iCarSoft MB II users group discussion thread

[220629]

From another thread.

I was ready to pull the trigger on the icarsoft scan tool.

The price went from $199.95 to $229.95 before I placed my order.

I sent a eBay PM to quickshipautoparts asking if they could give me the old price. No reply at all from quickshipautoparts after a couple days.

While waiting I noticed an eBay coupon for $20 off. I figured what the hell, $209.95 isn't bad. Went to checkout. Price went up from $229.95 to $299.95 since yesterday.

No point in trying to contact quickshipautoparts again to get no reply.

UPDATE

The seller did contact me and is honoring the lower price. He mentioned that he gets many eBay messages daily and has trouble keeping up. The communication was very professional. I suggest that if you are not in a rush for the icarsoft unit it may be worth waiting to see if the price comes down a bit again.

$299.95 is too rich for me to buy what is really another toy. My DAD does what I need.

vic

This is the correct scan tool. The seller is very good, just give some time for e-mail response. The price will vary, so if in no rush watch the listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BE...:g:mEAAAOSwhcJWIJUO&item=171917830941&vxp=mtr

 

[Throttlejockey]

$144 with $20 off


http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BE...205663&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=10&sd=301684372197

 

[Throttlejockey]

Or this one shipped from the U.S. for $179

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BE...205663&pid=100011&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=301684372197

 

[seans]

These are great, but with this sudden markup, not THAT great. Manufacturing cost is probably around $40. Would not be surprised if it were much less.

If folks hang tight, I'm sure that we'll see others come along over the next year and drive the price WAY down. There are a ton of able companies ready to make these (just look at Alibaba.com).

 

[seans]

Well folks, with this unit at $299, this is no longer the low priced deal we thought it was.

I remembered reading about alternatives and found this thread on the Autel MaxiDiag MD802 All Systems.

Seems the going price on Ebay is in the low $230s from multiple sellers. From the thread, the Autel appears to be a better unit:

• supports not just Sprinter and Mercedes but many other vehicles in full diag mode like Ford and Dodge Truck and Honda...
• it looks like the Autel supports graphing of live Sprinter data. The iCarsoft does not graph Sprinter-specific data.
• from the screenshots, it might be more verbose and provide more info (can't tell without having them side-by-side, though).

I would be hard pressed to spend more than I paid for the iCarSoft ($170) if indeed the Autel has the above features as it seems that it could work on all your cars. Heck, the iCarSoft barely does basic OBD2 on my Volvo.

Anyone in the Northern Virginia area with an Autel? Would love to do a side-by-side comparison.

 

[220629]

UPDATE

The seller did contact me and is honoring the lower price. He mentioned that he gets many eBay messages daily and has trouble keeping up. The communication was very professional. I suggest that if you are not in a rush for the icarsoft unit it may be worth waiting to see if the price comes down a bit again. I'm told that there are reasons that the price may be high now, but that it will likely return back to the lower price.

Based mostly upon Seans comments, in the $200 range I feel that it is a good investment to add to my Sprinter tool box. I will be buying the icarsoft scan tool.

vic

Added:
A reminder that there are similar iCarsoft units which will not work as well with the Sprinters.


This is the correct scan tool as I've been able to determine. The seller is very good, just give some time for e-mail response. The price will vary, so if in no rush watch the listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BE...:g:mEAAAOSwhcJWIJUO&item=171917830941&vxp=mtr

 

[stoney500]

If I remember correctly Aqua Puttana mentioned that he purchased a Launch Creader CRP 123 diagnostic tool after he read my posts with the outcome using the same Launch tool. The Launch Creader CRP 123 tool brings up the same Sprinter Models as the iCarsoft 980 MBII from what I have read. ie: 902.6, 903.6, 905,906 etc... Makes me wonder if the software in both the Launch tool and the iCarsoft is the same. The Launch tool can be found for less than $150.00 in some places and comes with one year free upgrades. I upgraded a Launch tool and the database showed 33 different car manufacturers for vehicles from Asia, Europe, U.S. that were manufactured for and sold in the U.S. alone. There are several other upgrades available but I opted not to download them because those vehicles are not sold here. Ex. Chinese, Russian, etc... vehicles.
I am curious to know the findings on comparing these two tools and if one does more than the other as the tool I used was borrowed and I am still looking for a good diagnostic tool.

