show up a worn big end bearing but electronic problems are typically expensive to sort out in comparison to mechanical ones (assuming you're doing the work yourself).

You'd be surprised what a scan will reveal-had a defective heated passenger side mirror show up once. It was open circuit on the heating pad!