I've got a Check Engine Light that I would like to diagnose. I have a '97 ti, making it OBD-II, so I'm gonna need a scanner, but I don't know much about them.
It appears to me there are a few types. One is a fairly generic OBD-II scanner that plugs in somewhere around the steering column into a standard OBD-II port and works on pretty much any car built after 1995. I've looked at things like
Scan Guage II that fall into this category. This would be nice, because in addition to reading codes, it can sit on your dash and act as a trip computer, provide digital guages and other data instantly. The potential downside is that I've read that these type of scanners might not work reliably with our BMWs and I'm not sure if they can reset CELs or things like the oil service indicator.
The other option appears to be the
Peake Research scan tool, which plugs into the circular BMW computer port under the hood. It appears to be made exclusively for BMWs and does reset all sorts of lights. To me, that means it should be more reliable, but I have heard of them messing up as well. I had my car into a shop once for a CEL among other things, and they used some very fancy, very expensive BMW code reading computer that plugged into the same port.
My ti didn't come with an on-board computer, so I think it would be great to have something like the Scan Gauge II, but only if it can perform all of the functions that the Peake Research tool can. Please educate me.