I thought I should provide a review of the Diagcode Diagnostic Tool because I recently bought one but when I tried to research the tool before buying it all I could find was lots of posts throwing shade about it being too expensive etc. etc. without any real world reviews. So here is my experience:
I live in Hawaii but I bought a 570S Spider about 3 months ago in Seattle and drove it to Palm Springs since I had never even seen a Mclaren in anything but a picture before I bought the one I did so we wanted to have some fun with it. It hadn't been serviced in a while so we wanted to make sure it was totally fixed up before we shipped it to Hawaii because it wouldn't see a dealer anytime soon after that. We went to Mclaren Rancho Mirage and had a key programmed which was $1200. Some employees were quite nice and some were not at all. We decided (because of the not at all ones) that we would take the car to the Vegas Auto Gallery for it's service. They were incredible there. Super knowledgeable, thorough and capable, friendly and fairly priced. The car was given a clean bill of health and we gave it to the shipper. It sat on the boat for almost a month and it got to come to it's new house.
Three days after it arrived on came the check engine light for no good reason. About 2 days after that the passenger window became possessed and went up and down as it pleased whenever it wanted to. Soon after the drivers side window became possessed as well but far less frequently than the passenger side. Shortly after the roof would no longer go up and down without opening the passenger side door first. About 5 days later we had heavy rain and the car went crazy for who knows why. Doors locking and unlocking and both windows going up and down. Nothing I did would stop it until the battery went completely dead. After the dead battery I had a million fault codes and the passenger window would no longer open from the drivers side switch. I tried all the recommended tricks to get things back to normal again but that only removed a few of the problems. It took almost a week for the car to exit limp mode and and start charging the battery while it was running. Even though I charged the battery fully it would not charge itself while running and left me stranded in the middle of the road. One time in limp mode the car started coughing and sputtering and jumped around so hard it was like a bucking bronco and nicely curbed my brand new rims after the wheel was ripped out of my hands. The car died completely while driving down the road at night which left me stuck inside the car as the doors wouldn't open, in the dark with no lights on and calling anyone who would answer to come and use the mechanical wheel well latch to get me out of the car. If you've never talked a female through dismantling the wheel well and finding the door opener cable in the dark in the middle of a busy road with no lights on then trust me, it's quite the experience. As a first time Mclaren owner (or owner of any supercar) that was right about the time I realized these cars are literally just one huge computer. Actually about 30 small computers that all have to work properly together or you're in deep trouble.
So I digress. To fix all this I called Vegas Auto Gallery and they tried to be as helpful as they could and took me through a bunch of things to try remotely to get things working but to no avail. It was a respectable try though. I called 4 other Mclaren dealers trying to get some guidance. 2 of them each took a week to get a human on the phone after many messages went un-returned. Both of them said they would talk to their techs and get back to me. That was 2 months ago. More phone calls were just more wasted time. Newport Beach was nice enough to send me 2 surveys as to how I felt their service was though, which was ironic. Maybe they could get the guy who sends out the surveys to answer the phones in the service department because he was determined. Other dealerships I called either just disappeared or gave me some semblance of "duh, we just connect car to computer and computer fix car." Even dealers that people on this site stated fixed the exact same problems I had didn't know how to fix the problems. I was amazed at how frustrated calling non answering/helping dealers could be. I always stated to them that I wasn't looking for anything for free and I would be happy to pay hours of shop time to get someone to try and help me. Even though the car is under warranty I've found out that the factory warranty seems to have an asterisk for anything that goes wrong with it. I posted these problems on this site multiple times trying to find any answer and although there was an occasional helpful hint I never got anywhere. I even tried to pay to fly anyone to Hawaii at my expense that would be willing to fix the problem but there were no takers. For the sake of full disclosure, although it probably appears that I'm endlessly wealthy by trying to pay someone to come to Maui and fix my Mclaren, truth be told I am a retired cop on a government pension who downsized his house to buy a dream car. So it shows my OCD for things to work properly for me to blaze a vapor trail on my Visa card to get someone to fly to Hawaii to fix the car.
