The best OBD2 scanner I found on ebay is the Vgate iCar2. It’s more expensive than other OBD2 scanner dongles but it is worth every penny in my opinion.
Problems with Cheap ebay OBD2 Scanners
When I say cheap, I mean Bluetooth dongles like this.
Speed is an issue. Although it could depend on the app.
Reliability, ie how long do they last. The build quality was pretty flaky, the case of the dongle pulled apart when I removed it from the OBD port.
But the biggest problem of all was simply how much data it could recognise. On some cars it could not connect to the OBD2 port. It simply did not recognise the car.
Which got me thinking. If it can’t connect to some cars, am I missing data from cars it does connect to? I mean, it says it has connected to the car but is it reading all the data that the ECU can give?
At this point I decided to forget the cheap OBD2 scanners on ebay and pony up some cash for a more expensive model. I chose the Vgate iCar2 and I haven’t looked back. It never fails to connect to the car and it picks up data the cheap OBD2 scanner missed.
The Vgate iCar2 cost around 4 times as much as the cheap OBD2 scanner but it has been worth every penny. It has lived in the car 24/7 for over 3 years now and it still does the business, no problems whatsoever.
I can’t recommend it enough.
You can buy the Vgate iCar2 here
And if you want to know how to setup your OBD2 scanner, check this article.