I want to get a scanner tool for my 2005 lancer Es could someone tell me if i need the CAN or can i just by the OBDII, Thanks.

 

Obdii

 

dont even know what CAN is...but our cars are OBDII/ISO if that helps...

I have this : http://www.myscantool.com/, their having a sale fyi, good for checking trouble codes...
and EvoScan, which is a datalogger, but you need a laptop for both of those

 

I may be mistaken, but I think CAN is for ECUs that control more than the engine. Some cars have electronic options that go through the ecu such as A/C,Windows,Defrost and a bunch of other stuff.

It's been 2 years since I looked into it, but I think that's what it was... Google it for more info

 

Actually OBDII is the protocol. CAN refers to the datalink type. A CAN scanner could be used to read more than one protocol (like japanese imports and us domestics and europeans). However for our cars you want an OBDII compliant scanner.

 

CAN(Controller Area Network) is just a new protocol for the obd2 system that the goverment require all manufacturers to have it on their cay by 2008. It transfer data alot faster then the old type obd2.

 

I stand corrected

 

Alright, if you want to get technical here's the low down.

CAN does stand for Controller Area Network. However it is not a protocol. It is as the name suggests a physical network structure. I don't know about the governement mandate, but I doubt that is accurate.

OBDII is actually a governmental standard for vehicle data related to emmissions. It was preceeded by OBDI and replaced OBDI as the the required standard in 1996 (hence all vehicles built for the US market from 1996 til now are OBDII compliant).

Protocols that are commonly used on OBDII compliant vehicles include:
ISO15765-4 (CAN)
ISO14230-4 (KWP2000)
ISO9141-2 (ISO)
J1850 VPWM
J1850 PWM
J1939

These are not necessarily all on a CAN based network some use other networks.

GM is generally VPWM, Ford PWM, European is generally CAN, and most Japanese are ISO. KWP2000 is used on many European cars like Puegeot and Renault.

I believe our cars use the one commonly known as ISO (ISO9141-2), but I am not positive on that. If you get a scan tool at autozone it should work fine, but you could also get an ELM or mOByDic based interface and some computer software.

 

You could also look into Auterra.
That's what I got and it works great. I used it on my laptop and my pda.