Member Since: 10 Dec 2009
Location: ESSEX
Posts: 40
Sorry for the dumb question, what is achieved by clearing the faults using this device, does it clear the fault or just clear the memory of the fault. What I think I mean is that if an alarm appears once, will it keep comming back until it is cleard from the memory ??
I have an intermittent suspension fault which keeps comming up and the machanic just used a larger hand held device today to clear all my alarms, but going back next week for a thorough check on the possible route cause.
18th Jan 2010 4:54 pm
Gallen11
Member Since: 14 Apr 2009
Location: S. Florida USA
Posts: 1
Got my units today
Got both units this morning, I use mine on my 08LR3, it worked as advertised. Found all the faults and cleared them. My son will pick his unit up later today for use with his 05LR3. Going to be a great piece of equipment to have in the vehicles.
Tried it out quickly on the car last night. Brilliant piece of kit
8 faults logged in the HEVAC Didn't even know there was anything wrong with my air con. Most seemed to be problems with air blenders and stepper motors WTF
2 faults in the FBH - one failure to start and one low fuel. Cleared them as they weren't caused by anything serious.
Reset them all and didn't notice any difference during the drive to work this morning. Will plug it in at lunchtime and have another play.
Confirmed something I have known since the end of October though ..... my EPB is fecked
BTW, tinneyr, it just clears the fault logged in the control unit's memory, not the fault itself. If said fault is caused by a component failure, it will be logged again. For example, my EPB is not working and I think it may be caused by a broken wire in the electrical system (or possibly, as indicated in the fault log, a knackered switch). Obviously, that's not going to be fixed by clearing the fault with the FCR - the same fault will be immediately logged again during the system test.Now an ex-D3 owner after 7 happy years. Miss the car but not the big bills
19th Jan 2010 9:41 am
tinneyr
Member Since: 10 Dec 2009
Location: ESSEX
Posts: 40
Thanks Abourneboy, since the alarms were cleared on monday I have done about 100 miles and not a peak out her, no suspension fault or idling problems. Will still take it back to the garage for a more thorough check on Monday though.
20th Jan 2010 7:51 pm
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Hiya all
kariylit
Albourneboy has expressed the situation as well as anyone possibly could.
Sure the FCR is VIN locked
But please do not imagine the VIN lock to be restrictive in any way to any private person buying an FCR and reasonably wanting to move it between vehicles as they exchange or trade up as they wish
I would never have included VIN locking without first ensuring it could be easily move from vehicle to vehicle as FCR owners trade and upgrade them.
As i see it an FCR is a personal asset that a person invests in and while at present, to ensure it is used only personally i might have no alternate but to lock it to the VIN of the vehicle they currently own, but i can assure you that should such person change their vehicle, we will most happily provide then with a cheap and easy means to take the FCR they own with them to over their old vehicles replacement.
So please have no concerns about buying an FCR now and how its VIN locking might have anything to do with your options vehicle wise in the future.
22nd Jan 2010 12:31 am
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
@ Albourneboy
I am so glad your little bit FCR of magic has finally arrived with you
As you now know first hand, as opposed to relying on the word of others, it really is quite something huh
Immediately you will notice as a result of using the FCR that your vehicle will have quite a lot of faults listed in the various systems, even if your vehicle works and runs just fine.
The reality is that each and every vehicle nowadays accumulates some sporadic faults during normal running and which can by and large be ignored as day to day momentary bus traffic problems etc. These superflous and meaningless faults do occur however and they do vary from vehicle to vehicle.
It is a factor well known by anyone who regularly looks into the fault listings of particular type of vehicle.
However therin lies a problem and the very reason why i advise anyone to invest in getting their own fault code reading equipment prior to a real fault developing.
It is only after getting to know what is normal with your specific car that anyone can truly spot what is new and abnormal.
22nd Jan 2010 12:58 am
DN D3 Decade
Member Since: 24 Jun 2006
Location: W.London.
Posts: 2317
Got mine yesterday, many thanks Colin really fast shipping I must say, I wasn't expecting it to arrive until next week TBH. Found a few faults logged, but vehicle operating / running fine, so I have made a note of them, cleared them, and will ignore them for now, As you say though, absolutely necessary bit of kit for when a REAL fault occurs. (and now that I've said that, I'll no doubt be inundated with them )
22nd Jan 2010 6:14 pm
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Thanks DN, inundated or not, now you have the power at your disposal to totally sort em out.
And if you don't ever have a problem, think of it as you do car insurance, you hope you will never need that but you spend many times more on that every year, than this little wallet saver.
And at the end of it all with the FCR you can sell it on making the total cost of ownership probably less than one recovery fee.
It's quite understandable how D3 owners quite naturally come to regard the massive amounts of built in self diagnostic technology, designed to detect even the slightest fault and record it forever, given the power to shut things down, go into limp home mode, flash a warning lamp at the driver / owner at the drop of a hat with distain
It's like the Disco 3 is a really great car, when it is running right, but inside each one is a technological demon that strikes fear into every owner and their wallets.
But suddenly you have access to an affordable little tool like the FCR, that now allows you to communicate with your Disco 3, have a bit of a chat, ask how things are on a day to day basis, get to understand the technology and recognize the difference between it just grumbling about the weather as usual, to more serious sounding complaints being noticed. It does not take very long for you to turn that which you once thought of as being a demon, into one of the best and most expert friends you could ever have in respect of keeping your D3 trouble free and tip top at all times.
