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How much for an ECU diagnostic scan?

ealltech

ealltech

Newbie
Hi guys, was just wondering what a reasonable cost for an ECU diagnostic scan would be? My car's check engine light flashes occasionally and I need to get it checked out, however most places I've called have huge price differences. Some places I called charged up to $100 for a (what I gather, a very easy simple job) scan and this isn't even fixing my car yet. The lowest price I managed to get was $70.

Also, if anyone knows of a good mechanic in Los Angeles, preferably in the West, who won't charge an arm and a leg for servicing, feel free to let me know
 
most shops charge around 1hr for the scan.do you have any driveability issues? also what is the make,model,engine etc?if its obd2 you just need a code reader for the generic codes and they are getting pretty cheap.with these you can take note of the code and then erase all codes and see if any come back.if you go this route post back with the code.
 
I'd say the problem is you're asking them to diagnose the problem, so they're giving you quotes off their minimum diagnostic cost. If you're friendly with the local dealer for your make of car, you may be able to get them to check it for free, if it's a relatively easy thing to do. I know with my car it is just a case of plugging in their machine to an easily accessible plug in the drivers foot well, and a local dealer (who I had never actually used before) was nice enough to have one of their techs do a quick check of the codes, and tell me what was wrong.


Other thing you can do is look up details about your make/model of car, as some you are able to short out the diagnostic pins and it may flash a code on your dash, showing you what the problem is.
 
the guy we use charges £25.00 and he can any model of car. however, the issue is with some cars is turning the warning light off once the repair is done and normally only dealers can do that.
 
Just to weigh in a little bit here, I manage a dealership repair facility. My standard diagnosis fee is $115.00. However, what that entails is scanning for the fault code, and tracing down what the cause of the fault code is. All shops differ as far as how they handle this process, but the way we run it is simple; If the customer authorizes the repair, that $115.00 gets applied directly to the total of the repair. You're paying for someone to diagnose, not just scan a fault code and guess. If that makes sense.

Also, being that all of my technicians are 100% commission, it's a safeguard to ensure they don't spend their time working for free, because no one wants to work for free. ;)
 
OBDII has been around since 1994 and made mandatory in the States in 1998.if you do a little research you may be able to get the codes from the ecu and clear them after doing so, of leave it. I've done it with my brothers car years ago ED XR8. The flash codes are on the dash.


just read and read some more till you undersrtand what it is telling you. Or get another place to do it lol...Keep searching for quotes none the less.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll do some googling and see if I can scan it myself without using a OBDII scanner tool.
 
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