Vag Com Leads

Steve_D

Steve_D

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Hello there me again :)

Does anyone know where i can get leads for the Vag Com program

Ive seen them on ebay, but do they actually work as there... well. ebay lol

I want to give my car a good test and tune up as im getting 22mpg!!

Ive got a 1.8 A4 SE 99 year
 
Yep i use an ebay one and its fine.

Free version of the software is a little bit limited but does the job.
 
audi upgrades
I got one for about £4 off ebay, from hongkong like and took three weeks but works perfect.
 
griswold said:
the only people who say they dont work are the ones that cant configure their com ports on their pc
Click to expand...

With all due respect, but thats rubbish, regardless if I sell genuine or not, allot of people have actually had problems with ebay cables, they have had habits of just blowing, partially working & even shorting down the car systems, they've tried various drivers & still nothing, admittedly there are some people who arent as pc literate as others, but majority I've read about are actually failrly with it & know exactly about com ports etc & still cables wernt great, so thats a little misinformative if you ask me.

The only guarantee anyone can give you with vcds cables is when buying genuine, yet to read 1 person complain it didnt function at all, except the person who ran over his with his car :)
 
Its essentially a USB to Serial converter with the right plug on the end. It only handles about three wires - so there really cant be much difference between official VCDS ones and ones off ebay.

What i dont understand is why you would pay such a price for a cable when one will suffice at a fraction of the cost? You might be very unlucky and get one wired up wrong or something, but youve paid pennies and can claim it back anyway through paypal and try again.

So long as you can track down and install the drivers, get the software (official or not) and configure a COM port, as above, theyre the same.
 
Well I'll bear that in mind when looking, but now i know what the right one is and that ebay could possibly work... i'll have a good look around first

I have got the free software from Ross Tech :)

Thanks again everyone
 
pjw said:
Its essentially a USB to Serial converter with the right plug on the end. It only handles about three wires - so there really cant be much difference between official VCDS ones and ones off ebay.

What i dont understand is why you would pay such a price for a cable when one will suffice at a fraction of the cost? You might be very unlucky and get one wired up wrong or something, but youve paid pennies and can claim it back anyway through paypal and try again.

So long as you can track down and install the drivers, get the software (official or not) and configure a COM port, as above, theyre the same.
Click to expand...

Think you need to go read more IMHO.

Who produces the software that you use?
 
pjw said:
Its essentially a USB to Serial converter with the right plug on the end. It only handles about three wires - so there really cant be much difference between official VCDS ones and ones off ebay.

What i dont understand is why you would pay such a price for a cable when one will suffice at a fraction of the cost? You might be very unlucky and get one wired up wrong or something, but youve paid pennies and can claim it back anyway through paypal and try again.

So long as you can track down and install the drivers, get the software (official or not) and configure a COM port, as above, theyre the same.
Click to expand...


Well im quite capabale on a pc so who knows.. and i dont mind splashing out a little the once to get the right part thats gonna work :)
 
Steve_D said:
Well im quite capabale on a pc so who knows.. and i dont mind splashing out a little the once to get the right part thats gonna work :)
Click to expand...

Go read my thread mate:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/vcds-formerly-vag-com-forum/72359-vcds-supplier.html

Plus had many others who have bought, never had any issues with drivers, returning cables etc, nil, worked 1st & continuous times, thats the difference between some cables about & genuine, plus free updates to use latest software which is now at 10.63 far past the 4.09 which allot of ebay cables use, works on 99.9999% of cars old & new on all 4 vag brands, free support, warranty, all of which ebay jobbies wont do or offer.
 
NHN said:
Plus free updates to use latest software which is now at 10.63 far past the 4.09 which allot of ebay cables use, works on 99.9999% of cars old & new on all 4 vag brands, free support, warranty, all of which ebay jobbies wont do or offer.
Click to expand...

Thats is a fair point TBH I just checked and for my £20 I only have access to 4.09 and I bought from a legit company grrr!
 
NHN said:
Go read my thread mate:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/vcds-formerly-vag-com-forum/72359-vcds-supplier.html

Plus had many others who have bought, never had any issues with drivers, returning cables etc, nil, worked 1st & continuous times, thats the difference between some cables about & genuine, plus free updates to use latest software which is now at 10.63 far past the 4.09 which allot of ebay cables use, works on 99.9999% of cars old & new on all 4 vag brands, free support, warranty, all of which ebay jobbies wont do or offer.
Click to expand...

hehe well i wasnt expecting to pay 240 quid for one TBH lol

By splashing out i meant say 40 quid max on a lead lol
Cool price but intil im more flush with cash i cannot sacrafice that much :(
 
NHN said:
Go read my thread mate:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/vcds-formerly-vag-com-forum/72359-vcds-supplier.html

Plus had many others who have bought, never had any issues with drivers, returning cables etc, nil, worked 1st & continuous times, thats the difference between some cables about & genuine, plus free updates to use latest software which is now at 10.63 far past the 4.09 which allot of ebay cables use, works on 99.9999% of cars old & new on all 4 vag brands, free support, warranty, all of which ebay jobbies wont do or offer.
Click to expand...

