Piston

With Piston, your car's diagnostic information is easily accessible right from your mobile device. Is your Check Engine Light (MIL) on? No problem! Simply use Piston to transform your phone into a powerful car scanner, allowing you to read Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) and access Freeze Frame data. This invaluable information will help you pinpoint and resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.

To get started, you'll need an ELM327-based adapter, available in Bluetooth or WiFi versions, which you'll connect to your vehicle's OBD2 socket. Piston offers a user-friendly guide to help you through the connection process, accessible from the Home page after your initial setup or anytime via the Settings menu.

With Piston, you gain access to a suite of powerful features:

• Read and clear Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) as defined by the OBD2 standard
• View Freeze Frame data, which provides a snapshot of sensor data at the moment the ECU detected a malfunction
• Monitor real-time data from vehicle sensors
• Check the status of Readiness Monitors to ensure your emission control devices are functioning properly
• Store DTCs in a local history for easy reference
• Log in to save your DTCs in the cloud for access across devices
• View charts of sensor readouts for comprehensive analysis
• Export real-time sensor data to a file for further analysis or sharing
• Verify your car's VIN number
• Examine detailed information about your vehicle's ECUs, including the OBD protocol and PIDs

Some of these advanced features are part of our Premium offering, available through a one-time in-app purchase that unlocks all Premium capabilities without any ongoing subscriptions.

To use Piston as a car scanner, you'll need a separate ELM327-based device, compatible with both Bluetooth and WiFi. Piston supports the OBD-II (also known as OBDII or OBD2) and EOBD standards, ensuring broad compatibility. In the USA, all vehicles sold since 1996 are required to support OBD2. In the European Union, EOBD has been mandatory for petrol vehicles since 2001 and diesel vehicles since 2004. For Australia and New Zealand, OBD2 has been required for all petrol cars since 2006 and diesel cars since 2007.

Please note that Piston can only access the data that your vehicle supports and provides via the OBD2 standard.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

What's New in the Latest Version 3.8.0

Last updated on Aug 2, 2024

• Support for Android 14
• Improved Sensor Selection Screen
• Support for additional sensors (availability may vary for different vehicles)