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Is there a GM "Forscan"?


Dirtman

Former Middleweight Moss Fighting Champion
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Curious if anyone knows if there is software like Forscan but for GM vehicles?

My brother in law's Colorado is having transmission issues and my regular scanner is having trouble getting into the transmission control module. Figured I'd see if there's anything like Forscan I can use before I just give up and say take it to a dealer.
 
I haven't had to cross this path just yet.

When I bought my OBDII adapter I went with the OBDlinkMX+ because it's GM (and many other manufacturer) compatible.

I briefly looked at TORQUE software back when I bought it and thought that would be my starting point if I needed GM OBDII capabilities.

I don't have any experience with it though... maybe do a bit of reading and see if it will work for you.

 
No solid info from me either, but I have read in my F150 forum about it. Sorry.

I could've used it a moth ago and saved a couple of hundred bucks to find out my throttle body was sticking open.
 
I haven't had to cross this path just yet.

When I bought my OBDII adapter I went with the OBDlinkMX+ because it's GM (and many other manufacturer) compatible.

I briefly looked at TORQUE software back when I bought it and thought that would be my starting point if I needed GM OBDII capabilities.

I don't have any experience with it though... maybe do a bit of reading and see if it will work for you.


It's not the adapter that's the issue, I have tourqe pro with a OBDlink EX as well as a Launch CRP129E scanner both of which are more than capable of being used on any GM vehicle. The problem is I'm trying to access info beyond what a typical obd2 scanner can do. On a Ford you can use Forscan to get into these systems like being able to reset the transmission control module. On a GM however I know of nothing short of a dealership level computer than can do that so I was wondering if anyone made GM software for the public.
 
It's not the adapter that's the issue, I have tourqe pro with a OBDlink EX as well as a Launch CRP129E scanner both of which are more than capable of being used on any GM vehicle. The problem is I'm trying to access info beyond what a typical obd2 scanner can do. On a Ford you can use Forscan to get into these systems like being able to reset the transmission control module. On a GM however I know of nothing short of a dealership level computer than can do that so I was wondering if anyone made GM software for the public.

I don't remember saying your adaptor was the problem... just pointing out that they aren't all created equal.

Wasn't sure Torque pro would do what you needed... it's why I said do some reading and see if it would work for you.

It appears there are a few Tech2 software downloads out there... some are windows compatible. Maybe try one of those.
 
I don't remember saying your adaptor was the problem... just pointing out that they aren't all created equal.

Wasn't sure Torque pro would do what you needed... it's why I said do some reading and see if it would work for you.

It appears there are a few Tech2 software downloads out there... some are windows compatible. Maybe try one of those.

GM seems more of a pain than Ford. Even cheap $20 OBD2 scanners tend to read more Ford stuff than they will GM stuff. My Launch scanner will read every single transmission PID on a Ford but won't show anything but a few basic items on a GM. (Another of many reasons I hate GM stuff :ROFLMAO:)

Torque pro is an awesome app though and I use it all the time when I don't need the special features of Forscan.

I look at tech2 and see if that is capable of doing advanced procedures. Thanks for the info.
 
Torque seems to be getting very sporadic updates these days. Last I checked, it wouldn't open at all on the beta version of Android (and it didn't look like they were doing anything to correct that).
 
Mines still working fine, no idea when it last updated though. :dunno:
 
It does work on Android 11. But they haven't pushed a single update to it since September of last year. Android 12 has been in preview since February and is on its fourth (probably the last major) beta now. Weird that they aren't doing any apparent work to keep the app current.
 
The knock off ebay tech II scan tools can go pretty deep as well as HP tuners/EFI live. But no as far as i know theres nothing out there like Forscan for GM.
 
Could be they are more focused on a major update for 12 rather than doing any minor updates in the mean time? I'm no scientist though...
 
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Well the main thing I wanted to do is clear the learned transmission parameters from the TCM. I did some reading on the problem and it seems the consensus among the GM weirdos is that the TCM needs to be reset. (And no this cannot be done by just disconnecting the battery).

The torque converter doesn't appear to ever lock, and while there's no codes it would also be helpful if I could simply see the PID for the TCC solenoid and TCC solenoid command to confirm the issue.

These things are both simple to do on a Ford using Forscan... :rolleyes:
 
It is pretty cool that we have Forscan. I'm not real familiar with GM but it seems just crazy to me that there would not be a similar tool there...especially given the popularity of LS swaps and stuff like that.

I could never get Torque to work well. Those dumb bluetooth modules just did not connect correctly for me. Although when I met my fiance she had one hooked up to her Prius and would reset the CEL every few days... or it would go into limp mode because the hybrid battery was failing. Worked great for that.
 
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Well there is a bit of a learning curve to use Forscan, so it does require some intelligence to use it

And we are talking about people that voluntarily purchased a GM vehicle......................
I am sure there were Forscan equivalents that were developed over the years, but no sales because no GM owners could work them, so they just faded away :)
 

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