It's amazing to think that such a vast majority of the technology that is built into the Disco 3 and which is part of its higher than others cost, has only ever benefited the dealer or suitably equipped indies so far.
And sure enough a year ago, those were the only choices.
But here we are and within less than 12 months you now have a sub 200 GBP tool that makes that massive difference between a warning lamp meaning either "brace your cheque book for impact" or "you got mail"
23rd Jan 2010 1:37 pm
MJS
Member Since: 24 Jan 2011
Location: Southampton
Posts: 7
Hi all
I am reading this forum for a long time now because there are very good informations on this forum and you can always find an answer to your question.
I registered because I wanted to have the 10% off option when I buy faultmate FCR for my disco 3.
Because I am a new member I can not send the PM, so I am writing here, especially to Colin:
Can you confirm - Order 1295890278 with Victoria in your admin office from 25.01.2011?
I will really appreciate it.
Martin
31st Jan 2011 10:10 pm
Rotorhead
Member Since: 20 Jun 2010
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 13
Just ordered mine and can't wait after reading this thread. Just need to read the rest of the forum for all the fixes now....
21st Nov 2011 12:48 am
lr-80
Member Since: 19 Jul 2011
Location: Oslo
Posts: 69
Can anyone tell me the differences between the fcr and the hawkeye. Will both direct me to the cause of my intermittent hdc, ABS, epb and adaptive head's light failure? Will the hawkeye clear service indicator?1951 Series One 80" 1600cc Deep Bronze Green
2007 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE Tonga Green
28th Nov 2011 8:43 pm
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Rotorhead, have you got it yet?
Or are you just too busy enjoying it to post up
Hiya lr-80
Quote:
Can anyone tell me the differences between the fcr and the hawkeye.
Although there are a certainly quite a lot of Disco 3 owners with a Faultmate FCR, almost certainly none will also have a Hawkeye. Therefore no one could properly tell you the physical or operational difference.
Therefore if you want to do some pre purchase investigation, you will have to obtain information about each separately.
Fortunately in respect of the FCR, I am the owner of Blackbox Solutions Ltd, and the designer, developer and producer of this. I uniquely make myself publicly available on this forum to personally answer any and all questions and concerns about it.
Of course this also makes me wide open to any complaint or criticism about what we produce and sell, should it ever somehow not satisfy anyone totally or do exactly as promised.
This fact alone should tell you vast amounts about us, and our products.
If you do not know already, you should also appreciate that the FCR is by no means our first and only product and is by no means a work in progress. Our knowledge and understanding of Disco 3 diagnostics is probably second to none, after 15 years of experience producing the very best and most capable equipment there is.
I can therefore tell you that the FCR is childishly simple to use, It is very fast, small, well built and absolutely reliable and dependable. Just what you need in any test equipment.
It does not access just the basic systems, nor read only some fault codes, it will access every single system in your vehicle, regardless of year, version or optionality of systems, IE adaptive headlights . It access absolutely all the vehicle systems on the High speed CAN BUS, the Low speed CAN BUS and even on the Fibre optic MOST BUS.
It also reads absolutely all Fault codes, intermittent, permanent or whatever and displays their meanings as per even the most expensive Dealer equipment but in about a 50th of the time.
So as long as your vehicles problems are being noted by their ECU's and faults are being stored as a result, which is almost certainly the case, it will ultimately aid you in locating the cause of your problems.
Normally such a capable tool would be very expensive, however the FCR is provided at just under 200 GBP, (10% less with an established member discount) by virtue of the fact that it is produced as a personal tool and so can only be used on your own vehicle.
It does not however reset the service indicator.
For this job we produce another little low cost marvel, that again runs rings around anything else available. It's called the CAN MATE SRT (Service Reset tool) it cost less than 45 GBP (discount also applicable) and not only will it reset the service reminder as per dealer equipment, but of course in the blink of an eye, but also allows you to select from 15 other options that give different reset periods etc.
Member Since: 19 Jul 2011
Location: Oslo
Posts: 69
BBS SPY. PM sent.
Truls1951 Series One 80" 1600cc Deep Bronze Green
2007 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE Tonga Green
30th Nov 2011 8:26 pm
Rotorhead
Member Since: 20 Jun 2010
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 13
Hi Colin,
Trust me to choose the cheap postage! Should be here by the weekend though, let the tinkering commence...
30th Nov 2011 10:39 pm
trm
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: brisbane
Posts: 75
Colin, I would like to know if you get a fault mate extreme for my Disco 3, can I use it on the Disco 4 or Range Rover when I am looking at up grading in a year or so?
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Didn't even know there was anything wrong with my air con. Most seemed to be problems with air blenders and stepper motors 
WTF 
really fast shipping I must say, I wasn't expecting it to arrive until next week TBH. Found a few faults logged, but vehicle operating / running fine, so I have made a note of them, cleared them, and will ignore them for now, As you say though, absolutely necessary bit of kit for when a REAL fault occurs. 
)
Just need to read the rest of the forum for all the fixes now.... 
. It access absolutely all the vehicle systems on the High speed CAN BUS, the Low speed CAN BUS and even on the Fibre optic MOST BUS.
