This is my first post, so let me begin by congratulating everyone on a great forum!

I am in Australia and recently purchased a 1997 E36 328i auto Coupe - GREAT CAR!! Although I already own an Actron CP9180 Scan tool, my car is not fitted with a 16 Pin OBDII socket under the dash. It was built in December 97 and the 20 pin OBD socket under the hood appears to have been wired as per the 98 model specs shown in the Bentley Manual (20 Pin socket has a cap fitted wih jumper pins).

I decided to try Carsoft 6.5 with a Chinese interface I bought on Ebay but the program crashed every time I attempted a diagnosis, so I tried the interface wih Carsoft 6.1 which I bought seperately. Carsoft 6.1 appears to attempt communication with the vehicle but invariably generates a "module not found" message for each module after attempting communication. Version 6.1 however does allow me to successfully reset the vehicle's service/inspection intervals.

I have tried all of the usual tricks (ignition on/off/engine running, cleaned terminals and sockets, disconnected and checked battery etc.) to no avail. Can anyone tell me if this problem is due to the fact that the jumpers in the OBD Cap must be disconnected when the interface is hooked up and if there is a workaround for the problem? In desperation I would also be curious to know if the Peake R5/FCX II scan tool will pull codes from this car. Thanks in advance.

Towed to the diagnostics forum, hope you get some help here!

OK, so now I can answer my own question. If you own a pre '96 BMW DO NOT BUY Carsoft 6.5 with MCU Interface. The only function it will perfrom is to reset the service interval and then ONLY if the interface is used with Carsoft 6.1. This thing is ONLY for US Spec OBDII compliant BMW's - the Peake R5 tools however DO work like a charm with Aussie BMW's (Should have bought one in the first place and saved myself US$125 - doh!)

OK, so now I can answer my own question. If you own a pre '96 BMW DO NOT BUY Carsoft 6.5 with MCU Interface. The only function it will perfrom is to reset the service interval and then ONLY if the interface is used with Carsoft 6.1. This thing is ONLY for US Spec OBDII compliant BMW's - the Peake R5 tools however DO work like a charm with Aussie BMW's (Should have bought one in the first place and saved myself US$125 - doh!)
Well, I do not agree with you. You know why? Read my Carsoft 6.5 REVIEW thread (see the link in sig). Obviously, you bought a cheap chinese kit from eBay, but not all Chinese kits are the same. In addition, OBDI cars don't have as many modules installed as OBDII cars.
My kit works with Carsoft 6.5 and I've even installed an update with couple of bugs fixed :)

You did a nice write up on Carsoft and my Carsoft diagnostic equipment looks identical BUT when I check the continuity of the 20pin dignostic lead supplied with the kit Pin 15 of the BMW plug (L-Line) is not connected and there IS a connection to Pin 17 (L-line on OBDII compliant cars but which is not populated in the BMW 20 Pin socket). Hence without a connection to the data line there is no hope of this gear doing diagnostics on this car without modification. My car is RHD and built December 1997