05 A3 - Which VAG COM?

[gav00]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and have just signed up.

I'm after some advice regarding VAG COM for my 05 plate A3. I've been reading around but cant figure out which cable I need and why some kits seem to cost upwards of £300 and others are 99p on e-bay?? Why such a massive difference?

Is there an idiots guide to VAG COM somewhere on this forum?

Apologies for the daft questions, I'm sure you regulars get them all the time...

Thanks in advance,

Gav

[quattrotdi]

Gav00

You'll need a HEX CAN USB one. Genuine cable is best from ross-tech.com or one of their suppliers in the uk. about £270.

There are alternatives, such as a clone cable, about £80 from vag diagnostics ltd in the uk. The chinese ebay clones are best avoided and are much cheaper.

You NEED the CAN one for it to work properly.

The ones on ebay that are a tenna are for older cars and are usually chinese copies that you cannot update the software on.

hope this helps.

quattrotdi

[gav00]

Nice one! Cheers quattrotdi

Gav

[PetrolDave]

You NEED the CAN one for it to work properly.

2nd that.

The 8P A3 uses only the CAN bus for diagnostics and doesn't have the old style serial connection at all.

[Sebastian]

Directly on the first VAG-COM/VCDS page in our online shop system you'll find the US & Canada Application Charts for information regarding which interface will work with your north American model and the typical modules supported. Additionally there is the VCDS World Spec Compatibility Charts for all non-US models.

That should give you straight answers what systems support which models and which are best for your specific vehicle. However, to sum things up - if you want to be ready for your future VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda models and be able to work on other cars than your Audi A3 (8P) the HEX+CAN systems will be optimal. If its just your Audi A3 (8P) you plan working on, than the Micro-CAN systems will do the trick.