We built an app that catches used car problems that basic OBD2 scanners miss completely. Here's how it works.
where the debugging happens - real cars don't care what works in the emulator
TL;DR: Sellers clear codes before you show up. Basic scanners show "no faults found." You drive home and the check engine light comes back on. We built an app that load-tests the engine during idle, cruise, AND acceleration to catch problems that only appear under stress. Screenshots below.
if you've ever bought a used car, you know the game.
seller clears the codes 30 minutes before you arrive. you show up with your €30 bluetooth scanner, plug it in, scan - "no faults found." car looks clean. you buy it. a week later the check engine light is back on and you're looking at a €800 repair bill.
the problem isn't the scanner. the problem is that most issues don't throw codes when the car is sitting in a driveway at idle. they only show up under load - when you're accelerating, merging onto a highway, or climbing a hill.
a basic scanner reads stored codes. that's it. if the codes were cleared, you see nothing. if the problem only happens under load, you see nothing.
here's what we built differently:
skanyx doesn't just read codes. it runs a load-test on the engine — capturing live sensor data at idle, at cruise, and under acceleration. if something only fails under stress, we catch it.
that's what the app shows you. car passes at idle, passes at cruise, fails under acceleration — cylinder 3 misfired under load. the kind of thing that doesn't trigger a code until it gets worse, but shows up clearly in the live sensor pattern.
verdict: 5.8/10. walk away. estimated repair: €400-900.
the seller's "no codes found" means nothing if the problem only appears when you're actually driving.
the other thing we built is vehicle-specific analysis. when you scan, the app knows your exact make, model, and engine. so when you ask "what's causing this?" it doesn't give you a generic list of 15 possible causes - it cross-references your live telemetry against known issues for YOUR engine and tells you which one it actually is.
the BMW N47 in that screenshot? notorious for timing chain failures between 130-160k km. the app flags that automatically with a timeline and repair cost estimate. that's not generic advice - that's specific knowledge about your specific car.
and yes - it does everything else too.
read and clear codes, live data monitoring, health scores, plain english explanations with repair costs. all the stuff you'd expect from an OBD2 app. we're not skipping the basics.
the difference is what happens after. other apps show you "P0171 — System Too Lean" and leave you to google it. we show you what's actually causing it based on your live fuel trim readings, tell you if it's safe to drive, give you a repair cost estimate, and explain exactly what to tell your mechanic.
think of it as: everything a normal scanner does, plus the stuff that actually helps you make a decision.
we've been building this for about 13 months. launching the project later this year.
it's called skanyx (pronounced skan-ix). the whole point is to give you leverage before you hand over your money - whether you're buying a used car, checking your own vehicle's health, or walking into a garage and wanting to know what's actually wrong before the mechanic tells you.
if you've ever bought a car that "passed" a basic scan and then cost you thousands in repairs - that's exactly why we built this.
Posted Jan 11, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC