[turbofalcon]

Hey. I haven't been here for about 16 years. I'm wondering if this website is still relatively active, and if I can get some help. I remember that people used to talk about hooking laptops to their cars. I've got a 1999 4Runner that's giving me problems and I could use some help figuring out how to diagnose it using live data.

1. Approximately what does it cost to get a shop to run live data?

2. Can live data be saved and stored on a thumb drive or computer (I'm thinking as comma-separated values (CSV) spreadsheet files, that could then be charted)?

3. Can you get an OBDII-to-USB cable and download data to a desktop or laptop computer?

4. What are the basics of using an inexpensive live data "dongle"?

[TurboRay]

.
Virtually any 96 or newer vehicle that I'm aware of can be scanned with an OBD2 scanner. They range in price from $30-ish to the "moon" (Snap-on, etc.) and most - except possibly the cheapest "code readers" - will display live data. Whether or not that data can be saved &/or imported onto a laptop probably depends on the scanner.

BTW ~ As you're probably well aware...... this site is dedicated primarily to the discussion of cars powered by turbocharged Ford "Lima" engines. For discussion &/or help with a 4-Runner, I suggest becoming a member of the many various Toyota forums and inquiring of their members.  <shrug>

[turbofalcon]

.BTW ~ As you're probably well aware...... this site is dedicated primarily to the discussion of cars powered by turbocharged Ford "Lima" engines. For discussion &/or help with a 4-Runner, I suggest becoming a member of the many various Toyota forums and inquiring of their members.  <shrug>

Hey Ray. I haven't had much luck with 4Runner and Tacoma forums lately. That's why I asked here, and in the off-topic forum.

[65ShelbyClone]

I haven't had great results with the Tacoma/4Runner forums either as far as anyone having a deep understanding of how the Toyota ECUs work or anything about reverse-engineering them. The best I could ever do was dig up some incomplete information on a very old and obscure Japanese website that may be defunct by now. It was a guy that hacked ECUs kind of as a hobby/supplemental income.

What I have is a cheap bluetooth OBD2-to-Bluetooth dongle with the Torque Android app for doing basic things like seeing sensor values and clearing codes. I'll warn you though; the cheap dongles have generally poor read speeds and datalogging is up to the software you have which probably won't be free.