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PIWIS cables - experiences?

D

dvenman

Member
As a follow on from my misfire issue, I noticed that there are a lot of hobbyist maintainers who use the cheap-ish PIWIS cables to read fault codes?

For £35 or so, being able to read fault codes as part of my ongoing diagnosis seems like a good deal, but I would like to canvas experiences and opinions from those who may have used them.
 
They aren't actually PIWIS cables, but Chinese clone copies of the early Durametric system. They usually use version 3 of the Durametric software, which is very out of date. Trying to update them with version 4 or 5 usually bricks them.

There were a lot of features added to version 4 and 5, so they have their limitations. Go to the Durametric site and look at the version history, and you'll see what I mean. For basic diagnosis they are OK-ish though. You would have to install the software on a 32-bit Windows XP (or maybe Vista) system. It won't run under Windows 7 or 8, but you might be able to get it to work using a Virtual Machine like XPMode or VMWare.
 
So if all I want to do is read codes, and clear them, they suffice ? I'm not fussed about advanced stuff, just trying to understand what the problem is with the car and use it for troubleshooting so I know what bits to unbolt, fix or replace :)

And it looks like version 3 was released well after my 2003 986 was made so should cover it.

Thanks for the help.
 
+1 what Richard said.

I've got one, it will only read the codes for the engine. It won't read codes for alarm, air-bag, abs etc.
Its a start but in hindsight i'd rather have put the money towards a proper durametric.
 
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