It even works on non-vag cars, in a limited capacity granted.

The price of cable does seem allot but the after service and all that NHN said makes it worth it.
 
jonnycraig said:
Thats is a fair point TBH I just checked and for my £20 I only have access to 4.09 and I bought from a legit company grrr!
Click to expand...

You paid £20 for a 4.09 cable?
You can get a 10.06 beta cable for about that (Chinese special though.)

Random info, me and friend have been playing with a version 7 cable and re-flashed the ROM to work with version 8. Time to move on. :D
 
I know.... havent learned!! Think it was one of those things, bought on the spare of a moment and thought it could do more than it did, not really knowing what it could do in the first place, if that makes sense!! lol!

Think its just cool I tell my mates I have an Audi to USB cable!! :)
 
I dont think anyone can fault a genuine ross tech lead but i only used my lead a couple of times
so a genuine lead is not cost effective for me
but im glad ross tech have a free version for limited use.
Good on NHN for making it cheaper for the forum
 
jonnycraig said:
I know.... havent learned!! Think it was one of those things, bought on the spare of a moment and thought it could do more than it did, not really knowing what it could do in the first place, if that makes sense!! lol!

Think its just cool I tell my mates I have an Audi to USB cable!! :)
Click to expand...

LMAO mate :)

i'll be able to say the same soon i hope lol

I really think my Audi is a bit poorly at the moment :( She's a lovely car, great body great engine, just expensive to take her out lol :p
 
NHN said:
Think you need to go read more IMHO.

Who produces the software that you use?
Click to expand...

What has that got to do with it? Nothing. RossTech produce it, but seeing as they give a version away for free, i owe them nothing. There are other VAG readers software on the market, im sure your aware, its just that because the method of scanning got known as VAGCOM scanning, you boys own the market.

NHN said:
Go read my thread mate:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/vcds-formerly-vag-com-forum/72359-vcds-supplier.html

Plus had many others who have bought, never had any issues with drivers, returning cables etc, nil, worked 1st & continuous times, thats the difference between some cables about & genuine, plus free updates to use latest software which is now at 10.63 far past the 4.09 which allot of ebay cables use, works on 99.9999% of cars old & new on all 4 vag brands, free support, warranty, all of which ebay jobbies wont do or offer.
Click to expand...

I love the way you think £240 is a reasonable outlay for a vagcom. Maybe if you were a garage and had multiple uses - you could make use of support etc - but for one man with the odd fault code? Tell me this, what new stuff can I do to my B5 with version 10 that i couldnt do with version 4?

You seem to be getting a bit antsy in your pantsy that nobody is jumping on your bandwagon. Thats probably because we can get the same cable, and the software, for a squeak under 2% of the price of yours. This then begs the question that if they can be made, fully functioning for that amount, what kind of outlay are rosstech making out of this piece of wire and software?

If i had a £40k Audi, then fair enough. But nobody on this forum does, so i cant see how you can justify that price whatsoever.
 
pjw said:
I love the way you think £240 is a reasonable outlay for a vagcom

You seem to be getting a bit antsy in your pantsy that nobody is jumping on your bandwagon.
Click to expand...

I love the way you come out with these words, I mean really, antsy in my pantsy, lmfao, are you serious with that post, lmfao still laughing at it.

However I will say, only IMHO you understand, I think you're a little naive tbh at what goes into these things but alas, some people are blind to these things, just a thought though, if audi's unit is 5-10k, do you not think the vcds product in general is a good price regardless of what you may buy the other ones for, as it does practically everything there's does & tbh more from my experience, you will of course disagree, but thats your opinion of which your entitled to voice.

I'll revisit tomorrow as its late, will reply properly when got spare few minutes.
 
No, no i appreciate the work that goes into the software, dont get me wrong. But regardless of the price that Audi do things for (and lets be honest its usually five times more expensive at least for the same quality), my opinion is that with a car worth only a maximum of about £4k in the first place, such as some of the S4s on here £240 is too much to shell out for the DIY mechanic when £5 will suffice.
 
You can't run an ebay lead with a newer version of VCDS.
It locks the cable.
I've tried version 7 lead with version 10 of VCDS and it locked the cable.
I had to reflash the cable to get it working.
well, both cables. :(
 
Theres two different things going on here.

You have a lead, and a piece of software.

When you buy a genuine lead, from rosstech, your not only buying an interface are also buying a licence to unlock the software and use all its functionality, ie logging etc.