So feeling hopelessly fucked and depressingly alone in all of this I had to look into other options. Buy an MDS tool from Mclaren for 30 grand and have no idea how to use the thing. No way I'd slide that past the wife after blowing our nest egg on a car. 6 grand for a tool from a Ferrari dealership in California that looked promising but still expensive and didn't look overly sophisticated. Or buy the Diagcode Diagnostic Tool for $2300 including "tech support".
I sent the company a message through email asking about the costs and what the "tech support" entailed etc. I got an almost immediate reply (which was surprising to say the least after the car sat messed up for months waiting for callbacks that never came) from a fellow named Younis who directed me to a Whatsapp messenger discussion because he advised it was faster and more efficient than email. He was right. Within a few minutes he had clearly explained the technical capabilities of the tool, that he provided technical support to teach me how to use it and how to conduct repairs on the car. Younis also explained that with the technical support I would also qualify to join a Whatsapp messenger group of mechanics and other owners around the world who all help each other fix problems with their Mclarens and provide assistance for upgrades and tuning etc. To be honest I was skeptical as I couldn't find anyone who could tell me any real world experience with the tool however I was beyond desperate and had no patience or more time to waste on my screwed up car.
So I bought it. Younis advised that I was to wire the money to the Kingdom of Bahrain and once it cleared he would ship me the tool from Bulgaria. I did so but at that point I was even more nervous, that's a lot of money to send that far away. The Bank of Hawaii employs people that hold Guinness World records for not caring and being incompetent so sending the wire failed twice due to their inability to read basic numbers. It also complicates a situation when someone is wearing 2 masks with plexiglass in between and English is not their primary language. Add that to not caring at all and I was probably lucky to get it right on the third try. I updated Younis throughout that nightmare and he was very understanding even though it probably made me look like I was BS'ing him and likely just dicking him around.
As soon as the money arrived (finally) Younis sent the Diagcode tool the same day. DHL courier with tracking number and it was sent fast. While waiting for it to arrive Younis added me to the Diagcode owners group chat and although most of the chats were beyond what I'd attempt myself, it was interesting to monitor the chats and learn how guys were upgrading to bigger turbos and bleeding brakes and all kinds of interesting repairs and upgrades. My nervousness went way down after that happened, he couldn't have done it any quicker or more securely. 5 or 6 days later it showed up and came in a nice case with the tool, OBD connector and a security USB dongle that makes it all run. Of note, I am not much of a mechanic and although I'm quite adept with Mac computers I really don't know much on how Microsoft products operate so I was pretty useless when it came to navigating Windows. Younis sent me instructions by text on how to set the whole device up and make it work as well as 4 pieces of software and drivers to install on my computer. I did what he said and plugged it all in and it didn't work. I was pretty frustrated in a spot where I probably usually wouldn't be as frustrated but after all the nonsense I'd been through it was just another thing that wasn't working.
Younis tried to help guide me through the process immediately via text but when it was getting complicated he took control of my computer via a tool called Team Viewer that I wasn't familiar with. It allowed him to use my computer remotely. It turned out that whatever annoying antivirus system that Microsoft uses kept killing the install of the drivers for the software. He signed into my computer and had it all completely installed and fixed within about 3 minutes and it turned out to be completely my inability to use a Windows computer and nothing to do with the effectiveness of his diagnostic tool. Within 3 minutes I was completely connected and on the go. I let him go at that point and played around with the tool by myself for a while. I was amazed at what it could do. It certainly appears that it will do anything the MDS factory tool will do for 30 grand. Within seconds I had scanned the entire car and cleared the hundreds of trouble codes that I found in the system. It could've saved me $1200 if I'd had it when I needed to get the key programmed. The list is endless of the features it has. After the fact I realized that Younis was 13 hours ahead of Hawaii and he had been getting me set up at about 1 am his time.
