OBD-II scanner advice please

[Mark_h]

I know we have a few car mechanics on here so thought I'd ask as Google is proving far too vague and contradictory in it's responses.

I have a 2008 BMW 520d (E60 LCI). It has a battery discharge error message from time to time. Would be handy if it could tell me where it thinks the discharge is being drawn from. Also if I need to replace the battery then it needs to be coded to tell the car it's got a new battery apparently else it all goes sulky and the world will end.

It seems you can get various scanners for the OBD port for <£30 on ebay which say they can read and reset fault codes. Question is how far up the cost ladder do I need to go to get one that can deal this things like recoding a battery? Would a basic one tell me what the car is reporting about drain causes etc?

I'm not looking to reprogram main ECU or reset odometer or anything like that, just fix the battery issue and hopefully do other useful diagnostics if/when it gets problems.

Any recommendations?

[NTECUK]

TBH. your find the codes that cars give up are only a part of the story.
When you get a code ther is allways lots of diffrent things that can cause them.
Example:-
K12 will show front O2 sensor voltage too high.When you get down and check it (after Mr back street garrage hass fitted 2) 99% of the time its the rear O2 sensor heater that bleeds voltage through, changing the volts the ecm sees as a referance.
So don't live and die by them.
Get a Mac Van rep ,chat to them and see what best fits for your car.
Best thing is check the cars grounds all this salt can cause problems and its been mighty thick this year.

For anything technical on a BMW, you need the lead and the INPA dealer only software on a laptop, eBay has these but you need a decent amount of PC skills to get it setup.

I have it and its been very handy fixing my 330. The standard scanners will only read engine faults, emission systems etc. The proper BMW job will read every module on the car.

[DJ123]

Mark, i have one you cna borrow if you want? See if you like it and if it does the job you need.

[Sir Trev]

My Mundaneo's LPG system constantly trips the engine warning light, despite being set up properly. Bought a mid-priced OBD scanner off Ebay that claimed to be up to date with 06 year Ford error codes but was it heck. Useful for cancelling the light but nothing else. The LPG specialist I use said he has several scanners as some work on some models and so on...

I can imagine BMW having a rather expensive "dealer only" setup to deliberately annoy home mechanics. Good luck.