Here I introduce you a professional VAG car scanner: XTOOL VAG401 VAG Auto Scanner. I used it to read& clear airbag fault codes and do some customized settings for my 2008 VW Jetta. For me it worked same as VCDS!
My experience with XTOOL VAG401 and review:
I could not afford VAG-COM and their million dollar cables, so I decided to purchase XTOOL VAG401 and it was able to accomplish the following on a 2008 VW Jetta:
- Clear airbag fault
- Disable DRL (as the only way to disable DRL properly on a MKV model is by modifying the code)
- Disable cold lamp checks
- Remote window roll up/down
- Glove box aux console enable
- Fog light coding
I purchased XTOOL VAG401 directly from XTOOLESHOP $55 free shipping. This is link if you need:
https://www.xtooleshop.com/wholesale/xtool-vag401-vw-audi-seat-skoda-scanner.html
It seems that this little machine is capable of doing everything that VCDS has to offer as long as you know what you’re doing, but cannot speak on behalf of other functions as I did not try anything besides the mentioned above.
The coding part can be a little bit tricky as this machine only display the long codes in HEX’es and do not have the nifty helper as in VCDS, but if you know exactly which byte and bits to modify, you can do the calculation yourself and enter the appropriate hexadecimals and it will accomplish what was intended.
But you need to understand EXACTLY what you are trying to do with the coding before you jump into the coding with this. I’ve read testimonials online that few wrong codes can send the ECU to heaven.
Overall, XTOOL VAG401 is a wonderful machine at fraction of the cost of a Ross Tech cable!
This tool can be your best friend IF you are little more than just being tech savvy, and have some knowledge of binaries and hexadecimals (if you are trying modify the coding of your vehicle).
And if you are willing to invest some time in searching which byte of which section enables which function, you should be able to perform exact same modification that you can do with VCDS!