EOBD Compliance

In 1996 in the United States, a Federal Law came into force requiring all US-sold cars to be OBD2 compliant. This generates a lot of confusion as the OBD2 Federal Law applied only to cars sold in the US.

Within the EU, our equivalent law (European On-Board Diagnostics, or EOBD) did not come into force, and was not fully implemented by our car manufacturers, until 2001 for petrol cars, and 2004 for diesels.  This gave diagnostic tool manufacturers the opportunity to produce generic tools that would interface with all cars.

UKOBD stocks a significant number of tools that cover pre-EOBD compliance, but these are manufacturer-specific, generally offer a more comprehensive package (often other ECU's than engine) and therefore often slightly more expensive.

Prior to the compliance dates it is very difficult to determine compliance, and we would therefore recommend checking very carefully before  purchasing generic equipment for cars manufactured before 2001 Petrol and 2004 Diesel.

It is important also to recognise that EOBD only covers engine diagnostics - all other vehicle ECU's are still covered by the manufacturers own systems.