Right now I have an 83 VW Vanagon and a 91 Volvo 240, so you know I don't shy away from working on my own cars. I'm currently looking at a 2002 Discovery II to replace the Vanagon, which is our current camper, so I can have a vehicle which will pull a travel trailer for my growing family. The vehicle will not be a daily driver, but probably a weekly driver.

My question / concern is this. My current vehicles don't need a computer to be able to fix anything on them. The Vanagon doesn't even have OBD. How prevalent is the use of Rovacom or Nanocom when doing a repair? Rovers seem to need these electronic specialty tools instead of just a simple OBDII reader/resetter.

I've worked with VAGCom before for my 2003TDI, but it was with my neighbor who is a VW Mechanic and it was only used for performance tuning. Anything else all I needed was a OBDII reader.

 

A nanocom would be nice to have, but if you've already got an OBDII scanner, you can probably get by without it. If you plan on getting an ultragauge, and an ABS amigo, then nanocom might be a good upgrade to those two.

The nanocom will do cool things like programming key fobs, changing settings in the BCU like whether all of the door look at as you start driving, it can resync computers if you have to replace one, etc. So if you have the $400-500 to spare, it's probably a good purchase.

 

I've got a Bluetooth reader ELM327 and use the iphone app Rev. Not the best unit I've used, but works. Then ELM327 doesn't specifically list any Land Rovers it's compatible with and I heard a lot of talk about needing specialized electronics. But, if any OBD2 scanner will work, I'll stick with it. Thanks for the advice.

 

Any obd2 scanner should work with basic engine stuff. You'll need something fancier for ABS, airbags, body, transmission, that kind of stuff.

Just don't trust what the scanner says in text for what the code numbers mean... especially the P1 codes... those and manufacturer specific. Look them up here or in the Rave manual. The p0 codes should be standard.