I needed to clear all the codes, calibrate both windows and re-configure the alignment of the car because when your battery dies it reverts back to thinking it's a right hand drive and screws up all kinds of things. It worked on every module in the car except the passenger door module. Exactly where most of my problems were. The system would freeze while trying to access the module which was clearly messed up obviously due to all the problems it was exhibiting before and after the dead battery. I called some Mclaren dealers because my mechanical mind told me that the passenger door module must be faulty because it had been through a rainstorm and the diagnostic tool was able to communicate with every module in the car but that one. I didn't want to bother Younis again because it was now 3 am where he was. I figured since I was going to buy the door module from Mclaren they would tell me if not being able to communicate with it meant it was shot. The last thing I wanted to do was chase the problem by buying parts for thousands of dollars and plugging them in to see if they were the problem. I got the same Mclaren treatment. Some wouldn't answer their phones and didn't return any messages, one said they'd speak to their service manager and call me back but that never happened and the other one gave me the "duh drive car here and computer fix car" answer which was utterly useless. I put it out on this forum and got no answers. Again I was up a creek with no answers.
I waited until a reasonable hour for Younis and messaged him about my module (although it was reasonable for him it was 2 am for me but I was so frustrated with this craziness that I was ready to do whatever it took). Immediately he told me to connect the diagnostic tool to the car and connect with him through Team Viewer. I did so and immediately the cursor started flying around the screen and I watched what was clearly Younis manually reprogramming the passenger door module. My jaw was resting on the floor. He is clearly an expert at all things Mclaren. It was unbelievably impressive. As soon as he was done he accessed the module perfectly. I cleared all the codes, calibrated both windows, aligned both doors to know that the car was left hand drive and it took a total of about 2 minutes. I let Younis go and I went back to bed so I could test it all in the morning. I got tied up and wasn't able to test it until 2 pm Hawaii time. Well oh my God. All the window switches worked perfectly, the top went down for the first time in months, the check engine light is gone, the car runs noticeably smoother and it is like a brand new car. I literally almost shed a tear and was literally jumping up and down. I was so excited that I sent a video to Younis at 3 am his time of it all working and telling him he was "a God". I can't stay out of the car now because it is perfect and so much more fun to drive. Had I not bought the diagnostic tool I'd still be screwed.
I'll conclude this now because it's a long story but one I felt needed to be told so there's some real world knowledge and a review about the Diagcode scanner for anyone else considering buying one. I've seen countless people saying it's too expensive and they can just take it to the dealer for the codes to be cleared for $200 so they don't need it. I don't know what Mclaren dealer you're dealing with but I've been to 2 of them and I never got out of there for anywhere near $200. Probably about 10 times that. And I really don't know how you'd even get an appointment in some cities. I phoned some of their service departments 5 times a day for all 5 days in the week without anyone answering and left countless messages that were never returned. Just being able to avoid that nonsense would make the tool worth it for me and I definitely am not a person that has plenty of disposable income. It's also an indicator to me that Mclaren service is busy enough to not have to take any phone calls at all and still be successful really shows how much service and maintenance these cars need because they definitely don't need any new customers or even talk to existing ones for that matter. I'm in the middle of installing a stereo upgrade and and removing one fuse turned on the check engine light. No problem now because I turned it off immediately after with the Diagcode tool.
So to simplify my experience all I can say is the Diagcode Whatsapp group is full of extremely capable people who treated me very nicely when I asked a couple of stereo questions (peanuts compared to what they were all working on). Younis is completely legit, unbelievably capable, endlessly helpful and a human who apparently never sleeps cause he's always available. And you get all of that before you even plug the scanner in which is itself is amazingly capable and surprisingly easy to use. I'd like to say that I can't live without the tool because I live on an island in the south Pacific that's 2700 miles away from a dealer but I can honestly say I would have bought it if I lived next door to a dealer. One won't take your calls in the middle of a workday and the other answers your calls at 3 am and fixes all your problems. I honestly can't say enough about the tool and how grateful and impressed I am with Younis, his service and his network of knowledgeable people. I'm sure this will again spark the debate of whether it's worth it or not but that's not what this is about. If anyone is thinking of getting one don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions but all I can say is I went in very skeptical and came out thrilled with it all. If you have some kind of a rockstar dealer close by that doesn't charge you much and gets you in immediately then I guess you're in luck, I don't know of any like that other than Vegas Auto Gallery but maybe there are some out there. I honestly don't know why you'd cause yourself the trouble when you can just fix almost anything annoying in 2 minutes in your own garage.
