Attention "bad" adapters!
We faced the problem, that some adapters (often the cheapest ones), can’t connect to the car's ECU.
The reason is using of "bad made" clones of ELM327 instead of original chipset and firmware from Elmelectronics. You could notice potentially problematic adapters by: very low price, by MAC address (one can see it while connecting and searching for the device, so the adapter’s name will be detected and its MAC address) .
If the MAC address of your adapter
- starts with the numbers 66:35:56: ... or 88:35:56:...(for example, 66: 35: 56: 78: 90: AB)
- or 00:00:00:00:00:01
- or AA:BB:CC:11:22:33
- or 00:00:00:11:11:11 (fresh example from 2018 garbage collection, marked as version 1.5)
- or some other "strange looking" addresses
- be prepared that this adapter could fail to connect, support not all protocols, fail to read some data and what's more, they can cause problems with your car.
There are also some adapters that might be almost good while working with single ECU and short commands, but cold fail to get reliable results for cars with 2 and more ECUs and "long" commands like VIN or DTC readings. One of this could have followingg MACs:
00:1D:A5:68:98:8A or 00:1D:A5:68:98:8C
As well, there might be problems with other "no-name" Chinese adapters marked ELM327 v2.1.
Please follow the discussion below to get idea about the issues, ask questions and share your observations.
We ask to share with us the names, photos, links to these adapters to make a "black list" of such devices.
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To add to the wall of shame: https://www.ebay.com/itm/263860402148
An obviously suspect cheap bluetooth ELM237 2.1 type MAC 00:10:CC:4F:36:03. Checked on Opel Astra J of an uneducated friend. Caused the ECU to power off (?) putting the car into some sort of limp mode, ESP, power steering and check engine warnings popped up.
The funny thing is a single fault is indeed found in the app, it is ECU disconnect event. It cannot be cleared, since it disconnects 
Luckily after a few minutes powered off it can be started and driven normally, but with the check engine light on.
I have an adapter with the above mentioned Mac address and I leave it plugged into my 2007 acura Tl with a android Tesla style screen, and I have zero issues with the device. It has properly diagnosed my issues with my car. So what exactly are you saying about these adapters? Are you saying that they will do more damage than good?
