Over the past ten years or so, vehicle engines have become ever more complex, with high technology computer management systems being installed as standard. Drivers get better fuel economy and performance from their cars, and mechanics get access to a wealth of diagnostic information that allows them to discover problems faster and more efficiently – provided that they have access to OBD scan tools that can interface with the computer that controls the engine, and download its information.OBD stands for OnBoard Diagnostics, and is a system by which the engine management computer collects and stores information about many different aspects of the engine so that if a problem occurs, it will be easy to trace the source and then take the appropriate action to remedy it. The first generation of OBD systems was installed into cars back in the early 1980s, and was very limited by today’s high standards. The information that they were able to capture was simplistic at best, and gave very little insight to mechanics about what was happening due to the then very high cost of the early OBD Scan tools.
Over the intervening years, the second generation or OBD 2 scan tools have come onto the market and offer far greater functionality to mechanics, and allow much greater insight into the operating condition of a car on many different levels.
There are numerous OBD scan tools available from a number of different manufacturers, and the difference in prices between models can vary wildly due to the relative complexity of the system. Different auto manufacturers have slightly different implementations of the basic OBD protocols, and this means that you need a tool that is flexible enough to work across a number of different platforms and get the right information from all of them.
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