I have a 2003 Infiniti QX4 which I have owned for a couple of years now and it has run and served me well without any faults. Last week the check engine light came on and I have no way of bringing it to a dealer due to the fact that where I live, the closest dealer is about 1200kms away besides I would much rather put the money that would go to a dealer into a scan tool and fix things myself. So I am looking for your best advise on purchasing a scan tool for my 2003 QX4. Thanks.

I personally bought an Autel MaxiScan MS300. It's nothing fancy and probably not the best out there, but it's read all of the codes that have been thrown and can clear them. Definitely worth the $20 I spent on it!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LHVOVK

Check out the "Torque" App. You purchase a bluetooth dongle for about $20, they can be found on ebay and the app for $5. Works great!

atraudes wrote:

I personally bought an Autel MaxiScan MS300. It's nothing fancy and probably not the best out there, but it's read all of the codes that have been thrown and can clear them. Definitely worth the $20 I spent on it!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LHVOVK

I also have ^^ ...

Leo1998 wrote:

atraudes wrote:

I personally bought an Autel MaxiScan MS300. It's nothing fancy and probably not the best out there, but it's read all of the codes that have been thrown and can clear them. Definitely worth the $20 I spent on it!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LHVOVK

I also have ^^ ...

Same

I have been happy with my scanguage. It is more expensive (around $120), but it can give you readouts of current mpg and average mpg over time. Definitely not the cheapest option, but it has worked very well so far and saved me more than I payed for it with what the dealer was going to charge to diagnose and fix things that weren't broken.

atraudes wrote:

I personally bought an Autel MaxiScan MS300. It's nothing fancy and probably not the best out there, but it's read all of the codes that have been thrown and can clear them. Definitely worth the $20 I spent on it!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LHVOVK

Thanks for the info - a good place to start.

Thanks for all the info and feedback from everyone - made my decision a lot easier.

I'm also looking at a computer-based tool to get more in-depth information. I can post back with my findings if you're interested!

That would be cool. I am going to go ahead and just order the MS300 for the time being and plan on ordering a full featured scanner a little later on so any other info or updates after you make your purchase would be awesome.

I also use Torque and a bluetooth OBD2 adapter. I find it to be far superior to the tools used at some auto parts stores. For $30 bucks total, I really dont think you can do any better. You need an Android device to use it apparently. There are solutions for Iphone, but they seem to be more expensive.
This is the adapter
http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-Blu ... B005NLQAHS

The app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rque&hl=en

x3 on Torque app + bluetooth adapter. $30 setup does MUCH more than the $300 "mechanic" ones. There are other adapters you can get for ABS and air bag module access too. Don't waste your money on scanners that can only give and clear codes.

Data logging, GPS, access to all sensors, and emssions readiness. Mine comes in handy a lot. :

I'm curious as I haven't had much exposure to this area yet...what can apps like Torque (and the more expensive scanners) do that makes them valuable? Is it a matter of them being able to show voltages and readings for each sensor, chart those readings over time, etc?

The only other car I rolled up my sleeves and did anything on was made long before OBD, so this is unexplored territory for me. I'd also like to know what to look for in scanners and software and what they have to offer before I drop change on any of them.

EDIT: looks like you updated your answer as I was punching in my question

atraudes wrote:Is it a matter of them being able to show voltages and readings for each sensor, chart those readings over time, etc?

Yep. All of those things have been handy as I've worked on cars or been called over by a neighbor. I keep my bluetooth adapter in my tool chest at home but have thought about buying another to keep in my glovebox, because I've been at work or out & about more than once and had someone ask me why their CEL is on.

So my first code scan tool which is a bluetooth OBD2 adapter I ordered arrived in today and I gave it a try and it would not connect to the ECM. The Torque App I downloaded stated that the adapter was connected to my cell phone and working well without any faults but the adapter could not connect to my QX4's ECM. I then took it out and went over and put in it my Ford 250 to see if the adapter was faulty. With out a hitch it worked - within a few seconds it started up and started spitting out info working perfectly. Any ideas why it wouldn't work on the QX4?

Key is in the ON position? Have you tried it with the car running? And which adapter did you get and from where? Some are better than others (I bought mine from Amazon after reading all the reviews).

Make sure your cig lighter fuse is not blown. If that fuse blows there will be no power to the obd2 port.

