Faultmate....Help!

I am thinking of buying one of the Blackbox products. Been in touch with BBS Guy and he has offered me 3 different items.
One is the Faultmate FCR, another two is the SV125 and the SV225 Extreme.
Is there someone out there who used these gadgets? Any advice please on them? Are the two SV ones that much better to justify the double price?

Any help will be much appreciated...

Andras said:

I am thinking of buying one of the Blackbox products. Been in touch with BBS Guy and he has offered me 3 different items.
One is the Faultmate FCR, another two is the SV125 and the SV225 Extreme.
Is there someone out there who used these gadgets? Any advice please on them? Are the two SV ones that much better to justify the double price?

Any help will be much appreciated...

Click to expand...

The FCR will allow you to read and clear faults only, the full blown MSV2 will allow you to do config changes, read live data and a lot more. Go on th black box solutions website and watch the videos on the different products, or type faultmate in YouTube.

Matt

I use the 225 which is the Extreme. This gives you fault reading and clearing in standalone mode (no computer / laptop requires ) or full function reading and resetting fault codes, reading live data from all sensors, reading and writing setting for various things, forcing outputs on systems and setting various options. Without getting to excited it is a freaking awesome bit of kit. The 125 is identical but does not have the stand alone capability. The FCR, as far as know, is just an all system fault reader clearer.

The Extreme costs £480-ish....But sounds like a good piece of kit.

Excellent piece of kit, but be aware that it locks itself to one car only, i.e. Single Vehicle..hence the SV, for that price. It can be changed to another car for an extra cost if you change your car.
The software module costs for the Multi Vehicle are higher.
I have the Extreme which is all singing and dancing, but tend to use it with a laptop most of the time as I can save any data/settings to the PC.

Irishrover said:

Excellent piece of kit, but be aware that it locks itself to one car only, i.e. Single Vehicle..hence the SV, for that price. It can be changed to another car for an extra cost if you change your car.
The software module costs for the Multi Vehicle are higher.
I have the Extreme which is all singing and dancing, but tend to use it with a laptop most of the time as I can save any data/settings to the PC.

Click to expand...

I agree with Irish - luckily I had an old laptop spare so got the standard unit, it now sits in the boot with the laptop - the only thing it can't do on my P38 is the cruise control, but that is not the fault of BBS it is Landrovers Fault for putting a cheap ECU there with no blooming diagnostics facility...

I think for that extra £40 will go for the better version. Thanks for your help Gents.
Now just have to save up for it. The old sweetheart taking my money again.......
Life would be boring without these things...........

I've been following this thread with interest as I am looking at buying a faultmate for my P38, I had pretty much decided on the extreme given that it can do live data readings as I have found that very useful on other diagnostic software.

One question though can it log the live data to file such as a CSV so it can be manipluated in Excel ?

Jamiehol said:

I've been following this thread with interest as I am looking at buying a faultmate for my P38, I had pretty much decided on the extreme given that it can do live data readings as I have found that very useful on other diagnostic software.

One question though can it log the live data to file such as a CSV so it can be manipluated in Excel ?

Click to expand...

Bloodyhell.......What is that in English? Live data reading? CSV??
When will you think of buying the gadget?

Andras said:

I am thinking of buying one of the Blackbox products. Been in touch with BBS Guy and he has offered me 3 different items.
One is the Faultmate FCR, another two is the SV125 and the SV225 Extreme.
Is there someone out there who used these gadgets? Any advice please on them? Are the two SV ones that much better to justify the double price?

Any help will be much appreciated...

Click to expand...

I purchased a FCR a few months ago to clear the fault on my L322's air suspension. It cost me £235 and my local LR dealer wanted £120 + VAT to diagnose the problem and re-set the system. Even an indie wanted £80 + VAT. So I need to use it once more and the FCR has paid for itself. It's a well made piece of kit that's easy to use.

PDA

I have an MSV Extreme and it has paid for itself several times over just on the ability to match the ECU and BECM security code when the alarm has a hissy because of someones overly powerful wi-fi or whatever (and yes this still happens even with the updated radio receiver module!)

