Thread: Faultmate or Hawkeye

Why thank you RR P38

Sadly, it is indeed pretty unusual for the actual owner of a company that supplies equipment of this nature to make themselves so accessible and open as much to praise as criticism as i do. But when you have nothing to hide, and are genuinely doing the best you can to provide a product you truly believe is good value for money, then why not?

I am truly glad to be here to help point anyone to any relevant information or answer even the most pointy of pre purchase questions.

Yep,next month when my puma arrives I'll be looking up Blackbox me thinks. Pat

Hi Colin... thinking about getting the Faultmate for the D3 and was wondering if it is usable also on the '98 Disco 300TDi? I've found this thread from a search so apologise if you've answered this before.

I'm not sure if I have read correctly, but would I really need to spend another $900AU or so to use the Faultmate on two of my vehicles?

Thanks for any help.

No worries Mully
Glad to be of help in straightening out any confusion and answering any questions

The MSV-2 can certainly be used on both the D3 and 98 Disco but what you have to appreciate is that connectivity wise these two are worlds apart, and to cover both requires you to purchase all the right hardware.

Before CAN BUS based vehicles like the D3 were introduced in about 2005, Land Rovers vehicle systems were connected to quite a variety of pins on the the OBDII connector and even earlier vehicles had their own odd connectors. In order to route connectivity to the right pins ect, we created an external (to our vehicle server and fitted in line) Vehicle Communications interface we called VCI1.

You would plug this into our vehicle server and than add the relevant lead to it's output connector.

Later on, after 2005, in order to add CAN BUS connectivity we created a lead that could be added to the VCI1 with an OBDII plug that housed conversion electronics we called the VCI2. We made this lead so it could also be directly plugged into a server without a VCI1.

With the later MSV-2 server the VCI1 was moved into the server as an option.

So if you want to cover the 98 disco, you will need to get an MSV-2 server with a built in VCI1 and any relevant leads.
The optional VCI1 and relevant leads are however not very expensive.

Nor is the software licenses to also cover these earlier vehicle systems.

Faulmate MSV-2 Extreme (with VCI1) and licences/leads for Disco 3 and Freelander 1 are on their way to Mully... plus the Hard Range "value adds" - VS extension cable, AC adapter, USB-Serial adapter, and the obligatory "Harden Up" sticker

After speaking with Mully, I don't think he has any ECU's in the 300tdi Disco 1... no alarm, no cruise, no ABS/TC. If he finds an ECU later, easy enough to add a licence then.

Cheers, Paul.

Gotta say that Paul was a gun with his help. If you are thinking about one of these things, talk to Paul.. if you live in Oz, do not pass Go! Thanks a bunch again Paul.

The support from Colin here also cannot be overlooked. Very good support.

Being so impressed with the support for this product... now I just have to learn how to press the right buttons to get the info I want.

It's early days but it would be great to see some more video tutes on YouTube etc and feedback about what is normal to see etc because there is a lot of codes reported and the more I do homework, the more I find that lost comms (for example) are quite normal on some of the busses... no wonder there are so many faults.

Another thing to watch out for was the flat battery after nearly an hour of 'playing' around with the motor off and the diagnostics all up and running.

To stay on topic, I can recommend the Faultmate if you are after every bit of diagnostic info from your ride. IT is quite comprehensive and there is clearly a lot of work gone into it.

Thanks Paul & Colin.

Many thanks for the kind words Mully.

If you haven't checked it out already, BBS have a very good support forum that you can access through your logon to their site, using the username and password you set up when you registered your MSV-2.

The support forum is my usual first port of call when trying to find more info about my own MSV-2 and on behalf of customers.

Cheers
Paul.

Can the faultmate talk with a 2001 Freelander v6? I currently have a hawkeye.