U281 Diagnostic Tool

[Ianboom]

Hi, can anyone help??

I set the airbag warning light off, on my '56' plate Passat by removing the 'passenger air bag off' lamp when i removed the radio bezel to fit my hands free kit.

I bought a Memoscan U281 (can protocol) to read and reset the light. It reads the engine ecu (no faults) but comes up 'Linking error' on any other menu (airbag and abs). The manual says there is a link problem (really useful), I've e-mailed the manufacturers in China but had no reply. The guy who sold it is contacting his supplier, but I don't hold much help!

Any ideas, or has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks, Ian.

[zollaf]

looking on ebay, i can only find a u381, which according to the literature will only read the engine codes.

[Ianboom]

This is the one i bought, item number 250402756778.

I met an ex-colleague who has a company 1.9se diesel Passat that is a 2007 model. I plugged in the scanner and had the same results! So I'm pretty sure it's not the car.

I then discovered a local independant who cleared the fault for £10-as i thought, it was caused by me disconnecting the 'passenger air bag off' lamp and turning the ignition on!

I still want to see what's wrong with the reader though as it may come in useful in the future.

Ian.

[martin1810]

I think you wll find that your hand held can only read the engine ecu. That's why so many of them are useless as diagnostic tools.

[Ianboom]

I tend to agree with you, but it's advertised by the manufacturer and retailers as reads and erases fault codes including air bags; http://www.memoscan.cn/en/showproducts.asp?Cid=7

Now the warning light is off, I'm going to hassle the manufacturers etc to find out why it's advertised to work but doesn't.

Anybody else got one of these?

Has anyone bought a hand held device that erases the other fault codes like abs and airbag?

Ian.

[Ianboom]

Finally got a reply from the manufacturer and they said the U281 doesn't work with a Diesel!
I explained that the only difference betwwen petrol and diesel is the ECU and the the airbag etc are the same, the tech guy replied he doesn't know?!?!

I've threatened them with trading standards and they just send e-mails that are unreadable!

Watch this space.......

[johnsto34]

IanBoom,

did you ever get this to work? i got one of these U281 from ebay and it doesnt work. Keeps saying "Linking Error!" is that what you get? did you get around this? Cheers

[Ianboom]

IanBoom,

did you ever get this to work? i got one of these U281 from ebay and it doesnt work. Keeps saying "Linking Error!" is that what you get? did you get around this? Cheers

I only got it to work with the engine ECU whch came up no errors.
Yes, i kept getting 'linking error' when I attempted to connect to the air bag or abs etc.
I couldn't get aorund this, and took the car to an independant who cleared the fault for £10.

I keep e-mailing the manufacturer but when I get a reply (that is legible-they keep sending me e-mails that look like they're written in Egyptian!)
they fob me off. It's really annoying-i've threatened the trade description act, but it only applies to the shop you've bought the U281 off, and it's not their fault the scanner doesn't work!

I'm working with trading standards next week, so I'll ask them what can be done, but I don't hold out much hope! Bloody annoying they can sell and advertise something that doesn't work.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, pass them on.

Regards, Ian.

[vTek]

Have you tried updating the software from their site? I have vag5053 which didn't reset oil service light when first bought It,s so rang memoscan.cn and the guy told me to do the software update from their site. After that it worked perfectly.

[Ianboom]

I'm not aware that the bit of kit I have is upgradeable.

To be honest, I bombarded the manufactureer with E-mails and got no more replys-oddly I've been getting a load of spam E-mails on the account I used to contact them on!

It's about time I hassled them again.

Ian.