So, you have found your OBD2 port. Now you are wondering what is all this talk about protocols and what does the 16 pins on my OBD2 port wiring mean. Read on to find out more.
When you look at your OBD2 port, you notice that not all the pins have a metal connecter in them. Your car only uses the ones that have connectors in them. Still, the reason your OBD2 port wiring looks different is that of the pins related to which OBD protocol your car uses. Most Australian cars newer than 2006 use the common protocols so most OBD2 Scan Tools will work.
As you can see above, this is how the pins are allocated. You can now check your OBD2 port and see what protocol your car has.
An OBD2 Australian compliant vehicle can use any of the five communication protocols:
- SAE J1850 PWM
- SAE J1850 VPW
- ISO9141-2
- ISO14230-4 (KWP2000)
- ISO 15765-4/SAE J2480
Now, you may have seen some tools say that they cover 9 protocols on the OBD2 port wiring. This is true to a point. However, this just means they cover the variants of the ISO 15765-4. Check your OBD2 port and be able to tell what protocol for OBD2 that your car uses. Sometimes, the other wiring pins will have connecters in them and this is for other specific tasks that manufacturer-specific tools can do.