I live in Hawaii but I bought a 570S Spider about 3 months ago in Seattle and drove it to Palm Springs since I had never even seen a Mclaren in anything but a picture before I bought the one I did so we wanted to have some fun with it. It hadn't been serviced in a while so we wanted to make sure it was totally fixed up before we shipped it to Hawaii because it wouldn't see a dealer anytime soon after that. We went to Mclaren Rancho Mirage and had a key programmed which was $1200. Some employees were quite nice and some were not at all. We decided (because of the not at all ones) that we would take the car to the Vegas Auto Gallery for it's service. They were incredible there. Super knowledgeable, thorough and capable, friendly and fairly priced. The car was given a clean bill of health and we gave it to the shipper. It sat on the boat for almost a month and it got to come to it's new house.
Three days after it arrived on came the check engine light for no good reason. About 2 days after that the passenger window became possessed and went up and down as it pleased whenever it wanted to. Soon after the drivers side window became possessed as well but far less frequently than the passenger side. Shortly after the roof would no longer go up and down without opening the passenger side door first. About 5 days later we had heavy rain and the car went crazy for who knows why. Doors locking and unlocking and both windows going up and down. Nothing I did would stop it until the battery went completely dead. After the dead battery I had a million fault codes and the passenger window would no longer open from the drivers side switch. I tried all the recommended tricks to get things back to normal again but that only removed a few of the problems. It took almost a week for the car to exit limp mode and and start charging the battery while it was running. Even though I charged the battery fully it would not charge itself while running and left me stranded in the middle of the road. One time in limp mode the car started coughing and sputtering and jumped around so hard it was like a bucking bronco and nicely curbed my brand new rims after the wheel was ripped out of my hands. The car died completely while driving down the road at night which left me stuck inside the car as the doors wouldn't open, in the dark with no lights on and calling anyone who would answer to come and use the mechanical wheel well latch to get me out of the car. If you've never talked a female through dismantling the wheel well and finding the door opener cable in the dark in the middle of a busy road with no lights on then trust me, it's quite the experience. As a first time Mclaren owner (or owner of any supercar) that was right about the time I realized these cars are literally just one huge computer. Actually about 30 small computers that all have to work properly together or you're in deep trouble.
So I digress. To fix all this I called Vegas Auto Gallery and they tried to be as helpful as they could and took me through a bunch of things to try remotely to get things working but to no avail. It was a respectable try though. I called 4 other Mclaren dealers trying to get some guidance. 2 of them each took a week to get a human on the phone after many messages went un-returned. Both of them said they would talk to their techs and get back to me. That was 2 months ago. More phone calls were just more wasted time. Newport Beach was nice enough to send me 2 surveys as to how I felt their service was though, which was ironic. Maybe they could get the guy who sends out the surveys to answer the phones in the service department because he was determined. Other dealerships I called either just disappeared or gave me some semblance of "duh, we just connect car to computer and computer fix car." Even dealers that people on this site stated fixed the exact same problems I had didn't know how to fix the problems. I was amazed at how frustrated calling non answering/helping dealers could be. I always stated to them that I wasn't looking for anything for free and I would be happy to pay hours of shop time to get someone to try and help me. Even though the car is under warranty I've found out that the factory warranty seems to have an asterisk for anything that goes wrong with it. I posted these problems on this site multiple times trying to find any answer and although there was an occasional helpful hint I never got anywhere. I even tried to pay to fly anyone to Hawaii at my expense that would be willing to fix the problem but there were no takers. For the sake of full disclosure, although it probably appears that I'm endlessly wealthy by trying to pay someone to come to Maui and fix my Mclaren, truth be told I am a retired cop on a government pension who downsized his house to buy a dream car. So it shows my OCD for things to work properly for me to blaze a vapor trail on my Visa card to get someone to fly to Hawaii to fix the car.
