OBDII is a concept devised by the U.S federal goverment aimed at providing an affordable way for motorists to interrogate the engine and automatic transmission on any car sold in the United States. OBDII came into being in 1996 and specified the use of a standard 16-pin socket on the car, the same one we are used to seeing in Britain today.
EOBD is an abbreviation for European On-Board Diagnostics and is the European version of OBD2. All petrol cars sold within Europe since 2001 and diesels from 2004, must have on-board diagnostic system to monitor engine emissions and be accessible to an EOBD scan tool.
All such cars must also have a standard 16-pin diagnostic socket that provides access to this system. This means they are all accessible using a low-cost OBD Scan Tool. Just because a vehicle has a standard 16-pin socket, this doesn't mean it is EOBD-complaint, as it may have been manufactured before such compliance became mandatory. If, however, it doesn't have such a socket then it is definitely NOT compliant.
Help, my engine management light is on!
A good codereader is one of the most useful devices which a garage or D.I.Y enthusiast can own. Plug it into a car's diagnostic socket and the machine can read trouble codes and tell you what they mean. Often, it can display live readings as well, useful in determining the reason for a code or to help when there are symptoms but no codes at all. The latest CR5 code reader from RW Motortec even provides large, bright graphs, indicating the function of individual components such as oxygen senors, air mass meters, etc. EOBD does not change often and most competitive scanners provide no facility for updating. By contrast, the new CR5 comes with a USB cable and unlimited licence to obtain perodic updates from the factory, as they become available - and they do!
Most modern cars are EOBD-compliant (see above) meaning that a low-cost, high-quality fault code reader like the CR5 can access engine and automatic transmission information. If the vehicle is not EOBD-compliant or perhaps you also want to look at airbag, ABS, climate control, immobiliser, etc, you need the Launch X-431, X-431 Tool or Diagun.
