best diagnostics

Hi. Bought a 1998 4.0 se a few months ago. Spent a fortune on it so far but mainly parts to get it just how I want it. Fitted new 4 x mud flaps( ridiculous price!),updated the indicators, 4 new tyres,new janspeed exhaust, Dab radio and a new rear wiper motor. Bought a multipoint gas system but not fully fitted it yet. I've got a small fault on the heater and need to get a diagnostics tool so I can sort it out and also for any future maintenance. Which is the best to get in your experience? I've seen posts about the nanocom ego and faultmate. I like to be the only one who works on my car so I need something that covers as much as poss. Thanks

Faultmate +1

Thanks. Do they both do the same? Is one more user friendly than the other??

Nanocom is very powerful at a good price....

Faultmate is the shizzle but twice the price....

Most DIY'ers will suffice with the Nancom Evo....

Which one do you go for? Just looked on blackboxsolutions.com website ( think that's the right place) there's sv, mv,msv,msv-2,fcr!

Nanocom Evo is the kit that you want, unless you're going for a full fat Faultmate.

timmy264 said:

Which one do you go for? Just looked on blackboxsolutions.com website ( think that's the right place) there's sv, mv,msv,msv-2,fcr!

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If you have a laptop, the Faultmate MSV 2 is the best kit available bar none. If you buy it as a kit, it's VIN locked to one vehicle and you have to pay to add another vehicle, with the correct licences it will also cover with the L322 and the Disco etc. If you want to use a stand alone device, go for the Nanocom, it's not VIN locked so you can use it on more than one P38 but it only does the P38.

Thanks for the replies. I'll go for a nanocom this time then as I've not got a laptop yet. I'll need to get one in the future though when I get diagnostics for the wife's renault. Used to be so much simpler when I first started out!

timmy264 said:

Thanks for the replies. I'll go for a nanocom this time then as I've not got a laptop yet. I'll need to get one in the future though when I get diagnostics for the wife's renault. Used to be so much simpler when I first started out!

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When I got my first P38 (and second come to think of it) there were no 'Home User' DIY options available apart from the Rovacom, and even in its 'Lite' format was way above my price bracket.

We are very lucky in this day and age that BBS, Bearmach, RSW, Gap Diagnostics, et al.....have started producing units that are more within the budget of the 'Home User' to allow us to keep our belove'd vehicles on the road....many are scrapped needlessly due to Main Dealer diagnostic and repair costs.....

We are indeed very lucky now - as even just 7-8 years ago, there were no such thing for the 'Home User'.

I remember the diagnostics gear we used in college was about 5k worth and even that wouldn't work with RR. The live data was cool though, you could watch fuel delivery trace the rev range on a huge (15") full screen display. Very distracting when you was driving, but felt very FnF.

I never got mine to say "DANGER IN THE MANIFOLD!" though. :/

Hi datatek
Think I'll get a nano com but ovalandrover was saying that you need to get the unlock codes for the model you bought it for is diesel,gems,Thor.
Can you only use it for one model? The reason I ask is that I've got a 4.0 se and a friends got a diesel 2000 reg. Can I only use it on my model or can I sort some faults on other p38's???

You buy for your motor with the gems or thor unlock code and for an extra 40 notes I think you buy the diesel unlock codes. simple as that. use it any p38

Ooo. Just been given a laptop so might go for the fault mate now if it's so good. What does it do that the nanocom can't???

timmy264 said:

Ooo. Just been given a laptop so might go for the fault mate now if it's so good. What does it do that the nanocom can't???

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Not a lot unless you buy extra modules for it and they are bloody expensive. And locked to one vehicle. Unless you get multi vehicle which is really bloody expensive.

You can get the unlock codes if you pay the extra for them and you can do any P38 also you can get codes for the defender and disco as well

ovalandrover said:

You can get the unlock codes if you pay the extra for them and you can do any P38 also you can get codes for the defender and disco as well

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But you also have to buy the lead for them... P38 leads speacil

timmy264 said:

Ooo. Just been given a laptop so might go for the fault mate now if it's so good. What does it do that the nanocom can't???

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It's a lot easier to look at things like live data on the big screen of a laptop using Faultmate which you cannot do with Nanocom. Faultmate is locked to one vehicle but you can licence 2 additional vehicles for not a lot of cash, or go for the multi vehicle licence which will set you back about a grand

Probably got a budget of about £650 Max for this so I'll have to price it all up. Don't mind if its locked to my vehicle only

timmy264 said:

Probably got a budget of about £650 Max for this so I'll have to price it all up. Don't mind if its locked to my vehicle only

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You can always add to the Faultmate, it can cover a lot of different vehicles. If you upgrade (some would say downgrade) to an L322, BBS will give you a credit against the P38 licence if you purchase the L322 licence.

Datatek said:

You can always add to the Faultmate, it can cover a lot of different vehicles. If you upgrade BBS will give you a credit against the P38 licence.

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I originally purchased a P38 single vehicle licence, after a while I upgraded to P38 multi vehicle.

I was given a full refund of the SV licence cost toward the MV full fat licence when I decided to upgrade my kit.

But my SV licence was only 7 months old at the time, I don't know how long the refund scale lasts for...