Diagnostic Information - OBD-II

[Mazda Ebrahimi]

Felix Homburg wrote:
> 
> I would like to know a little bit more about OBD-II. I'm from Europe and for the
> cars in Europe it's not law to have OBD-II. Do all the new cars in the U.S. have
> a compatible connector for OBD-II. Does anyone have the pinout and the outlines
> of this connector?
> Are the scan-tools for OBD-II for all cars the same or does a garage use
> different scan-tools for different cars?
> I'm working on diagnostic system for VW/Audi and I'd like to include the OBD-II
> protocol so it would be interesting for me to get a little bit more knowledge
> about that.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Felix

Hi,

All passenger cars and light duty trucks sold in US are required to have 
OBD-II starting model year 1996.  The connectors are standardized, and I 
THINK the communication protocol is based on the SAE J-1850 standard.  
However, diagnostic tools from different manufacturers will not work on 
other makes.  Companies like Snap-On and MAC make universal units, but 
their units can not perform all the functions each specific OEM can.  
Eventhough the one of the purposes of the OBD-II was to standardise 
diagnostics, I've heard the SAE J-1850 is not specific enough to force 
everyone to use the same exact protocol.

Best Regards, Mazda