Abu Dhabi Off-Road Club Forums

This is an old subject , but in the recent days I've noticed that it came to our mobile phone applications beeing able to do a full diagnostic scan, programming to your car with an Iphone or Android platform.
Since all of our cars are computer driven systems, then the concept of hacking these modules such as ECU, transmission, engines... Etc., become easy and affordable.

As an ex owner of a VW touareg I was suffering from the expensive dealer prices also with non proffessional work of some workshops. Hence decided to do the simple repairs and necessary programing myself , thus after lots of research, ended up with buying A Touareg service manual from bentley publisher and A Vag-com diagnostic software which cost around 1000/- dhs. Owners of VW/ Audi/ Porsche for sure they will understand this coz they need to program the car after each part replacement.
When i got more experience with this software it was such an amazing tool to go deep into hidden features of my vehicle, control the ride height, changing transmission shift points, AFR, injection, and many more. Disabling and enabling lots of other features including Video in motion play

With these tools any one can get an updated remapped ecu file and reflash it any time, if you like it keep it and if you dont just get another one and gain hidden Whp from stock setup.

Just wanted to share personal experience with VAG- COM.

One question. How you connect phone to the car?

Hi Alex, Privet.
You need a bluetooth OBD connector/ dongle like ELM or Kiwi bluetooth cost around 100-300 dirhams. And to download any app. To your phone. Plenty of them.
Then you get all data from your car.

I bought the VAG-COM OBD-II cable & Software, it was an old version, but my A6 is 2001 anyway, it did help a lot! A great deal for less than 20USD including shipping..

However, the deep customizations mentioned only apply to VW group (VAG-COM).. Other standard OBD software found on mobile platforms provide only simple readings (such as Torque)... Which is very helpful in diagnostics, not programming..

But, if you are willing to invest you can buy such tools to other cars, such as the CONSULT for Nissan/infinity.. Etc

Another note, Bluetooth ELM327 based modules don't work with iPhones due to API limitations imposed by Apple, if you really need it, there are pricy wifi ones.. Or jailbreak and install a 3rd party Bluetooth stack such as blueshare AFAIR..

I bought a cheap android & bought torque to monitor the temp & other details in the sand..

Having said that, I didn't find VAG-COM apps for mobile, & torque doesn't support it..

Also the ELM327 Bluetooth module didn't work with VAG-COM PC software, it connected but had communication errors during transmission..

akhateeb wrote:I bought the VAG-COM OBD-II cable & Software, it was an old version, but my A6 is 2001 anyway, it did help a lot! A great deal for less than 20USD including shipping..

However, the deep customizations mentioned only apply to VW group (VAG-COM).. Other standard OBD software found on mobile platforms provide only simple readings (such as Torque)... Which is very helpful in diagnostics, not programming..

But, if you are willing to invest you can buy such tools to other cars, such as the CONSULT for Nissan/infinity.. Etc

I Agree with you VCDS is applied to VW Group.
Also durametrics for Porsche..

I wont really use a phone for deep programming, i barley use it for emails .
But i believe that many companies are working on developments of these apps. But it is still useful as handy tool any time..
I still use the direct OBD-II scanner autolink for my jeep diagnostics.
For Nissan i still use the turning key on-off method to diagnose fault codes, reset throttle and pedal, reset adaptive memory.

It is always better to use PC for deep programming.

akhateeb wrote:Another note, Bluetooth ELM327 based modules don't work with iPhones due to API limitations imposed by Apple, if you really need it, there are pricy wifi ones.. Or jailbreak and install a 3rd party Bluetooth stack such as blueshare AFAIR..

I bought a cheap android & bought torque to monitor the temp & other details in the sand..

Having said that, I didn't find VAG-COM apps for mobile, & torque doesn't support it..

Also the ELM327 Bluetooth module didn't work with VAG-COM PC software, it connected but had communication errors during transmission..

I believe motorsports have their OT-2 iphone based complete package.

I read recently about a dongle from AutoAide which support both platforms and you can use it for google maps as well.

VAG-COM use high speed thats why it wont work properly with bluetooth.

The ultimate hack / diagnostic / scan / log / tuning packages for US cars would be e.g. EFIlife and VCM suite from HPTuner.

With a wideband O2 and the pro versions and some qualified learning everybody can explore the tuning shores

unreal ...

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SSS wrote:The ultimate hack / diagnostic / scan / log / tuning packages for US cars would be e.g. EFIlife and VCM suite from HPTuner.

With a wideband O2 and the pro versions and some qualified learning everybody can explore the tuning shores

unreal ...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

Agreed, You will need a wideband 02 sensor for a quality tune. Also, you will need a programmer and not only OBD2 logger.

SSS wrote:The ultimate hack / diagnostic / scan / log / tuning packages for US cars would be e.g. EFIlife and VCM suite from HPTuner.

With a wideband O2 and the pro versions and some qualified learning everybody can explore the tuning shores

unreal ...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

This is what many people they don't realize when they tune their cars with programmers only, but physical limitations trigger their problems; ( un experienced workshops). and start to do everything again and waste lots of efforts and money.

agree 100%