Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexTheSeal
What was the eBay auction item linked here? (It's long since expired from eBay, of course.)
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It's a Chinese copy of the factory SDS (Star Diagnostic System). I believe it works quite well. With the required IBM laptop, total cost will be near $1k, but it will offer complete functionality for pretty much any Mercedes model, same as what the dealer can do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexTheSeal
I'm considering buying a '94 E420 and would like to have a better way to read trouble codes than the LED method...
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For simply reading codes, the LED blinker box works very well for all systems on a W124 V8 except E-GAS. The E-GAS module has some digital codes, where multiple codes get lumped into a single analog blink code (see sample WIS screen shot below... digital codes 2, 6, 7, 9, and 25 all appear as LED blink code "2"). The hand-held LED blinker is simple, reliable, and cheap to buy or build. No waiting for Windows to boot on a laptop. Now, for reading live data, then you need the digital scan capabilities. The live data elements available from the 400E/500E are in
this PDF file. The full list of diagnostic codes & procedures for the W124 V8 models is in
this PDF file.
The Snap-On MT2500 with MB software cartridge & cables does offer digital communication for some modules & systems, but not others, and it's not all that reliable. I have this and it works well for certain things (reading LH adaptation values, O2 sensor data, etc) but not others (locks up when trying to display EZL live data, doesn't always report fault codes that appear via LED blinker, has no support for ABS/ASR systems). But, the cost is less than half the Chinese SDS, so on a tight budget it's still useful.
