STAR or iCarsoft MB xx

STAR or iCarsoft

  • STAR

  • iCarsoft


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Botus

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if you bought STAR..... how up to date is it. I can download today for free every firmware for any BMW cars or bikes from the last 15 years exactly the same LATEST files at BM in germany. That's around 300gigs worth of data.

A £400 copy of star gets me what? a few modules files from 2006 and a pikey update cd for 2008 or ?
 

LostKiwi

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if you bought STAR..... how up to date is it. I can download today for free every firmware for any BMW cars or bikes from the last 15 years exactly the same LATEST files at BM in germany. That's around 300gigs worth of data.

A £400 copy of star gets me what? a few modules files from 2006 and a pikey update cd for 2008 or ?
And the relevance to the question asked is...?
 

Botus

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what do you get for your money?

is it a 10 year out of date set up that's great if you have a 2006 car.... or is it bang up to date and thus able to fully diagnose all Mercedes cars from 2002 to 2017 and say able to apply firmware updates to the head unit and DAB system on anything up to a 2016 model year car?
 

LostKiwi

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'93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
what do you get for your money?

is it a 10 year out of date set up that's great if you have a 2006 car.... or is it bang up to date and thus able to fully diagnose all Mercedes cars from 2002 to 2017 and say able to apply firmware updates to the head unit and DAB system on anything up to a 2016 model year car?
Depends on the supplier but most offer latest version of software if you look.
 

Submariner1

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It was on sale here on the forum, I got in early and Bob sold me the kit for £300 so more than happy with the price.

I would call that a steal :):)
Very worthwhile.
I am not knocking the iCarsoft because at £140 its still useful value, but its a bit irksome when little things that have a habit of being problematic are not supported, eg I tried looking up the pse pump and one cant.

In your case at £300 that makes the difference in price about 2 trips to have a Star reading! Definitely you are onto a winner.
Very pleased for you.
 
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V6Matty

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I would call that a steal :):)
Very worthwhile.
I am not knocking the iCarsoft because at £140 its still useful value, but its a bit irksome when little things that have a habit of being problematic are not supported, eg I tried looking up the pse pump and one cant.

In your case at £300 that makes the difference in price about 2 trips to have a Star reading! Definitely you are onto a winner.
Very pleased for you.
Very much so Sub, when Bob said the orice he was looking for I had to have it. I think if this hadn't come up for sale I'd have bought an iCarsoft, their a good price point and cover just enough to be useful but nothing compared to STAR as I'm finding out,
 

Submariner1

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Very much so Sub, when Bob said the orice he was looking for I had to have it. I think if this hadn't come up for sale I'd have bought an iCarsoft, their a good price point and cover just enough to be useful but nothing compared to STAR as I'm finding out,
Defintely a case if more is more
Ergo
I would need a trip to find out if it is the pse pump, and not a valve or split hose, and then if fitting myself, another Star session to configure the pump.
Bingo that plus a MBV2 will be what you paid for it!

My only reluctance to go Star is I am a bit scared I could change something with Star and get a horrible result! Due to an addmitted total lack of knowledge.

The MBV2 does fit in with my long term plan i.e. to buy a 3 to 4 year old ultra low mileage CL63 or SL63 with a Dealer 2 year AMG warranty ... then its more a verification of what could be wrong ... or mainly a routine scan to make sure anything broken is fixed under warranty asap.

My initial views that a big S Class level car should be trouble free for 10years or 50,000 miles have been revised to 6 years or 40,000 miles.
They just aint built like they used to be ... and the level of complexity is horrific.

Looking at a simple Lumbar support facility, its connected to the PSE pump ( of which there are 2), the self closing doors, the self closing and release boot, and hence the alarm, and the rear headrests, and the convenience features, and the seat memory, and the seat settings and also to Comand where you set it all ...
No wonder they go Wrong!

Lets just say my respect for a top flight Mercedes Technician has grown exponentially!
The good ones must be seriously intelligent!
 
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Botus

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you can wipe stuff with the basic kit.... I did on my BMW, it had a one button fix all and as is normal lots of rubbish codes and other garbage. so I pressed it and it cleared all the fault codes.... plus all the service history, the dealer listings in the sat nav and the gearbox adaptions

luckily I had been in for a security update and BM had grabbed the car info.... and whilst it was back in for complete software update it all got put back alongside most modules getting an update.... it was a different car when it came back (far faster and the gearbox update transformed things)
 

Submariner1

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you can wipe stuff with the basic kit.... I did on my BMW, it had a one button fix all and as is normal lots of rubbish codes and other garbage. so I pressed it and it cleared all the fault codes.... plus all the service history, the dealer listings in the sat nav and the gearbox adaptions

luckily I had been in for a security update and BM had grabbed the car info.... and whilst it was back in for complete software update it all got put back alongside most modules getting an update.... it was a different car when it came back (far faster and the gearbox update transformed things)

When you say basic kit, was that an iCarsoft product?
 

Botus

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When you say basic kit, was that an iCarsoft product?


no, but a magic one button fix is not uncommon, but it wipes everything back to standard and includes any vehicle specific adaptations / customisation / enhancements
 

bob 6600

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I knew I should have sold it for more :D

The kit was invaluable for me and served me well so I knew someone would get a bargain.

Enjoy it Matt
 

M80

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As I'm not really getting along with iCarsoft, as I'm not impressed with what it does on the 639, I thought star might be the way to go.
Some research and I was ready to bid on a set up during the week, until I read that there can be a software key that might expire. Without a new code from MB it would then be useless. (In the 'Licence' paragraph above 'Top Alternatives to Mercedes Star...')

MB Star Diagnostic Tool - MUST READ BEFORE YOU BUY!

I haven't read of anyone here having this issue though.

Edit, sorry I thought I had applied the link, oops.
 
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V6Matty

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As I'm not really getting along with iCarsoft, as I'm not impressed with what it does on the 639, I thought star might be the way to go.
Some research and I was ready to bid on a set up during the week, until I read that there can be a software key that might expire. Without a new code from MB it would then be useless. (In the 'Licence' paragraph above 'Top Alternatives to Mercedes Star...')

I haven't read of anyone here having this issue though.
The license will expire so you simply don't connect it to the Internet, that was it can't lock you out from using it, lots if ways around these things ;)
On a side note I know you are mega miles away so your more than welcome to meet up somewhere and have a play with my setup, make sure it's going to cover everything you need
 
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V6Matty

V6Matty

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I knew I should have sold it for more :D

The kit was invaluable for me and served me well so I knew someone would get a bargain.

Enjoy it Matt
You probably should have Bob but I'm certainly not complaining at the price I paid :D
 

M80

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The license will expire so you simply don't connect it to the Internet, that was it can't lock you out from using it, lots if ways around these things ;)
On a side note I know you are mega miles away so your more than welcome to meet up somewhere and have a play with my setup, make sure it's going to cover everything you need

That's a great offer and the learning would make the journey well worth while. Thanks I will take you up on that.

First I need to get my damn 639 running so I can come.
 


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