My first car with an ECU!

[Iantochips]

Be gentle with me. My 2006 W203 C220D has served me faithfully from when I bought it with 88k miles up to its current almost130k. Maintenance all done by me (including stuff like auto fluid change when I first had it) and zero problems.

Now the engine check light has come on, but with no effect on performance. I live up a dirt road in very rural Portugal and I'm thinking to buy a cheap OBD scanner. Will this give me the codes I'll need, and tell me what those codes mean, to enable me to work out what's wrong and fix it?
You'll have guessed I'm old and grew up with carbs and points.....

Help and advice gratefully received.

 

[alexanderfoti]

The best DIY obd reader will be icarsoft. Other cheaper ones may give odd definitions for the codes.

A cheaper solution is an elm327 and the torque app on a phone. The codes this gives are usually quite good

 

[Iantochips]

The best DIY obd reader will be icarsoft. Other cheaper ones may give odd definitions for the codes.

A cheaper solution is an elm327 and the torque app on a phone. The codes this gives are usually quite good

Thanks- the iCarsoft is a bit expensive, but the elm27 seems adequate for me- I'm only really bothered about the engine management stuff.

 

[IanW]

Depending on the application that you run on your phone, the ELM27 will only report the set of fault codes mandated by the EOBD requirements - essentially fuel/air metering and emission control. This may or may not be enough to tell you the problem. You are unlikely to find any Android/iOS app that can extract M-B specific fault codes via the ELM27.

I have a Bluetooth ELM myself (with the 'Torque' Android app), and while it provides some entertainment, it's no use for fault finding. I also have an iCarsoft for when things go wrong.

Ian.

 

[m80]

I've found the Torque app useful.
A couple of weeks ago it pointed to an error with the fuel temp sensor, c/w engine light.
Replaced it, and light gone.

I use it to monitor many things engine wise.

I have the iCarsoft V2, and find it clumsy, but live readings can be useful.

Aside from the expense, Star / DAB is flippin' slow. But far superior of course.

 

[190]

Some faults that bring the engine check light on for a problem that was intermittent will disappear after a further number of clean starts. I had that happen many years back and I think it was 5 clean starts before the light went off although not before I'd ordered a code reader of course. Even if the light goes off, the ECU will remember the code which can be cleared with a reader.

 

[Iantochips]

Thanks everyone. I found a local garage with the full monte in terms of diagnostics- number three injector seems to be the problem. Now to see if it will come out!

 

[ALFAitalia]

I have used Torque Pro for years... probably one of the first users...£5 well spent but no doubt a lot more now. I keep a Bluetooth OBD2 dongle in each of my cars so if there is an issue when out on the road I can get an idea of the problem and reset them.... very useful if in limp mode. True it only really reports the engine ECU faults but that's the important one for everyday use. I have more specialised stuff for home use on both the Merc and my ALFA.