I have two, but I use Chrysler's next DRB3 for all of my vehicles. With a pair of extra plug-in cards, it will work on all Chrysler products back to 1983 models. A lot of independent shops bought DRB3s because with one of those cards plugged in, it will do emissions-related stuff on all brands of cars sold in the U.S. Starting with 1996 models. You can find a pile of DRB2s on eBay. A good price is fifty bucks, but they use plug-in cartridges specific to the year and model you are working on, so be sure you get one with the right cartridge. You can buy cartridges separately too. Most of the newer cartridges will work on older years. Look for a 1995 Supercartridge. 1995 was the last year for the OBD1, (on-board diagnostics version 1), emissions system, so that is the latest year they made those cartridges. 1995 cartridges have a yellow label.
I also have a Monitor 4000 that I bought for personal use when I worked at the dealership through the 1990's. It was made by the same company that made Chrysler's DRB2. It looks almost identical and uses cartridges too, but they are different. The main cartridge covers GM, Ford, and Chrysler for the year specified, and I got mine with a Chrysler transmission cartridge. I have an anti-lock brake cartridge for it too, but I never tried to use it yet.
The DRB2 was the dealer-level scanner through 1995 and it does everything you can possibly need to do. Aftermarket scanners like the Monitor 4000 never do quite as much as the factory stuff, but they cover more brands.
You can look on eBay too for a DRB3, but they will be a lot more expensive. The people at the dealership I used to work for still like me so they made me a much better price than what you would pay going through the manufacturer's web site. (Cannot remember if that was Miller Specialty Tools or OTC). Miller makes the special tools for Chrysler. Owatona Tool Company made at least one of those scanner models for Chrysler. I bought four of these, then sold three on eBay to pay for the one I kept. Because it is a later model, it only works on 1998 and newer vehicles. I need one of the cards to make it work on my older vehicles. Also, 2004 was the first year they were obsolete on the Dakota/Durango, and the last year they worked was on some 2007 or 2008 Jeeps. The list price for these was over $6,200.00. I have not looked lately, but I suspect you can find them now for less than $1,000.00 because they are getting too old for most repair shops.
My friend has a Snapon Solus Edge that is probably the premier scanner in the industry, but they soak him $1,000.00 per year to keep it updated. That is why I will not buy one for my 2014 truck. Even with that, there are a few times per year he asks me to bring my DRB3 to do something his won't do. You can find these Snapon scanners on eBay too real cheap. They lose their value very quickly because of the unreasonable cost to update them. A new scanner costs $3,000.00 or $4,000.00, (I cannot remember), then if you let it go four years without buying the expensive updates, it becomes less expensive to buy a new model than to update the older one. In a couple of years there will be some of these on eBay for less than $700.00 that only need to have been updated to 2015 for my use. They can keep their over-priced updates. Before too long, I will be driving a wheel chair, and those do not need scanners, yet.
Friday, October 20th, 2017 AT 4:38 PM
