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he would hook up his tool at one end and with his "probe" at the other end it would detect if it was the same lead by making a loud beeping sound.




That would be a tone generator as I call it. I use the mess out of them for installing phone and network wiring. You hook a signal generator to one end and the "Wand" can pick up the signal passing along the wire and it will beep. Very handy when you are working with 10 to 100 cables all the same color and not marked by the idiot who installed them. It allows you to identify individual wires when the beeper goes off. It could work in a car but car wiring is color coded so I use the colors to determine the wires on a car. The key is the wire must be isolated. Hooking the tone generator to the battery cable would cause most of the wiring in the car to beep at you and prove frustrating.

I use a continuity tester all the time in cars. As said above SOME Vom meters have that function. It is very handy. Hook one end to a circuit and check the other end for continuity / no breaks in the wire. It also helps check switches, bulbs, etc.

Tone Generators are good and not too pricey. You can get one in the Phone/network cabling section at Home Depot for about $30.

Continuity function on a VOM Meter is the shizmit. Definitely a useful tool. Price varies with the meter.

I would suggest you get a good test light and make a set of test leads with alligator clips on each end about 20 feet long so you can test/bypass wiring in a car. You would be surprised how much easier it is when you have long leads to test and probe with than those 2 ft frustrating leads all tools give you. For example when checking the bulkhead connector clip an alligator from your long lead to one side of the bulkhead and run the wire to the other side where you hook up a continuity tester to it and the other side of the bulkhead connector.

Also get a GOOD Diagram. Most of the diagrams on the internet show circuits but don't always label colors, stripes and wire guages.