VCDS on MK4

[leighaus]

hey guys,

i bought a chinese 3.01 vagcom cable, the same as this -

Vag Tacho 3.01+ Opel Immo Airbag [2954] - US$28.00 oemorder.com

it came with the basic "vagtacho" software, and once i installed the drivers the cable came with, it connected automatically fine. The thing is, this vagtacho software only allows you to clear codes, code a key and err yea. not much else.

I was wondering, i have downloaded VCDS lite (Release 1.1 Posted 5. November 2010) and i tried the 4 COM ports and VCDS couldnt find my ECU...

should it be able to on an MK4? if so, please help!

thankyou.


p.s the main thing i want to be able to do is get the logged fault codes, not just clear them. also other features would be good.

[h100vw]

vagtacho and VCDS are 2 different things.

You need a VCDS cable to read codes and reset them.

Gavin

[leighaus]

thanks for the clarity gavin.

Being that i have an MK4, do i have to buy a genuine ross tech cable, or will something cheaper suffice?

[h100vw]

I'd always advise going for the genuine cable. The top one is best but I think you can use the micro can on a MK4. Best to check the Ross-tech site or speak to Tim at Dubaddiction.

Gavin

[Jmac]

You dont need to spend all your money on VCDS if all you are doing is scanning , reading data and clearing faults, many good generic scanners out there will take care of that, i would recommend VCDS if you are going to use it for a lot more, i do as i adapt lots of stuff and code lots of stuff but still find myself backing some diagnostics up with VAG software. Ive seen a few case only this week of stuff being extracted especially with VAGTACHO and as a result EEPROMS wiped, with no return as files werent saved, same can happen with VCDS if you do the wrong thing. VCDS is great and cant speak highly enough of it but beware if you are not sure, cant stress that enough. On the flip side i get quite a lot of work out of the above.