Hi, I'm considering buying a Cadillac of late 90's or early 2000's vintage.
Up until now my caddy's were all in the 50's so this is new to me;
Would it be useful to get a GM Tech 2 scanner and does anyone know where to get this? Or does anyone have one for sale?
Thanks
Peter
You may find one on EBay, but a good Obd11 scanner is another option. Of course the GM unit can access all functions, bcm abs, sir, and it is bi-directional.
Tech2 can be a tricky one if you don't know what to look for. I'm no expert on them but did consider buying one at one point. One thing I learned about them is there are fake ones out there that don't really do anything more than a $50 parts store one. There are also fake ones that are very good copies of the real ones. Apparently there are also real ones running fake software.
If you had a specific year and model car in mind I would do some research online and find out if there was anything that required the Tech2. My guess would be most systems could be dealt with an good older tool from someone like OTC. I suspect stuff that requires the Tech2 would be more unique and rare systems like maybe the ABS on an Allante sort of thing. All the common systems were covered by the aftermarket companies.
I don't think anyone currently sells a new fully capable OBD1 tool. There are a few that can read the codes but not much more. For OBD1 you are going to have to find an older tool. On the old tools you often needed special cables and sometimes cartridge modules to connect to various systems. Sometimes the one cable or module you may need is the one that is missing or damaged in a used systems. Replacements are usually no longer available new from the manufacturer so you are again stuck on the used market.
I have been stuck before where I paid good money for a supposedly complete system I could not use because of a missing cable. I had paid $300 for the system and only found one used cable for sale and they were asking $200 for the cable. I didn't think it was worth it and ended up selling it at a loss to either a Ford or Mopar guy that didn't care that the GM cable was missing.
When I bought my non running 90 I bought a OTC Genesis setup. I had a friend that had one look at the photos to give me his best guess if the cables I needed were there and tell me which modules I would likely need. There were a few modules that were worn out / damaged but so far I have had what I needed. If you are looking at one in person if you go through the menus and select the car it then tells you which cable and module you need for that car.
Fairly complete and updated used tools are going to go for $500 and up. Anything less you have to do your research and make sure it will work on the specific models and systems you are interested in. You can get deals but do your research and make sure it will do what you need it to do.
I just re read and you said late 90's early 2000's. That should not be too difficult to find. Mid 2000's the CAN bus standard got common and some of the older tools could not do it so many techs / shops had to buy a new tool in say 2007 when they started seeing 05's coming into their shops. They would have hung onto their older tool for a while especially if it did OBD1's because in 07 they would have still been seeing 95's but as time went on they used them less and less so eventually they decide to sell them. You will see a lot of tools that say they are good till around 2005.
Most of the OBD2 tools you see that work with phones and such seem to really be tailored for the CAN stuff where every system in the car was on the same connection. Before that there were separate networks, protocols, and sometimes connectors for different systems within the car.