With the introduction of this plug, BMW obeyed requirements of OBD-II standard, which was supposed to be used by all car manufacturers. I believe, almost all of you have seen large, round 20 pin diagnostic connectors of BMW, which were used in BMW E38, E39, and other cars.īefore this connector, also connector with 15 pins was in use – it was with a smaller diameter, used in E30 generation cars – I believe, not many of you have seen that and still remember.Īround the Year 2000 (with E39 LCI generation) BMW switched to 16 pin connector, mentioned in OBD-standard: Including standard, how does the connection to car’s diagnostic looks alike, and how the data exchange between car and diagnostics tool is organized. Initially, the process was chaotic – each car manufacturer introduced his own, completely different standard. It was a logical process – equipment can get damaged, they have to be repaired. One of the things, regarding which I was very surprised – most BMW users are reading the error messages… Completely incorrect! How so?Ī long time ago, as soon as electronic devices appeared in cars, manufacturers started to introduce self-diagnostics and diagnostics possibilities. So I’m very surprised when it turns out – not everything is as I have imagined. I’m interested in BMW cars for already 25 years, and quite many things are self-evident for me.

Inpa bmw e38