Thread: Diagnostics for freelander 2 2014

Is your FL a diesel or petrol?
Can make a difference as to what you should look at getting, and sometimes holding off and paying a bit more gets you a lot more.

Technically the Autel I have is probably more than I need, but that's not the point. Dunno what the future holds, so I thought better to have now by paying $500 more, than to have to re-purchase again and end up with a thing that ends up not ever being used again.

With modern diesels and their DPFs and additive systems and whatnot, I did wait and get a super duper Autel model(MK906Pro). Wireless(bt) dongle is also a handy feature to have rather than being limited to wired devices.
Don't get me wrong about the Autel, I believe that when it does recognise a vehicles systems, it should work really well. It's just that my 307's specific ECU isn't recognised in Autels' domain. Others are and the Autel would be fantastic to have ... then.

eg. I'm thinking of getting a later model 307 or maybe 308 for the missus, where the Autel will come into it's own then.

With my 307, not being CAN(instead is VAN) system, and the ECU isn't recognised, I couldn't reset the fuel additive system. I could see it by setting another ECU type(Siemens instead of the installed Bosch), I can see all the reset options, etc .. but not being able to actually see my ECU, it doesn't reset anything. ie. it can't communicate back to the ECU.
Body systems and stuff work fine, but I don't (yet) need any of that stuff, as the little Pug, just continues to work fine.

I just connected the Autel to the D2 TD5, and it works up to a point, but can't do as much as the nanocom can. Stuff like operate the BCU functions ... open/close windows, lights on/off ... etc. It can only see if you manually activate this stuff. It reads codes, erases codes, (didn't try) but says it can code keys, set EKA, and all that stuff .. so it does work, but in a more limited way compared to nanocom. It also has live data capture and all that jazz, and also says it can read and rewrite injector codes and so on.

So as a device, I think it is actually quite good .. just like I said, as a company, Autel needs a proper service/support department. Forums are all questions, pretty much all unanswered other than a few that have been via other users.

I think this would be the way to choose what brand you want/need .. go to each brands support area and do a lot of reading on how well their support system works.
(idiot me never thought to look for the Autels' forum for more info like that).

I did quickly search for the FL in my Autels' database, and there are a ton of service items to choose from, and if yours is diesel, it does have options for resetting service settings for DPF.
Compared to the nanocom, far more options in the FL area, than the nanocom has for the D2.
Whether they actually all work, or more specifically would work on YOUR Freelander, I can't say.
But as yours is a more modern(2011?) I'd say it's more likely to operate fully, than not. The issue with mine and the Pug is that the 307 is an '04 model, and not CAN.

So a bit of a note: while you have a particular need now, with the vehicles you currently have, consider what vehicles you may need to delve into in the future too, and hence why I say maybe better to go with a higher end unit.

Another thing to remember(with modern vehicles) is that they all operate via so many embedded ECUs. I recall some folks concern that the new Defender uses so many ECUs for everything. Haha ... All modern cars use ECUs for everything.
The '04 307 does too, and this is kinda' part of the problem. It's just that the specific ECUs I needed to operate on were not recognised. Pretty much all others(doors, audio, accessories, etc) all worked fine. On a later 307(I think 2006 onwards) the Autel would have operated the specific pollution control ECU I needed.

Quickly: I'd refilled the fuel additive pouch in this 307, not realising that it's ECU also needed to be reset to be told it was now full. As the engine ECU isn't recognised, it also wouldn't operate the additive ECU too. If I set the Autel to think it was the 'wrong' ECU brand/model, it would then see the additive ECU, just that it wouldn't reset it. In the end I bought an adapter for a PC, installed the Pugeot software, and finally got to configure it. But it's slow as hell. Make that really, really really slow as hell .. maybe even slower than that too! Really infuriating how slow it all works .. compared to Autel(really fast) and even nanocom(which isn't so fast). And it's all cabled to high heaven. Little windows table battery is dead, so power adapter is needed there, and the Pug specific dongle is all cables and wires, and while they're long enough .. just damned annoying compared to the Autels' bt setup.

So my word of caution with something like the iCarsoft would be: what do you want/need to do? do you intend to keep the FL for a while, and is it diesel. If diesel, then make sure one of the features you will have on it, is that you can force regen the DPF, and/or reset/reconfigure it if it's able to be cleaned, or you ever need to replace it. Just replacing something like the DPF doesnt' work. It's needs to be set in the ECU too.

Originally Posted by disco gazza

Been down with a dose of the flu.

So went and started little beast up and plugged iid in.
This time I'm I'm getting alot more info than what I was when I first plugged it in and did the code.
We'll see how we go now that I have had a little play with it.

cheers DG

Yeah, I looked through the available functions on the FL2 and thought it looked ok...