When you buy a clone lead from ebay, your only buying the interface, and an old one at that (ie it will only talk to non-CAN vehicles and is much slower for logging etc)

Rosstech offer a free version of their software which is limited in capability and can be used with an ebay lead, again this free software isnt comparable to the full thing, but for a lot of people is more than sufficient.

The last option, is to buy a ebay lead, and a licence from rosstech. The licence costs $100, and gives you most of the functionality of the full shebang but with the ebay cable.

Its not really fair to compare the £240 genuine cable with a £10 ebay lead, because they're not the same thing.

Personally, for older cars like ours, i think the ebay leads are fine. I've never had mine break, but even if it did, i could buy quite a few of them before i was up at rosstech money. An ebay lead and a licence from Rosstech gets you all the functionality you will ever need on a B5 model, will cost less than £100, and rosstech will also refund the $100 you paid for the licence if you ever decide to upgrade a real cable.

Theres one caveat to all this, which is the hacked ebay cables which are designed to work with newer versions. These are in effect illegal, and this is why they get locked when you use them with a newer version of the software. I wont condone their use, but ofcourse its up to the end user if they wish to use one of these. The ebay cable i use is just a simple dumb interface, and only works with 409 or VCDS-Lite, but thats fine with me.

NHN: You need to step back a minute and see both sides here. If you actually took the time to explain all the options, and how each option differs it would stop you coming across so badly. Genuine leads simply arent for everyone. Theres folk on here who only paid £250 for their entire car, and they simply cant afford nor justify spending the same again just to flash out a fault code.
 
You also havent included the option of getting an cracked full version of VCDS to work with an ebay cable. Im not endorsing it, but you get all of the above for nothing, again another option.

Once again though even if you got a hacked cable and managed to get version 7 working, so what? It wont make your B5 any better. It has the same functionality for the model as version 3 does.
 
audi upgrades
The free version doesnt really let you do any logging and is pretty limited in adaptions etc too.

Hacked/Cracked versions cant really be used as an arguement against the price of the genuine item... Its a bit like saying "why buy Photoshop CS3 when you can download it for free" or taking it further, "Why buy an Audi A4 when i can steal yours?"
 
aragorn said:
The free version doesnt really let you do any logging and is pretty limited in adaptions etc too.
Click to expand...

On a slightly different note, has anybody written any tutorials to what exactly you can do with the free versions of Vagcom etc I have it and plugged it in successfully but not sure what its telling me about the car lol. Ive looked up the codes but not sure what else it does :)
 
griswold said:
Thought i would throw this option in before the handbags start flying
VAG 405 VAG405 CODE READER DIAGNOSTIC SCANNER OBD2 CAN on eBay (end time 29-Jan-11 22:38:30 GMT)
thought about getting this myself
Click to expand...

How effective is this in comparison with the cheap ebay lead and free ross tech download? Will it cover the same stuff and allow the same optoins etc?

Reason i ask is i prefer a desktop pc and dont own a laptop so i need to get one first before all the kit, this would be the cheapest option for me really if its the same system.
 
i'd rather have vagcom tbh.

Get a cheapy old banger of a laptop off ebay for 30-50quid, and run it off a mains inverter if need be.

That said, the reader above might be nice to have tucked away in the glove box, but it wont be anywhere near as flexible.
 
there is a chap up here in scotland that makes an obd2 thing called liquid, it looked pretty nifty (showing boost pressures etc) and can be mounted in a vent blank. you can also read and clear dtc's too. I met up with him in glasgow last year for a bit of r&d but it wouldnt work with my old 1.8 t which I believe was a baud rate issue.
I have an ebay lead and the free version ov vcds. it is really handy for checking codes - especially on these damn tdi's, there are loads of drawbacks, for example I really want to reset my service lights on the dash but cant on the free version, i'd also like to adjust the egr values after blanking off but again the free version doesnt really allow you to change anything. tell you 1 thing though, I wouldnt be spending 250 on a lead which had only limited functionality on my old b5, especially on a car worth less than 1k.
horses for courses though.
 
Hi

I've just downloaded the trial version of VCDS 1.1 to use with my old Chinese VagCom cable.

I'm using a USB to Serial adapter, which VCDS is recognising, but it won't see the VagCom adapter.

Do I need to set anything specific on the USB to Serial adapter like Baud Rate or Flow Control etc?
 
vag com only sees com ports 1 - 4
so you may have them already in use
you just need to clear them and try again
depends which version of windows your using
just google com ports cant help much more as in work and only have my rubbish n97mini phone
 
Just open your hardware manager, find USB, and find the cable. It will be labelled with something like USB to Serial converter.

It will show its probably down as COM5. Go to properties and change it to 1-4 thats not in use. Then configure vagcom and press test.
 
Will rosstech vcds full version or lite version with ebay cable work/compatible with apples snowleapord op system (macbooks)....
 
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