So feeling hopelessly fucked and depressingly alone in all of this I had to look into other options. Buy an MDS tool from Mclaren for 30 grand and have no idea how to use the thing. No way I'd slide that past the wife after blowing our nest egg on a car. 6 grand for a tool from a Ferrari dealership in California that looked promising but still expensive and didn't look overly sophisticated. Or buy the Diagcode Diagnostic Tool for $2300 including "tech support".
I sent the company a message through email asking about the costs and what the "tech support" entailed etc. I got an almost immediate reply (which was surprising to say the least after the car sat messed up for months waiting for callbacks that never came) from a fellow named Younis who directed me to a Whatsapp messenger discussion because he advised it was faster and more efficient than email. He was right. Within a few minutes he had clearly explained the technical capabilities of the tool, that he provided technical support to teach me how to use it and how to conduct repairs on the car. Younis also explained that with the technical support I would also qualify to join a Whatsapp messenger group of mechanics and other owners around the world who all help each other fix problems with their Mclarens and provide assistance for upgrades and tuning etc. To be honest I was skeptical as I couldn't find anyone who could tell me any real world experience with the tool however I was beyond desperate and had no patience or more time to waste on my screwed up car.
So I bought it. Younis advised that I was to wire the money to the Kingdom of Bahrain and once it cleared he would ship me the tool from Bulgaria. I did so but at that point I was even more nervous, that's a lot of money to send that far away. The Bank of Hawaii employs people that hold Guinness World records for not caring and being incompetent so sending the wire failed twice due to their inability to read basic numbers. It also complicates a situation when someone is wearing 2 masks with plexiglass in between and English is not their primary language. Add that to not caring at all and I was probably lucky to get it right on the third try. I updated Younis throughout that nightmare and he was very understanding even though it probably made me look like I was BS'ing him and likely just dicking him around.
As soon as the money arrived (finally) Younis sent the Diagcode tool the same day. DHL courier with tracking number and it was sent fast. While waiting for it to arrive Younis added me to the Diagcode owners group chat and although most of the chats were beyond what I'd attempt myself, it was interesting to monitor the chats and learn how guys were upgrading to bigger turbos and bleeding brakes and all kinds of interesting repairs and upgrades. My nervousness went way down after that happened, he couldn't have done it any quicker or more securely. 5 or 6 days later it showed up and came in a nice case with the tool, OBD connector and a security USB dongle that makes it all run. Of note, I am not much of a mechanic and although I'm quite adept with Mac computers I really don't know much on how Microsoft products operate so I was pretty useless when it came to navigating Windows. Younis sent me instructions by text on how to set the whole device up and make it work as well as 4 pieces of software and drivers to install on my computer. I did what he said and plugged it all in and it didn't work. I was pretty frustrated in a spot where I probably usually wouldn't be as frustrated but after all the nonsense I'd been through it was just another thing that wasn't working.
Younis tried to help guide me through the process immediately via text but when it was getting complicated he took control of my computer via a tool called Team Viewer that I wasn't familiar with. It allowed him to use my computer remotely. It turned out that whatever annoying antivirus system that Microsoft uses kept killing the install of the drivers for the software. He signed into my computer and had it all completely installed and fixed within about 3 minutes and it turned out to be completely my inability to use a Windows computer and nothing to do with the effectiveness of his diagnostic tool. Within 3 minutes I was completely connected and on the go. I let him go at that point and played around with the tool by myself for a while. I was amazed at what it could do. It certainly appears that it will do anything the MDS factory tool will do for 30 grand. Within seconds I had scanned the entire car and cleared the hundreds of trouble codes that I found in the system. It could've saved me $1200 if I'd had it when I needed to get the key programmed. The list is endless of the features it has. After the fact I realized that Younis was 13 hours ahead of Hawaii and he had been getting me set up at about 1 am his time.
