Had to choose between a cheap scan tool and a real one for a persistent misfire

Honestly, I was working on a 2015 Civic with a P0304 code and my basic reader just said 'misfire cylinder 4', so I had to decide between buying a $40 generic OBD2 scanner or renting a proper bi-directional unit from the parts store for $75 a day. Tbh, I went with the rental and it let me run a relative compression test and kill the injector, which showed a bad coil pack right away instead of guessing. Has anyone else found a decent mid-level scan tool that can do more than just read codes without costing a grand?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_thompson41mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, those Autel tools @faith684 mentioned, can they actually run a compression test?

faith6841mo ago

What brand was the rental tool you used? I've seen some decent ones from Autel and Launch that are under $500 and can do injector cut tests and live data graphing, which is a huge step up from basic code readers.

gavin_hill2722d ago

Nah, honestly I'd rather spend $50 on a basic scanner and learn to diagnose the old school way!