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What OBD2 is and since when your car has it

OBD stands for on-board diagnostics: the car keeps an eye on itself and reports what it sees through a standard socket. The basics, straight to the point.

In short: OBD is a socket that every petrol car since 2001 and every diesel since 2004 has (in Europe), almost always under the steering wheel. Through it the car reports its faults and its live data.

There is a part common to all cars, the standard one: the same socket, the same fault codes for the engine and emissions and the same basic data. And then each make has its own: the faults and data of the other control units (brakes, airbags, gearbox, a hybrid’s battery), which can only be read by speaking that make’s language. For the common part almost any adapter and app will do; for each make’s own part you need one that knows how to read it.

Open the bonnetthe in-depth explanation

What it’s for

OBD was born out of emissions. The law requires the car to monitor everything that can make the exhaust dirtier (ignition, mixture, catalytic converter, oxygen sensors, EGR, fuel tank vapours) and to turn on the check engine light when something fails. And it requires that anyone can read it with a standard tool through a standard socket, without depending on the dealer.

Through that socket you can read fault codes, live engine data (revs, temperatures, oxygen sensors, load), the VIN and the status of the emissions checks. It’s what garages, the ITV and apps like Final OBD use.

OBD2, OBD-II and EOBD: almost the same thing

OBD-II, or OBD2, is the United States version, mandatory there on all cars and light vans from the 1996 model year. EOBD is the European version, approved in 1998 with Directive 98/69/EC, and in practice it’s the same: the same socket, the same fault codes and the same data. An OBD2 scanner reads an EOBD car with no difference at all.

Which year your car got it

  • Petrol: mandatory on new cars registered in the European Union from 1 January 2001 (new models from 2000).
  • Diesel: from 1 January 2004 (new models from 2003).
  • Vans and heavier passenger vehicles: a little later depending on their weight, up to 2007 for the heaviest diesels.

Many earlier cars already had the socket, especially petrol cars from the late nineties, though not always with full OBD. If your car is from those dates onwards, it definitely has it. In Spain, the ITV also reads Euro 5 and Euro 6 cars and vans through that socket.

What standard OBD doesn’t cover

Standard OBD mostly covers the engine and whatever affects emissions. The ABS, airbag, gearbox, body or climate control have their own control units, each manufacturer talks to them in its own way, and they aren’t required to report anything through standard OBD. Reaching them is what sets an app that knows your make apart from one that only reads the engine. In Final OBD, the standard part is in FREE and the in-depth check of every control unit is in PRO.

Carry on from here