Don’t you just hate when you can’t seem to find a suitable tool after so much search? Especially for an inspection tool such as an automotive engine borescope, finding the best one for your inspection can be pretty daunting.
Automotive borescopes have so many benefits for the automotive inspection professional that they can cost you so much stress and capital a day without them. One thing is sure, the benefit of an automotive borescope far outweighs its cost, especially if you can find a good supplier with competitive prices. Still, you need to do some work in finding the best-suited automotive borescope for your peculiar inspection needs.
This guide has compiled 7 of the best-selling automotive borescopes for you to choose from when you are in the market to purchase one. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.
I. 7 Best-Selling Automotive Borescope Overview
Here are 7 of the best-selling automotive borescopes in the industry with descriptions of their features and what we like and don’t like about them.
1. Automotive Borescope for iPhone
This automotive borescope can easily connect to most iPhones with a minimum of the iOS 10 operating system. It features a downloadable app from the iOS store for viewing and enhancing the pictures. It also features a high-resolution camera, LED lights, and the iPhone as the monitoring screen.
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2. Articulating Automotive Borescope & Probe
For this articulating automotive borescope which features a probe with a two-way articulation, there is an 1800 freedom to maneuver. Also, it has 1080-pixel high-definition camera for quality pictures, a 4.3inch-widescreen LCD monitor, an SD card for picture and video storage, and a 5,000mAh rechargeable battery.
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3. Autofocus Automotive Borescope Camera
This primary feature of automotive borescope is a high-resolution camera with an autofocus feature that makes it easy to capture pictures during the inspection. It also has other intuitive features, including anti-blur for sharp images, LED lights, a wide LCD screen monitor, and an 8mm diameter probe. Additionally, it has a USB cable connector and a rechargeable battery for uninterrupted inspection.
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4. Economy Household Borescope for Automotive
This automotive borescope has economic features, including a compact LCD screen monitor, high-resolution camera with zoom function, 7.6mm rotating probe with manual navigation controls, USB cable connector, rechargeable battery, and SD card for storing the pictures and transferring them to other devices.
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5. Dual Lens Automotive USB Borescope
This dual-lens automotive borescope includes two high-resolution cameras for an extra 90° view without the need to remove the probe while inspecting. It also features a USB connection option for connecting other external devices for a more detailed analysis. It also has bright LED lights, a 5.5m semi-rigid probe, and a micro-SD card for storing and moving pictures to other devices. Other features include a rechargeable battery and a widescreen for monitoring inspection.
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6. Automotive Wireless Video Borescope
This wireless automotive borescope features a wireless connection option for WLAN, Wi-Fi, and LAN connections. It also features a high-resolution camera for taking quality images and recording videos, a widescreen monitor for assessing automotive components, and an 8mm width probe with a 3m long cable.
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7. Automotive Digital Borescope Inspection with LCD Screen
This automotive borescope has many digital options, including an LCD screen with a crystal-clear digital display. It also features a digital camera for high-resolution pictures. Other features include a rechargeable battery for non-stop inspection, LED lights for illuminating dark spots, an SD card for storing and transferring photos between devices, and a USB connection for connecting to external devices.
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➤ Related Article: 8 Best-Selling USB Borescopes
➤ Related Article: 8 Best-Selling Articulating Borescopes
II. Automotive Borescope: Buyer’s Guide
This section is a comprehensive guide on all you need to know about automotive borescopes.
What is an Automotive Borescope?
Like most industrial components, automotive components are built with little or no access to the internal working parts, and inspecting these parts becomes tedious for standard machine shop tools. An automotive borescope is an inspection device that allows for examining the internal functional parts of automotive components using insertion tubes with attached cameras and external monitors for visual identification. Sometimes these external monitors can be an LCD screen or a phone with a downloadable app that allows the maneuvering and manipulating of the device and images. Automotive parts such as combustion engines, AC systems, catalytic converter tubes, and brake systems often have fluids that necessitate the manufacture of automotive borescopes with waterproof design.
➤ Related Article: Industrial Borescope: Definition and Working Principle
➤ Related Article: Borescope vs. Endoscope
What are Automotive Borescopes Used for?
