Vagcom

[Jordy85]

Ive just bought an Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TDi and im interested in buying the vag com software as Ive been told its a good programme. I have no idea how or what it actually does, any information would be greatly appreciated, any ideas on tuning also would be welcomed,

cheers

[martin1810]

It's explained in detail on ross-tech site. You can download the manual from them before you buy.

[VeDubDan]

I've noticed loads of cables on eBay for like £8 - and a lite version of the ross tech software is avail to download. What the deal with that then? Any good?

Dan

[Guest 2]

I've noticed loads of cables on eBay for like £8 - and a lite version of the ross tech software is avail to download. What the deal with that then? Any good?

Dan

They are fake cables made by people in china. They are often provided with cracked/hacked versions ofthe real thing.

Far better buying genuine from one of the authorised suppliers in the UK. You will also get full support with the genuine article.

Fakes aren't worth the plastic they're made from. Buy genuine, its expensive but worth it.

[martin1810]

The ebay cables are not all fakes. They work fine with VCDS lite on VW up to about 2005 cars. Just buy one from someone with lots of good feedback. Make sure it will come with a disc that has drivers for the cable and VCDS lite. That way it is just plug and play.
There are no official VCDS lite cables, just different quality cables and suppliers.
I would recommenf gendan. Slightly dearer than ebay, but very helpful.

[bearthebruce]

Ive just bought an Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TDi and im interested in buying the vag com software as Ive been told its a good programme. I have no idea how or what it actually does, any information would be greatly appreciated, any ideas on tuning also would be welcomed,

cheers

What year is this Audi? VCDS-Lite and the cables for it only work up to model year 2005 on an Audi A4. If newer, you need a full HEX style interface from Ross-Tech to communicate to all systems. Much of the B7 A4 modules are on the old K-Lines for diagnostics and the rest on on CAN.

Martin is correct. Not all eBay wires are illegal copies of our product. Those that claim compatibility with VAG-COM 409 or VCDS-Lite are legitimate dual K style interfaces. Any wire that claims to be compatible with VAG-COM 5xx and higher or with VCDS are illegal copies of our registered trademarked software products. They are cheap because the suppliers do no work. All the work is done by Ross-Tech. We research and find the answers for your ride - not the eBay thieves.

[VeDubDan]

I see what you're saying an it does make sense, but £250 is alot of money for something I'll only use a handful of times.

Only really interested in it to have a look at what I would have access to. I don't have any specific requests of what I'm wanting to look at.

I'm not mechnical at all but I do work in software development (hense my interest being more a geeky requirement)

Is there benefits to buying it for a novice?

[bearthebruce]

Is there benefit - well again, if you could answer what module year your car is, I could give a proper answer.

Benefit is in the eyes of the owner. VCDS is recognized the world over as a tool which helps people maintain their cars. If you do not do your own repairs, then it may not be the best choice for you. If you want to diddle with the bits and see what you can change in the standard factory coding of the modules in your car, then VCDS may have benefit.

My suggestion to you is to ask someone on this forum to show you what they use the product to do. If you see benefit and value as they do, then the matter just comes down to which style of our product should you buy. If you don't see the value, you buy the bloke a beer and thank him for his time and move on.

Those who have seen benefit write often, "The best bit of kit I have ever had for my car". But, will you see that value and benefit?

One last point, if your car is older than 2005, you can use the VCDS-Lite product and run it in shareware mode for FREE! You will have to buy a VCDS-Lite compatible KKL wire. Our distributor Gendan sells these as others in this thread have indicated. Their price yesterday was £20....

[VeDubDan]

I do intend on doing my own bits to the car so going forward , hopefully, that will change and I will learn to maintain the car myself.

I'm in the Bolton area so if anyone reading this thread fancies demoing the product, I would love to see it. And yes, defo a beer for their time.

My car is 56 Reg.

Thanks for taking the time to reply

Dan

[bearthebruce]

56 Reg means nothing to someone from the US - please what year is the car? or give me the 7 & 8 characters in the VIN. Then I will absolutely know what car you have.

[Sam]

56 reg is MY 2006.5

[VeDubDan]

my apologies - I didn't realise you were in the US.

My car was produced 2006 - I got the car Sept 2006 new.

[bearthebruce]

That being the case, you need a full HEX+CAN style interface - sells for $349USD with $45ish in shipping and another $45 ish in the Queen's levy. You cannot use the VCDS-Lite product. It does not support your A4.

I suggest that you go the route of asking for someone to show you what VCDS can do for you. Then decide if the value is right.

We have 5 distributors in the UK. Check our Distributor (http://www.ross-tech.com/distributors.html) page.

Good luck with your decisions.

(Thanks for the clarification Sam. Do all the plates work this way? If someone says a 53reg does that mean it is a 2005 model and was released in March?)

[VeDubDan]

The reg plate in the UK seem confusing but they're really not.

2 new registration numbers are released each year. March/September. The reg released in Sept is prefixed with a 5 and the reg in March is a 0.

It goes like this

March September
2001 01 51
2002 02 52
2003 03 53
2004 04 54
2005 05 55
2006 06 56
2007 07 57
2008 08 58
2009 09 59
2010 10 60
2011 11 (just come out) 61
2012 12 62
2013 13 63
2014 14 64
2015 15 65


you get the idea - the number just increment by 1.

Hope i'm right with that!! ;)

[bearthebruce]

Dan, that is a great help to those of us on this side of the pond! I now will know to what you guys refer! Thank you for that. We used to have Brit in our office who could help us with these - we thought it was more mysterious! He would always stop and ponder a few before he told us what model year! We thought there was "magic" in these numbers!

[Sam]

(Thanks for the clarification Sam. Do all the plates work this way? If someone says a 53reg does that mean it is a 2005 model and was released in March?)

Sadly not Bruce.

What Dan says is right;


The reg plate in the UK seem confusing but they're really not.

2 new registration numbers are released each year. March/September. The reg released in Sept is prefixed with a 5 and the reg in March is a 0.

If you have a spare 30 mins (ha!) have a look at the Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_car_number_plates).

The latest system is the worst of the lot and wasn't thought through properly at all.

[bearthebruce]

Sam, now I feel like a total moron! Why didn't I think to google reg plates in the UK? Dooh! Thanks for that link. I will book mark it and hopefully I will no longer have to ask - what model year. Thanks for the help.

We're way off topic on this thread now! Maybe we should collect this reg stuff into a new thread? I leave that to you moderators.

Again, my thanks for helping me understand. And thanks too for all the support you give to Ross-Tech and VCDS.

[VeDubDan]

Bruce - even people in the UK don't understand this sometimes.

I'm pretty sure even yesterday people would see a shiny new car and say

"See I told it was 11 this time round!!"

or

"11?!?! Well I never expected that!!"