I needed to clear all the codes, calibrate both windows and re-configure the alignment of the car because when your battery dies it reverts back to thinking it's a right hand drive and screws up all kinds of things. It worked on every module in the car except the passenger door module. Exactly where most of my problems were. The system would freeze while trying to access the module which was clearly messed up obviously due to all the problems it was exhibiting before and after the dead battery. I called some Mclaren dealers because my mechanical mind told me that the passenger door module must be faulty because it had been through a rainstorm and the diagnostic tool was able to communicate with every module in the car but that one. I didn't want to bother Younis again because it was now 3 am where he was. I figured since I was going to buy the door module from Mclaren they would tell me if not being able to communicate with it meant it was shot. The last thing I wanted to do was chase the problem by buying parts for thousands of dollars and plugging them in to see if they were the problem. I got the same Mclaren treatment. Some wouldn't answer their phones and didn't return any messages, one said they'd speak to their service manager and call me back but that never happened and the other one gave me the "duh drive car here and computer fix car" answer which was utterly useless. I put it out on this forum and got no answers. Again I was up a creek with no answers.
I waited until a reasonable hour for Younis and messaged him about my module (although it was reasonable for him it was 2 am for me but I was so frustrated with this craziness that I was ready to do whatever it took). Immediately he told me to connect the diagnostic tool to the car and connect with him through Team Viewer. I did so and immediately the cursor started flying around the screen and I watched what was clearly Younis manually reprogramming the passenger door module. My jaw was resting on the floor. He is clearly an expert at all things Mclaren. It was unbelievably impressive. As soon as he was done he accessed the module perfectly. I cleared all the codes, calibrated both windows, aligned both doors to know that the car was left hand drive and it took a total of about 2 minutes. I let Younis go and I went back to bed so I could test it all in the morning. I got tied up and wasn't able to test it until 2 pm Hawaii time. Well oh my God. All the window switches worked perfectly, the top went down for the first time in months, the check engine light is gone, the car runs noticeably smoother and it is like a brand new car. I literally almost shed a tear and was literally jumping up and down. I was so excited that I sent a video to Younis at 3 am his time of it all working and telling him he was "a God". I can't stay out of the car now because it is perfect and so much more fun to drive. Had I not bought the diagnostic tool I'd still be screwed.
I'll conclude this now because it's a long story but one I felt needed to be told so there's some real world knowledge and a review about the Diagcode scanner for anyone else considering buying one. I've seen countless people saying it's too expensive and they can just take it to the dealer for the codes to be cleared for $200 so they don't need it. I don't know what Mclaren dealer you're dealing with but I've been to 2 of them and I never got out of there for anywhere near $200. Probably about 10 times that. And I really don't know how you'd even get an appointment in some cities. I phoned some of their service departments 5 times a day for all 5 days in the week without anyone answering and left countless messages that were never returned. Just being able to avoid that nonsense would make the tool worth it for me and I definitely am not a person that has plenty of disposable income. It's also an indicator to me that Mclaren service is busy enough to not have to take any phone calls at all and still be successful really shows how much service and maintenance these cars need because they definitely don't need any new customers or even talk to existing ones for that matter. I'm in the middle of installing a stereo upgrade and and removing one fuse turned on the check engine light. No problem now because I turned it off immediately after with the Diagcode tool.
So to simplify my experience all I can say is the Diagcode Whatsapp group is full of extremely capable people who treated me very nicely when I asked a couple of stereo questions (peanuts compared to what they were all working on). Younis is completely legit, unbelievably capable, endlessly helpful and a human who apparently never sleeps cause he's always available. And you get all of that before you even plug the scanner in which is itself is amazingly capable and surprisingly easy to use. I'd like to say that I can't live without the tool because I live on an island in the south Pacific that's 2700 miles away from a dealer but I can honestly say I would have bought it if I lived next door to a dealer. One won't take your calls in the middle of a workday and the other answers your calls at 3 am and fixes all your problems. I honestly can't say enough about the tool and how grateful and impressed I am with Younis, his service and his network of knowledgeable people. I'm sure this will again spark the debate of whether it's worth it or not but that's not what this is about. If anyone is thinking of getting one don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions but all I can say is I went in very skeptical and came out thrilled with it all. If you have some kind of a rockstar dealer close by that doesn't charge you much and gets you in immediately then I guess you're in luck, I don't know of any like that other than Vegas Auto Gallery but maybe there are some out there. I honestly don't know why you'd cause yourself the trouble when you can just fix almost anything annoying in 2 minutes in your own garage.