 

[220629]

If I remember correctly Aqua Puttana mentioned that he purchased a Launch Creader CRP 123 diagnostic tool after he read my posts with the outcome using the same Launch tool. The Launch Creader CRP 123 tool brings up the same Sprinter Models as the iCarsoft 980 MBII from what I have read. ie: 902.6, 903.6, 905,906 etc... Makes me wonder if the software in both the Launch tool and the iCarsoft is the same. The Launch tool can be found for less than $150.00 in some places and comes with one year free upgrades. I upgraded a Launch tool and the database showed 33 different car manufacturers for vehicles from Asia, Europe, U.S. that were manufactured for and sold in the U.S. alone. There are several other upgrades available but I opted not to download them because those vehicles are not sold here. Ex. Chinese, Russian, etc... vehicles.
I am curious to know the findings on comparing these two tools and if one does more than the other as the tool I used was borrowed and I am still looking for a good diagnostic tool.

I agree that the Launch 123 does seem very similar. I did purchase one.

By using a couple other vehicles within the 123 list I was able to access the TCM and some modules, but not when using just my specific Sprinter section.

I never did access the ABS module so for me that was a deal breaker. I returned the unit. The seller accepted it back with no problem.

vic

 

[srmpf]

I sent Matt a note asking about the price increase and the competition from the Autel MD802. I asked if he would drop the price for Sprinter forum members. We'll see.

I have both devices at home. doing a in depth comparison is still on my to do list but in general,

Pros for the Autel: covers more brands and can store real time data.
Pros for the iCarSoft: access to more sprinter modules.

 

[edfrompa]

Got my MB ll from Matt last Sat...3 days from order. Note from Matt with direct contact info..9-5 West Coast. Texted him on Sat...thought I had a problem but did not....quick response that he was avail...text only til Mon morning. Solved problem...read the instructions again so never followed up. Still thought the response was great!

I'm a 2008 2500 so not totally interested in T1N. Should we have an MB ll thread with T1N and NCV3 sub-threads or an MB ll sub thread in both NCV3 and T1N talk.

MANY THANKS to all who have contributed to MB ll info on T1N to date.

 

[220629]

Got my MB ll from Matt last Sat...3 days from order. Note from Matt with direct contact info..9-5 West Coast. Texted him on Sat...thought I had a problem but did not....quick response that he was avail...text only til Mon morning. Solved problem...read the instructions again so never followed up. Still thought the response was great!

I'm a 2008 2500 so not totally interested in T1N. Should we have an MB ll thread with T1N and NCV3 sub-threads or an MB ll sub thread in both NCV3 and T1N talk.

MANY THANKS to all who have contributed to MB ll info on T1N to date.

Matt has been great. I think text works better than eBay messages for him. My iCarsoft is on the way.

I moved the T1N Sticky to Sprinter Talk. That should work for both T1N and NCV3. Thanks for the suggestion.

vic

 

[seans]

It looks like the seller has received more inventory and has reduced his price to $149.95. Also, I'm expanding my write-up to include NCV3 information (I have already retitled it, but it is still in the T1N section.) But I don't own one, so if you have information to provide, please let me know in that thread, and I'll add it. I could really use information about things like the DPF and BlueTek systems, and whether the cross-wind system in the newest models has its own data stream or diagnostics.

 

[220629]

Thanks goes to Ben and Matt.

I had a good chat with Matt at quickshipautoparts about getting a special price for the iCarSoft MB-II for sprinter-source members.

Short answer is YES! He is willing to give this sprinter-source forum a **very** special rate. I promised not to post the price, but it will be better than the original cost (good for you guys, too bad me me!)

To do the deed you must:

(1) have a paypal account,
(2) TEXT him your paypal email address. His number is (570) 262-4806
(3) make sure to ask for the "super special sprinter forum deal"
(4) make sure to thank him, as this is great for us.

Please do not post the price, as this is a special deal just for us. It would be good to keep it this way. It is a better price than most of have gotten so far.

Thanks Matt!

As always, the original post/thread can be accessed by clicking the blue arrow icon within any quote box.

