Odb readers

Question: My car is playing up and I’m planning to buy my own ODB reader. Is there a universal reader that works for motorcycles and cars? If so is the Triumph ODB link connector compatible or will i need a cable? Cheers in advance.

On my Triumph bikes I’ve been using TuneECU for years and does everything I need for home maintenance (and more). It’s just an app you load on to an Android phone, used to be free but now unfortunately charges an annual fee for new licenses. :rage:

The obd port on our Triumphs are the same as those found on cars, and I imagine yours is the same and looks like this?
image

You’ll need a Bluetooth adaptor. I bought a cheap Chinese one for less than £10 that has worked fine on the Triumphs but doesn’t pull all the data from my BMW bike, the cheap copies are very hit and miss as to whether they work properly.

I’ll be buying one of these (below) soon so that I can talk to the S1000XR too via another app called Motoscan (that adapter is also one of those recommended by TuneECU).

As for apps for your car there are numerous ones but don’t have too much experience with them. I’ve tried Car Scanner, OBD Fusion and Torque Pro but never had cause to use them in anger, might depend on your make of car for a proper recommendation.

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Cheers Colin, I’d rather not pay an annual subscription if I could possibly avoid it but I’ll take a look again at tune ecu, I did use it on my bonneville 3 years ago but since overwritten with the Triumph “arrows cans” tune.

If you’ve used TuneECU before then hopefully your license is still valid (should be linked to your Google account). Fortunately they’re honouring existing/earlier licenses for life, only new (after Sept '23) will have to pay.

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It was a mate, I’ll have to ask nicely. :wink:

So as far as the car goes-it was the MAF sensor, i replaced that and the air filter and car is running fine. I used a cheap fault code reader from amazon £17, much cheaper than an hours labour at the garage. The Bonneville is 12 years old and still disgustingly reliable but i am meticulous about maintenance.

Some phone companies sell ODB readers that also connect to cell network, which can show location of car and notify about if there are alerts like cylinder misfires. These are just like a little box that can be left installed in car, then info is displayed in app.

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I still have one of these from the american/german phone company t-mobile, but this isn’t compatible with my current vehicles because they are from the 80s before that was a thing. It still works but may just scrap it unless anyone wants it.