I would recommend to any P38 owner who is likely to be keeping the vehicle for a few years. Though be aware that changing settings in the BECM or altering default height settings for the EAS can occasionally result in issues if you aren't careful.

As others have said - the price for the SV is for a Single Vehicle and includes all the code you need. The other point to note though is the MSV supports up to THREE vehicles - subject to you buying the additional code from BBS in Cyprus. I've always thought this may be an advantage for the day we buy another Land Rover.

Finally, if you have a diesel P38 I believe you can modify the maps to encourage it to perform in a slightly more lively manner - though I would suggest you need to know what you are doing in this area!

Hope this helps,

Martin

Andras said:

Bloodyhell.......What is that in English? Live data reading? CSV??
When will you think of buying the gadget?

Click to expand...

just not everything leaves a fault code, so say being able to plot air flow through the air flow meter against engine load/ speed when trying to diagnose running issues.

Probably looking to buy sooner rather than later as my P38 has just started displaying the book symbol

Jamiehol said:

I've been following this thread with interest as I am looking at buying a faultmate for my P38, I had pretty much decided on the extreme given that it can do live data readings as I have found that very useful on other diagnostic software.

One question though can it log the live data to file such as a CSV so it can be manipluated in Excel ?

Click to expand...

Even with the Extreme you would need to plug it into a laptop to get the live data recorded - without the laptop it will just display faults and clear faults I believe.

I may be doing another bulk group discount purchase soon on the sv225 extreme units etc,..... Look out for the thread

magictiny said:

Even with the Extreme you would need to plug it into a laptop to get the live data recorded - without the laptop it will just display faults and clear faults I believe.

Click to expand...

Yes I realise that, happy to have the laptop hooked up.

Jamiehol said:

I've been following this thread with interest as I am looking at buying a faultmate for my P38, I had pretty much decided on the extreme given that it can do live data readings as I have found that very useful on other diagnostic software.

One question though can it log the live data to file such as a CSV so it can be manipluated in Excel ?

Click to expand...

For sure. Nice feature.

How long this discount likely to be? Would not like to buy one and see it 2 months later for cheaper.......
Thanks for the good ideas, suggestions chaps...

Believe me, you won't get BBSguy dropping his prices !!
I have been a BBS user for over 6 years now and the offers I have seen crop up on here are very much a rarity and unique.
I feel fairly confident that he is doing a speciaal offer for forum members, maybe he is doing the same deal on the "Other" forum(s)...I don't know because I think my head could not handle more than this forum. I am a member of the "Other" forum but it is full of self appraising bastids who live on another planet as far as I am concerned. This one tells it as it is, despite all the bollokings and slagging, it's still the best at the end of the day for getting things sorted.
So, at the end of the day, I feel sure that if a good discount deal comes up on here and it's handled the same efficient way that the FCR was, my advice is..go for it if you can afford it, but.........be 110% sure that the kit is what you REALLY want, dont buy a SV system if you are unsure and would like a MV system instead. As I have said before (Yawn)..I have no involvement with BBS, financial or otherwise, but their products are second to none, even the (mistakenly) hallowed Test Book. The rest..Hawkeye, or whatever it's called, Autologic etc., they are way behind.

This what I got from him. Sounds good?



I am not sure if you mean the Faultmate FCR Fault code reader which is GBP 199 minus 10% discount then VAT at 15% (Our countries Rate) plus 3% if you elect to pay by Credit card over bank transfer and about 25 for Shipping.

If you mean the FAULTMATE MSV-2, we have 2 versions that differ only in that the NANO does not have a Built in LCD like the EXTREME version does, This screen allows you to additionally use the EXTREME to read and clear fault codes without being connected to a PC, although that is an additional function over its core with PC role.
The NANO kit for a P38 is SV125 is £432.39 and the EXTREME SV225 £479.37
the EXTREME is by far the most popular. these prices are then modified as with teh FCR but the shipping is another 5 or 10 pounds.

Well I am deffinatley interested in any forum group buy that may come along if it is soon, although even at the normal price plus 10% off it is a good deal I think.

I would just have to decide if to have the NANO or the EXTREME, the EXTREME would be tempting for those times when I am away in the caravan would mean I wouldn't need the laptop if I had a fault crop up.