Auto scanner Actron 9580

The actron 9580 auto scanner is an interesting tool and I thought I would provide a quick review of some of the unique features that is offered in this inexpensive scan tool.

I did not buy this unit yet but I am seriously considering it. The local tool man gave me a demonstration of the unit and let me try it on a vehicle. I thought it worked really well and considered it a tremendous value for the price.

But I decided to do some research on it and what I found was not all good. One of the main benefits of the Actron 9580 is it will scan both ABS and regular check engine light codes from 1996 and up.

It turns out that the ABS scanning function will not work on all domestic vehicles and not at all on foreign cars. Since I mostly work on domestic vehicles I thought I would be okay with this.

After checking into it not all domestic vehicles from 1996 and up are covered by this auto scanner. They are not trying to hide the fact that not all vehicles are covered and do provide a coverage chart.

If you want to pull ABS codes make sure your car or truck is on it. Here is a link to the ABS coverage chart. Note: The chart is a PDF file, you can zoom in and magnify the size, and it opens in a new window.

I own several actron auto scanners and have been very happy with the reliability and performance of the units. I also own an equus 3120 and like it as well. It's been several years since I have bought an automotive scanner. The reason I am looking to purchase a new scan tool is because I would like to check for ABS codes on domestic vehicles.

Actron auto scanners

Both of these companies offer products to get that job done. After being able to use the actron 9580 I think what I liked the best about it was the screen and the display. But for do-it-yourself auto mechanics there is an added feature called code connect.

actron 9580 image

This is an extremely interesting breakthrough for driveway mechanics. Basically when the unit is connected and a check engine light code is pulled up the unit can provide common fixes for that failure on that specific vehicle.

Keep in mind that this is not telling you exactly what is wrong with the vehicle it is just telling you what some of the common problems that can cause that trouble code to set. Reading the reviews about the auto scanner some people have complained about the spotty coverage. Since this is a new feature it may improve going forward.

Besides the ability to scan for ABS codes and the unit's ability to provide common solutions to some check engine light codes this auto scanner is much like the rest of the units offered by other manufacturers.

The Actron cp9580 will read and erase check engine light codes and provides a description of what that code means. It is compatible with OBD-II and CAN vehicles 1996 and up.

It will read both OBD-II generic and manufacturer specific codes for many but not all foreign and domestic automobiles. The scanner also provides a Visual indicator when it is communicating with the vehicle which I like. Surprisingly it also has some advanced features like being able to read pending trouble codes.

It also has a snapshot mode which they call freeze frame data capabilities. This allows you to record the data at the time of a fault during a road test. This can be helpful for pain in the neck intermittent problems.

The bad stuff about this scan tool

When I was reading about the CP9580 auto scanner It was mentioned in a forum that the OTC 3111 was the same tool. I am not sure on this. Since the 3111 costs more, I would hope that you get more? OTC has a great reputation among me and my co-workers so I will have to check into this further.

When reading the user reviews I noticed some people were complaining about installing and updating the on-board software. Apparently this is a necessary operation for updating the common fixes that are provided in the handy code connect function.

Since this tool is fairly new it does seem that there may be a few bugs in the connection and upgrading process. At the time of this writing there where only eight reviews and four of them were positive and four were negative.

A couple of the negative ones caught my attention because they were having problems when trying to use a Windows 7 machine to upgrade the auto scanner. When I demoed the unit from the tool man he apparently had already updated the software and therefore I cannot report on any of the difficulties about upgrading the automotive scan tool. I just wanted you to be aware that there may be issues in this respect.

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I currently own three automotive scanning tools that do not check abs codes. I provide more information about them from this next link that covers OBD II only auto scanner reviews.

If you are looking for more information on specific repairs for common codes I have some good material that covers check engine light problems.

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