 

[edfrompa]

Just kinda newbie-type question Re: MB II.
Is there any additional advantage or situation where reading OBD 2 would offer an advantage over the Sprinter specific software?

 

[seans]

Just kinda newbie-type question Re: MB II.
Is there any additional advantage or situation where reading OBD 2 would offer an advantage over the Sprinter specific software?

Yes! Passing a smog test!

The OBD-II side of the iCarSoft will show you what the inspector sees for emissions testing - fault codes that need to be fixed, and "readiness", which is whether enough drive cycles have occurred after codes were cleared. (I have two OBD-II readers that do NOT provide me readiness info, so the iCarSoft fills this gap in my toolset.)

So before you go in for your smog check, you'd use the OBD-II side to check for codes and readiness, and if you have codes, use the Sprinter-specific side to get more information to help you resolve them. Very handy!

The Sprinter-specific side alone, and tools like the DAD, can provide many emissions codes that won't be visible to the inspector on the OBD-II side and don't need to be fixed for an emissions inspection. If you're under a smog test deadline, you'd use the results from the OBD-II side to prioritize which on the Sprinter side to address first.

Finally, the iCarSoft provides real time graphs of some of the OBD-II live data, but doesn't do this for Sprinter-specific live data. Not a big issue, but I wrote iCarSoft about this, and they indicated they'd look at it for a future release.

If the question is "is an OBD-II reader enough for diagnosis", my answer would be "no". That's why I have a DAD and an iCarSoft.

The primary reason I wrote the iCarSoft guide is because the device was the first that provided much needed functionality at a price most Sprinter owners could afford. If every Sprinter owner has access to this level of diagnostics, the more we can share codes and information about them. Then the quality of diagnosis in the forum improves, and I'm able to keep my own Sprinter alive longer. After writing the guide, I rediscovered the Autel unit, which has dropped in price, supports more vehicles, and otherwise fills this gap as well.

So it really helps that BenJohnson got the Ebay seller to lower the price for us. And, I think that the price will come down even further over time as more people start distributing the iCarSoft and Autel systems.

Sean

 

[Missouri Blue]

Re: iCarsoft MBII diagnostic tool review

On the central locking system, it will only let you look at the module number, check fault codes, or reset fault codes. It will not allow you to actuate anything. On the heating/air conditioning screen, it will let you view several parameters. I'm attaching pics at the bottom to let you see what it does. You can't modify anything, just view their status.
I'll send another message with some more pics. I can only attach 5 at a time.

I received my ICarsoft MBII from Matt. I can't seem to locate the central locking module. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

[seans]

I received my ICarsoft MBII from Matt. I can't seem to locate the central locking module. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John

One problem could be that if the module is not powered up (fuse blown, for example) it won't respond to a K-line "start communications" message.

When you are going through the menus you reach one that gives you a choice of "Automatic" or "Manual". With "Automatic", the box tries to talk to every possible module. The next screen lists only the modules it finds.

If you select "Manual" the box does not try to talk to every possible module, and you get a list of all modules, whether or not your Sprinter has them installed or whether or not they actually work. I use "manual" if I only want to read one module, I know what it is, and I don't want to wait for the module scan to complete that "Automatic" does. ("Automatic" doesn't take long, though.)

If you select "Manual" you should see the central locking module as one of the many modules that the device can read, if the Sprinter supports it. If you then select it and it doesn't work, the scanner isn't able to start up communications with the module, which means its fuse is blown, it is not otherwise getting power, the K-line to it is messed up somehow (open or shorted or held high or low by another module on the same K-line) or it is fried and cannot respond.

I'm doing this by memory to get you an answer faster. I'll hook my reader up to my Sprinter and if it is significantly different I'll post again.

 

[Missouri Blue]

Wow... What an awesome fast response. Central Locking would not show up when I chose "automatic" but when I chose central locking under "manual" it read and cleared the codes. Now my key works and the lock button works. Thanks.

 

[seans]

@Missouri Blue, glad you found a fix and got it working! What codes were reported that clearing them fixed?

 

[Missouri Blue]

I think B1005 but I'm not sure. The central locking has quit working before due to some "safety parameters" (i.e. a cart hit the bumper in a parking lot). I had this code reset 2+ years ago and within a month or two it had set again making the central locking inoperable. It is nice to have it working again.