Have you been curious about how your car’s mechanic can plug in a device and know all the problems with your car? This is because each modern car is equipped with an OBD-II, which is a handy tool.
What Is An OBD-II?
OBD-II stands for On-board Diagnostics II, which is the second generation of the on-board diagnostics for cars, and is the standard for each country’s own version of the on-board diagnostics, such as EOBD for Europe and JOBD for Japan.
It all first started with OBD-I, which purpose was to test cars if they passed California’s emissions test, OBD-I wasn’t successful, as they didn’t have a standard at the time, and the monitoring was only limited to those relating to emissions, which is why OBD-II was released as the standard for newer cars.
OBD-II was released back in 1994 in California as the successor to OBD-I, with a standardized connector and signals, so you can use the same OBD-II scanner for cars from different manufacturers. OBD-II was made mandatory for different countries all over the world over time, so you can find them on cars made after the standard.
What You Can Know From The OBD-II
The OBD-II port is usually located inside the car somewhere under the dashboard, and to read the data emitted from the port, you need an OBD-II scanner, where there are budget and professional options available for your needs. But any basic OBD-II scanner when plugged into the port can read the data from the car’s ECU (Engine Control Unit), where you can see data and errors from your car.
This can be useful during routine maintenance or checkup, or to troubleshoot any problems that arise on your car, which is why every mechanic is equipped with one. There are even wireless OBD-II scanners available now, where you plug in a wireless scanner to the port which you can then access from your phone or laptop.
There is also another use for the OBD-II, which is that you can read data that is not usually on display. There are gauges or digital displays available for purchase which connect and read and display the data from the OBD-II port, such as engine rpm and speed, which can be a nice modification for your car.
You probably won’t ever need to come in contact with your car’s OBD-II, but it’s good to know that it exists in case you ever need it.