Looking to do my own basic maintenance and am perplexed by the array of tools available. Can anyone advise on the most comprehensive diyer tool which would let me carry out basic maintenance on engines and brakes etc. Nothing too expensive. I'm in the UK.

What do you use?

 

Boris, I tend to use 2 different tools and they are the ends of the spectrum. For daily stuff, I use and ELM327 (V2.1) device to attach to my car and then use a free app on an Android phone called "Torque". This allows you to get into the car, see some basic codes (mainly the P codes and some C codes, but you are missing the rest of the C codes, U codes, and B codes) and also look at some live data from the engine. This can make figuring out a problem a lot easier. BUt, you will also find that this is very limited in that it does not do things like resetting the parking brake when you do a brake service (granted, I have a work around for that) or resetting the service light.

The other end of the spectrum is getting the SDD software which is the dealership level software. There are versions of it on the internet for around say $100 USD and you provide a laptop and then you buy a $100 Mongoose Pro cable for a jag and you have the same capability as the dealership. This gives you access to everything. Takes a little bit to learn initially, but once you do, it is a very powerful tool. OF interest, the SDD software has been replaced and it is now going by the name of "PathFinder". This is going to have the software for the newer cars (2016+) but it still retains the necessary stuff for the older cars. I just did a quick look on e-bay and they had copies of the SDD software for under $20 USD. Just make sure that they have unlimited capability. Some will offer the software, but then you have to get a TOPIx account which can get a little spendy to make the software work.