I noticed these on flea bay recently all being sold from china at around £70 to £80. They come with a cracked version of JLR SDD (mine came with version 1.41) and include all the config files. Access to Topix is not needed.

They are a clone of SPX I VIEW, similar to VCM and as I have had already tried a cloned Mongoose lead with a cracked version of JLR SDD with reasonable success, I thought I take a punt on one of these.

The packet arrived 6 days after ordering with no import duties to pay as the seller had labelled it as a gift and a value of $10. The box included 4 discs to setup the JLR SDD software and a further disc for the drivers.

I set it up on a virtual machine image of Windows XP and to my surprise, installed the software and drivers 1st time with no errors. I plugged in the VXDIAG which was recognised straight away and then started JLR SDD which also recognised the lead. Great start I thought, lets plug it into the car!

Oh dear, it turned out a total disaster. Despite many attempts, It will not auto read the VIN. I manually entered the VIN which worked, but it then took for ever to get to the main menu screen. I started a diagnostic session and had to wait about 15 minutes for it to finish scanning the modules. Once finished it could only see 2 out of the 15 or so modules fitted to the car (My cloned Mongoose lead can see 13 out of the 15 modules). I tried several times but had no further success.

I reinstalled the software again on a new virtual image and had the same problems again. I know cloned leads and dodgy software can be flakey at the best of times and different computers may give different results but from my experience, I cannot recommend this lead at all.

P.S.

Whilst on the subject of scanners, I bought a icarsoft i930 last year which was also total rubbish. I have recently bought a Foxwell NT510 Jaguar Land Rover hand held scanner and it's quite good. It can see all the modules, read all the faults of every module and show live data etc. The only problem was on a couple of modules, it cant clear the faults and before you all ask, yes I have more money than sense !

 

I had heard that SDD and VM just don't play nice together - I have an old beater of a laptop which is just used and available for garage duty...my Mangoose blew itself up (without taking my Land Rover with it) so I may look at this for the Jag. I've heard that the GAP Diagnostic folks behind the very trusted IID Tool for Land Rovers are working on a Jaguar version and if they do, I think it will do very well. Fingers crossed....

 

Sounds good but the real McCoy stuff is out of my price range.

 

I have a Grandson's 1996 Land Rover with issues beyond P0xxx that I am having problems with. Unfortunately, we bought this vehicle on my recommendation since I was a Jaguar expert (ha!). Specifically the ABS and P1317. While I have the RAVE manual there is limited information on resolution unless you have the full scan capability of one of the factory systems.

Anything you find appropriate for an one car repair shop would be appreciated. Better yet if it read the Jaguar extended code sets also. Then it would be a two car garage.

 

As I said above, the Foxwell NT510 Jaguar Landrover scanner is quite good. It reads all the manufacturer modules and codes. You can get them on ebay from china with free shipping to the U.S.A for around $165.

 

I had heard the VCX Nano was garbage, no surprises there then...

I picked up an i930 the other week, so far it also appears to be a p.o.s. says that it's unable to comminicate with half the modules in my XJR, but IDS/SDD with genuine VCM talks fine with them all...

Foxwell NT510 looks interesting, wish i'd known about it before buying the i930...

 

Yes, me too! The Foxwell NT510 is more than adequate for most home mechanics.

After playing around with it, the pros are:-

Its fast, convenient to use and can even show live data in a graph mode. It can see all the modules (although it can't communicate with my L/H headlight, however nothing else can either). I first used it in anger last month to monitor the transmission fluid temperature when changing the old oil.

The cons are:-

It's not able to program our modules (although it can on Land Rovers) or keys etc and the screen display is not as bright or clear as the icarsoft i930.

If you need something just for reading and clearing codes from all the modules and diagnosis from live data, this seems to fit the bill. I just found out that at extra cost, you can download four further different marques onto it making it handy for a semi professional.

 

You must have spent about the same as buying a genuine Drew Tech Mongoose.

