When it comes to tight spaces and hidden problems, a good inspection camera can make the difference between hours of frustration and a quick, informed fix. The Kinpthy 16.4-foot borescope tool is a budget-friendly borescope-style camera designed to tackle jobs where your eyes—or even your phone—can’t reach. Whether you’re tracking down a wiring gremlin behind a TJ dash or checking for leaks deep in your engine bay, this tool offers impressive utility in the garage.
Key Features
- Cable Length: 16.4 feet (5 meters) long enough to snake through frame rails, firewall holes, or HVAC ducts.
- Camera Diameter: 8mm, small enough to slide into spark plug holes or tight engine crevices.
- Resolution: 1920p HD, clear enough for seeing fine detail like cracked plastic or corroded terminals.
- LED Lighting: 8 adjustable LEDs around the lens — provides excellent illumination in pitch-black spaces.
- Power Source: This camera runs off the phone’s battery..no further batteries needed.
- Waterproof Rating: IP67, suitable for wet or greasy environments like oil pans or coolant passages.
- Quick Snapshots: A small switch on the cable allows for quick snapshots and video start/stop.
Garage Use Cases
Jeep-Specific Tasks
- Frame Rust Inspection: Thread the borescope into the inside of the frame rails to check for hidden rust or clogged drain holes—especially important on older TJs and CJs.
- Dash Diagnostics: Avoid yanking your entire dash apart when diagnosing HVAC blend doors or finding a rogue rattle.
- Cylinder Checks: Inspect combustion chambers via the spark plug hole to look for carbon buildup or scoring before tearing down an engine.
- Wire Tracing: Route through underhood harnesses or dash bundles to find broken wires, chafing, or unplugged connectors.
General Garage Work
- Dropped Bolt Retrieval: Spot and recover fasteners that found their way into dark corners of the engine bay.
- Plumbing and Drain Inspection: Works well for examining clogged or leaking drain lines in garage or home setups.
- Exhaust and Intake Inspection: Peek inside exhaust pipes or intake runners without pulling the system apart.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Long cable is ideal for full-depth frame or pipe inspection.
- Decent picture quality for the price.
- LED lighting helps in very dark areas.
Cons
- Cable is semi-rigid but not stiff enough to hold shape for very precise routing.
- Fixed-focus lens — might struggle with very close or distant targets.
- Relies on proprietary app for connection and operation.
Final Thoughts
The Kinpthy 16.4-foot borescope tool is a surprisingly capable tool for under $50. It fills a useful niche for home mechanics and weekend Jeep tinkerers who need to see what they’re dealing with before committing to a teardown. It’s not the most advanced or rugged unit on the market, but it gets the job done for routine inspection and hard-to-reach diagnostics.
If you’re working on older Jeeps, checking frame integrity, or running wires through tight spots, the Kinpthy borescope is a handy addition to your garage toolbox. For the average DIY’er, this scope will pay for itself the first time you avoid tearing apart your dash.
You can find this handy tool on Amazon.
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