What's a good multimeter to buy for a home mechanic?

[NW_Merc]

I need to do some electrical related modifications such as fitting some puddle lights etc to by W202.

What would be a good multimeter to buy for a reasonable budget?

 

[grober]

Plenty of choice from Maplins. E.G. Automotive Digital Multimeter with Inductive Pickup : Multimeters : Maplin

 

[prprandall51]

Almost any one will do. The popular places to buy are:
Maplin Electronics : External Hard Drives | Music | CCTV
www.cpc.c.uk

I find for automotive use that crocodile clips at the ends of the test leads are vastly more useful that the standard probes.

Some multimeters are designed specifically for car use and include features such as rev counter and dwell angle (for old-school car maintenance).

CPC also sell a very useful device that plugs into a fusebox fuse slot and allows you to use a multimeter on Amp setting to measure the current draw (great for tracking down naughty battery-flattening currents that are flowing with the ignition off).

 

[NW_Merc]

Almost any one will do. The popular places to buy are:
Maplin Electronics : External Hard Drives | Music | CCTV
www.cpc.c.uk

I find for automotive use that crocodile clips at the ends of the test leads are vastly more useful that the standard probes.

Some multimeters are designed specifically for car use and include features such as rev counter and dwell angle (for old-school car maintenance).

CPC also sell a very useful device that plugs into a fusebox fuse slot and allows you to use a multimeter on Amp setting to measure the current draw (great for tracking down naughty battery-flattening currents that are flowing with the ignition off).

Do you know which one does the fusebox job from cpc? I cant seem to find it on their website

 

[prprandall51]

CPC part no: IN04874 - normal sized fuses
CPC part no: IN05470 - mini fuses

My memory failed me - the are complete ampmeters in their own right, not used with a separate multimeter.

 

[Ted]

You can't go far wrong with a second hand Fluke. - there are a few on e-bay.
One piece of advice - use a voltmeter for measuring voltage. Don't use it for circuit testing - use a testlight for that. Using a dmm will just confuse the he'll out of you of you use it for circuit testing.

 

[Mercsys]

Fluke, they last a lifetime with a little care.
Otherwise just watch out for the slow data updates to screen you can see on the cheaper end! It'll drive you nutzz.