Garage computer - any ideas?

[mercutio]

it has a pressure sensor on one cylinder and it uses that as a baseline to calculate the others from electrical magikery

[Donald]

Professionally known as electrickery.

[Ammo]

I use an old laptop running XP to run VagCom which is the VAG group diagnostics (Not a porn site) Uses a cheap OBD cable off ebay.

Not sure what available for the cars you have though

[andypont]

I have AutoData on disc. My copy is about 10 years old, but it is pretty useful. Gives part numbers and expected labour times etc for a range of different tasks.

[wurlycorner]

For a Picasso, you want a Lexia - that's the auto diagnosis tool for Pugs/Citroens. I think they're up to Lexia 3 now. There are different types out there, some are stand alone units and I think some are CDs with software and a USB lead so you can use a normal PC. They're not expensive, have a look on eBay.

I need to get one, to see if I can get my Xantia to talk to a genuine tool (it has so far refused to talk to any other mobile diagnostic people's gadgetry). I occasionally get a CEL light at idle, I don't think boost is properly controlled and I think that's either my fault because I think the timing is slightly out after I did the cambelt (I won't go into detail but basically stupid resillient bottom crank pulleys should be shot at birth I think!) Or because the vacuum control unit might not be very well, but this is all hypothesis atm...

[4th Gen Doug]

@Ammo VagCom.. *snigger*
Seriously - something like that would be pretty cool, but you can't plug anything into the old 4th Gen can you?
That PicoDiagnostics electrickery would have been pretty good, but the associated cableage to get it connected to the PC was astronomical. (over £500! )

@andypont, that AutoData looks pretty good tho..

[4th Gen Doug]

Thanks @wurlycorner, I'll check that out..

[Drax]

ive put a PC in my garage too (see monitor by the door, the box is hidden under tyres though lol), runs XP as there's nowt wrong with it and its good for running old software. its there for the lude manual, tinternet, music and watching top gear in the background

[4th Gen Doug]

@Drax - sweet. I never considered the 'Top Gear option'..

[Drax]

@Drax - sweet. I never considered the 'Top Gear option'..

the saviour that is the Dave channel, and http://www.tvcatchup.com if you have reasonable internet speed. I also have all the series' on a HDD I "acquired" from a mate, so can watch the old ones anytime.