Hi

Does anyone know weather it is possible to buy your own diagnostic machine ??

I have seen diagnostic machines on certain auction sites and on google, but not sure if its worth investing in one, if ford are going to charge me £100 for diagnostic and i can buy one for less than that it makes sense.

Anyone got any ideas.

Have not seen this question asked on here yet so could be interesting.

I bought one of eBay a few months back that plugs in to a laptop as you get alot more options this way. Make sure you get one that's eobd (obd 2) and ELM327 compatabile.

Best not to get one from eBay though as there are alot of them that use a fake ELM chip as the real ones are more expensive. The fake ones do work but not very well as I found out

Best to buy one from a site like talktomycar.com (I think) and spending that little bit extra in the first place.

[quote name='gaz6076' post='38794' date='Aug 22 2009, 10:08 PM']I bought one of eBay a few months back that plugs in to a laptop as you get alot more options this way. Make sure you get one that's eobd (obd 2) and ELM327 compatabile.

Best not to get one from eBay though as there are alot of them that use a fake ELM chip as the real ones are more expensive. The fake ones do work but not very well as I found out

Best to buy one from a site like talktomycar.com (I think) and spending that little bit extra in the first place.[/quote]

Any idea of cost and also how difficult are they to use, im trying to way up all the options and see if its worth it.

By the way my car is a 1998 ford escort estate 1.8si 16v if that helps.

You will need to find out if your car is obd2 compatible, if not then I can't really help you as I've only delt with this kind myself

obd2 or eobd compatible cars are: petrol after 2001
diesel after 2004

Alot of the earlier fords from 1996 do work for instance the the mk4 fiesta with the 1.25 zetec engine but the 1.3 endura does not