Graham

 

Your right. I hadn't thought about that. I seem to be doing it by a series of elimination hoping that sooner or later, I will find a "made in china" device that actually works. Still it's only money.

 

On a semi-related note, can it reset the transmission adaptations on a 6HP26? That is supposed to be a set of driving instructions to exercise all gears under various conditions. Once the fluid is changed, in case the shifts are still a bit harsh, this reset procedure is supposed to smooth things out. Thanks for any input.

 

I'm not sure. I have lent it to my next door neighbour to check his Land Rover so I will get back to you. I used my cloned mongoose lead with JLR SDD to reset the transmission adaptations.

 

@DandyAndy Did you buy your NT510 from a seller in China? If so did you manage to get it without paying any duty etc? Just trying to work out best way to buy one.

 

If you have a minute, can you share some of the details about that particular combination of tools? Is this considered "it" in terms of covering every aspect of our cars control modules, i.e. is this a tool a dealer would use?

 

No, I got from Gendan in the UK. However my VXDIAG VCX Nano Jaguar Land Rover diagnostic scanner came from an ebayer seller in China and was labelled as a gift, max value $10 so no duty was payable.

 

@ frmetz

Ok, this gets complicated and long winded. The correct tool (mongoose lead) to use is made by Drew Industries in the USA and retails for around $500 - $600. You the need to download the latest JLR SDD software but the catch is you need to have a very expensive subscription to Topix to get the necessary config files. This is basically what main dealers use.

To get round this, clone leads are readily available from ebay for around $100 and to avoid subscription problems, use an older version of JLR SDD that comes with all the necessary config files built in, no downloads needed. Now the fun begins and gets complicated.

It has to run on Windows XP, anything newer won't work. I set up a windows XP virtual image on my modern Dell laptop and although JLR SDD installed fine, it could not see the cloned mongoose lead when plugged in. After much frustration, head scratching and Googling, the problem seemed to be related to USB 3 ports on my laptop that's not compatible with Windows XP.

If you're still with me this far, I used my old, antique Toshiba laptop running XP, installed the software and the lead connected with no problems. You have to put the laptops date back to 2012 or else it will come up with an error saying your files are out of date. Also your internet needs to be off to stop anything trying to update itself.

You can do nearly everything a dealer can do except programming keys (as far as I'm aware). It will let you reset the transmission adaptations and even turn on and off dealer options such as chirping when locking and unlocking.
I turned off the break window sensor as every time the weather turns stormy, the alarm goes off.

A big word of advise is DO NOT TRY TO RE-PROGRAM MODULES !!!!! On your head be it!

I tried to update the ECM to the latest version and bricked it. The car was totally dead. It cost me £150 for an identical second hand ECM and £200 for a local indy to come to me and reprogram every thing back. You have been warned.

Also the JLR SDD software is not very user friendly, it takes awhile to learn how to use. Hope that's all crystal clear now!

 

@fmertz

To answer your question, no. Just got the Foxwell scanner back from the neighbour and connected it to the car. It does not have the function to reset the adaptations. It does not have any programming functions for our XK8's or XKR's but seems to be able to program many things on my neighbours Land Rover Discovery!

 

Dandy Andy,

Are you saying to go for the Mongoose lead instead of the VXDIAG VCX NANO Diagnostic to get the job done?

 

So your saying that the clone mongoose lead will work fine with the cloned JLR SDD software with the config files ?

Is there a major difference between the clone and the original Mongoose lead that you would notice?

Will the original mongoose lead work the cloned JLR SDD software?

Any help for the above would be much appreciated as I'm not a pro at this

Thanks

 

I can confirm this scanner is a piece of useless Chinese junk, sold for £90 in the UK by cowboy outfit called Bavarian Dominator it wouldn't connect with my xk8 ECU.
When contacted by e mail(no phone number on their website) I was contacted by the manufacturer who stated that I had the latest software and so there nothing further they could do to rectify the situation.
No reply from the retailer when I asked for a refund, so I can only conclude that they are used to having problems with this scanner, so I would avoid buying this rubbish!