An OBD II scantool, or EOBD as it's known in Europe is solely for reading engine emission related DTCs, live data, freeze frame and readiness monitors. There are 5 or 6 common protocols that cover the vast majority of cars and LCVs, and any EOBD scantool should support all of them. They are all 'read only' devices and unless anyone were to tamper with the wiring it's not possible to do any damage to the engine controller by connecting it.
EOBD came into legislation on 1st January 2001 for petrol engines, and 1st January 2004 for diesels, although many cars were compliant prior to that. OBD II came into force in the USA and Canada in 1996. All compliant vehicles must have a 16 pin connector accessible from the driver's seat without the need of any special tools. All use standard generic fault codes, and access to engine emission data. Any EOBD scantool will do this, regardless of how much it costs to buy. Vehicle manufacturers must by law enable access to certain information relating to emission data, but any further information is entirely voluntary. If your EOBD scantool won't read something on one car but will on another it'll simply be because one manufacturer doesn't allow access whilst the other does.
EOBD scantools will not access Engine specific data, Airbag, Instruments, Central Convenience, HVAC, Parking Brake or any other modules, nor will they reset the service indictors. So although they are useful they're very limited.
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