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Originally Posted by Bigdaddybenz
Is there a fairly reasonable diagnostic scanner that I can purchase that I can use on both my 1999 E300D and my 2005 E320 CDI?
Any recommendations?
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Unfortunately there is really only one game in town for the W210 diesels. That is the HHT or a Star/Xentry clone computer. The W210 was designed at the inception of OBDII and it has a seriously hobbled implementation. Basically the bare minimum to meet the requirements of the day which was power train codes related to emissions. The various electronic modules in the car are connected by dedicated serial data lines to the 38 pin connector in the main relay/fuse box on the drivers side. I don’t know of any diagnostic computer on the market other than a cloned multiplexer and laptop running Xentry that can talk over this port.
The W211 has a better OBDII implementation and there are many third party scanners (iCarSoft, Snap On, Autel, etc) that are capable of pulling codes and doing rudimentary setting changes.
Of course the multiplexer and Xentry can do anything the dealer can, with one exception. The cloned Xentry computers cannot be placed on the internet under any circumstances. If the servers at Bosch find the cloned computer it will issue a kill order and shut it down permanently. Keeping the computer isolated prevents this from happening. I have one of these and I have the Ethernet port and Wi-Fi disabled in the BIOS and have removed the drivers for these devices from Windows so there is no chance this computer can see the internet even by accident.
There are certain maneuvers, called SCN coding, that are used to initialize new modules, particularly the core function modules for the power train. It requires a handshake back to Germany to properly initialize these modules. Cloned Xentry cannot do this. You can go into Version Coding and make settings changes (for example, if you want the dash display in km instead of miles, or you add the iPod adapter to the stereo). But you cannot update the VGS (transmission conductor plate on a 722.9) that has an integrated controller.
Back to your car.
Your 2005 E320 CDI has the same family 722.6 transmission as your 1999 E300. These have an external transmission controller. Inside the transmission is a conductor plate, that holds speed and temperature sensors, and several solenoid valves.
The controller gets the data from the speed sensors, and combined with inputs from the power train controller, command the various valves in combination to engage and disengage the bands, clutches, and torque converter lockup.
There is a significant amount of diagnostic data in the transmission controller that cannot be extracted from the 1999 E300 implementation without Xentry or HHT. There are a multitude of fault codes in the system that get boiled down to a handful of generic fault codes (P07xx) that can be read out of the OBDII port.