I have tried it with the key on and again separately with the engine running, checked the fuse and it is good. The adapter powers up when it is plugged into the port. I picked up the adapter from Amazon.ca. This is the link to the one I purchased : https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009RL ... UTF8&psc=1. Ley me know your thoughts.

Well, here's sort of as an update with my experience, and sort of a bump to your question. I ended up getting a wifi PLX Kiwi from Amazon. I've tried a total of 4 applications. On the iPhone (5 with ios 8.1.3) I tried DashCommand and OBD Car Doctor. On my laptop, I tried OBD Auto Doctor and Movi Pro. Both of the devices are able to connect to the network with no problem.

Neither of the iPhone apps are able to connect. DashCommand connects, tries to open the port, and immediately disconnects. OBD Car Doctor hangs indefinitely while trying to connect. I've tried many, many times with absolutely no joy.

On the laptop, Movi Pro is able to connect, but doesn't retrieve any information, All of the information pages and panes are blank, and the app constantly freezes when switching between them. I went ahead and spent the $40 on OBD Auto Doctor, but with similarly depressing results. The application connects, seems to communicate, but delivers precisely no information (engine running or not) except battery voltage.





The even more depressing finding was that OBD Auto Doctor (laptop) worked perfectly with my wife's 06 Camry. It delivered all sorts of numbers and measurements for each of its sensors and the application was even able to detect the car's year and the VIN.

Thinking this was a problem with the Kiwi, I arranged for a cross-ship and currently have tried both units with the same results.

I don't think there's a problem with my OBD port, but I'll be taking a closer look later to be sure. The device powered up upon connection, and the software knew when the key wasn't turned to on, so I can rule out fuses/power being the issue.

On a somewhat related note, testing was constantly exacerbated by the horrible connector on the Kiwi. The outer rubber portion of the connector is far too tight and makes the connector difficult to insert, and as a result the two longer ground pins are constantly getting bent. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if you're planning on keeping it connected all the time, but plugging it in was a great source of frustration.

Needless to say, I'm bummed. I've spent close to $150 on the adapter and the software, and have nothing to show for it. A lot (all?) of the people I've seen here that have used bluetooth and other OBD adapters with their phones and such have pre-2001 vehicles, so I'm wondering if the 2001-04 crowd is just KSOL

So, I am in a similar boat so to speak, after my first adapter would not work I ordered 2 other Bluetooth Adapters and again, both connect to my phone but do not connect to the EMC. I have had it with trying different adapters that should work on my QX4 and do not but work on other makes/models of vehicles so I ordered and are waiting on an ms300 which was mentioned earlier in the post and are hoping that it will do the trick. I will keep you updated as to how it works when it arrives.

On my QX4 I also use the Torque app on an adroid samsung galaxy s4 and a bluetooth OBD2 adapter. The adapter was an Advanced ELM327 v1.5 Bluetooth Interface OBD2 Car Scanner Adapter for TORQUE ANDROID costs $10 on ebay with free shipping. The free Torque demo app can be downloaded first to try it out. It was all I needed to correct several emission fault codes and clear them. Now I leave it plugged it all the time now to watch o2 sensors and fuel trim levels. May have to find a small exhaust leak near the cat.
Unfortunately I can not comment about using it with an iphone yet. May wife has an iphone 6 so will have to try it.
In the past I tried the $99 OD2 reader from Harbor freight. It used a long cable to hook to the OBD2 port which was cumbersome compared to wireless. While it read the codes ok it did not have all the features (logging, fault code look up, real time graphs and dial gauges) that Torque offered. Total investment under $20.

To follow up, I went to O'Reilly today and they tried the 1200 that they use to pull codes and it worked great. I couldn't quite justify the price so I went one model down and bought the 1150. It's a bit more of a pain to use because you have to click through a couple of menus to get to the sensor info page, and each menu take 15 or so seconds to load. But, it gives me the info I need without having to haul the laptop out. It's a huge shame the Kiwi solution didn't work, but I'm counting it as a win

I'm wondering if the Bosch 1050 (bluetooth dongle) would behave any better than the Kiwi... post back if anybody finds out!

For anyone who is looking to buy one of these...you have to have a dongle that supports Advanced ELM327 v1.5 in order for it to work on a r50 pathfinder

I know others are using ELM327 Bluetooth adapter and Torque app.