The automotive borescope’s primary application is to inspect automotive components’ internal parts to identify defects that might result in abnormalities in their functions. These parts can include the combustion engine, the brake system, the gearbox, and motion enhancing components like the suspension systems. However, their function goes beyond that. Other industries like the aerospace industry often rely on automotive borescopes to conduct a quality assessment of aircraft components and static parts to view hard-to-reach areas to study the impact of stress on these elements. Especially with the option of a video recording automotive borescope, some mechanics and automotive professionals often choose to record the interiors of an engine and then put it into other external devices for a more comprehensive inspection and analysis. Nevertheless, it still serves its primary purpose of inspecting tight components without having to unbolt anything, which reduces the cost and the time required in any automotive inspection.
What are the Benefits of Having an Automotive Borescope?
Automotive borescopes offer many benefits that other non-destructive inspection tools cannot provide. Here are some of its benefits highlighted below.
- They have flexible parts like the insertion tube, which can enter tiny holes for inspection, making them very effective and practical devices.
- They are compact and easy to use without spending a long time trying to learn their operation.
- Automotive borescopes are very accurate in spotting defects using high-resolution cameras.
- They also offer a cost-effective solution for inspecting difficult and hard-to-reach spaces.
- They also offer high levels of safety as there is no heavy equipment involved that can cause harm to the inspector.
- Automotive borescopes are versatile as they can be used for other mechanical components asides from automotive parts, including aircraft.
- Lastly, automotive borescopes have so many options in the market to suit your inspection needs and budget.
How do you use an Automotive Borescope?
Using an automotive borescope is very intuitive and easy as there are very simple things to learn and follow during the inspection process.
The first is to ensure you have a fully charged battery before starting any inspection. An inspection can often take as long as 3 hours to complete, and less than the full battery will mean starting over again every time the device shuts down.
Secondly, ensure that you gently insert the flexible tube into the space you intend to inspect, as this will ensure damage is not done to the component or the camera. Also, make sure that you fully insert the tube to get the complete picture of the state of the inspected element.
Thirdly, ensure you devote adequate time to the inspection without rushing any part of the inspection, as this might cause you to miss vital information. Also, remove the insertion tube gently after assessing that you do not damage it.
Finally, ensure you save any picture or recorded video on the SD card if provided to store them properly and transfer them successfully when moving the images to other devices for further analysis.
If you follow this process, you should have no difficulty as these are all non-complicated steps to follow.
How to Choose an Automotive Borescope?
Since the automotive borescope is essential for most mechanical professionals, knowing the essential criteria for selecting a suitable one. The size, flexibility, and portability are mostly ranked as the top criteria to choose an automotive borescope.
- Probe Size
The probe is the insertion part of the device and, as such, must meet the size requirement to enter successfully into the inspection component. Once the probe size is larger than the hole it is to inspect, inspection becomes impossible. For instance, 6mm diameter probes or less are used for inspecting diesel engines as they have tiny holes.
- Screen
While you want a portable automotive borescope, a widescreen monitor is also essential as it ensures that inspected parts have good visibility and the inspector can see fine details. An LCD screen is usually the standard since it offers high visibility without sacrificing device portability.
- Camera Resolution
The quality of the picture capture is also a critical point when selecting a suitable automotive borescope. However, what ultimately determines the picture’s quality is the camera’s resolution. High-resolution cameras give more quality per pixel and hence a clearer picture.
- Battery Life
The longer the battery life, the better for the inspection, as any shut down while inspecting a component automatically means restarting the whole inspection process.
➤ Related Article: How to Choose Your Right Video Borescope?
➤ Related Article: How to Import Borescopes from China?
Why Choose NDT-KITS’ Automotive Borescope?
Choosing a reliable automotive borescope supplier is key to getting a suitable borescope and satisfaction with the tool you order. Nonetheless, specific criteria for selecting a reliable borescope supplier include innovative solutions, customer support, extensive industry experience, and a consistent excellent customer rating.
NDT-KITS tick all the boxes mentioned above and more. NDT-KITS has had over three decades of existence in the industry, successfully delivering bespoke automotive borescope solutions to customers who have become partners. Their success stories are entirely based on their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. They are heavily invested in research and development, which has produced some of the most innovative solutions in the industry today.
Conclusion
In all, the automotive borescope is a very reliable and cost-effective tool for inspecting the internal working components of automotive parts. However, choosing the best automotive borescope relies primarily on the probe size, screen quality, camera resolution, and battery power. All these components are also dependent on the reliability of the supplier. If a borescope supplier is inefficient, unresponsive, and not committed to quality manufacturing, it might be difficult to get satisfaction after ordering from such a supplier. However, suppliers like NDT-KITS have had extensive years of experience in this field and are well-equipped to meet your requirements.