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I have read that those cheap OBD2 readers can kill your ECU if you leave them plugged in forever (Especially the crappy ones used by insurance companies to monitor your driving).

Archive: https://archive.today/4CpbV

From the post:

>It’s no real secret that modern-day cars are basically a collection of computers on wheels, which also means that we get all the joys of debugging complex computer systems and software with cars these days. Rather than a quick poke under the hood to rebuild a carburetor and adjust the engine timing by hand, you’ll be pulling out a scan tool to gain access to the computer and figure out why the darn thing won’t start after someone else used a scan tool on it, as happened to [DiagnoseDan].

I have read that those cheap OBD2 readers can kill your ECU if you leave them plugged in forever (Especially the crappy ones used by insurance companies to monitor your driving). Archive: https://archive.today/4CpbV From the post: >>It’s no real secret that modern-day cars are basically a collection of computers on wheels, which also means that we get all the joys of debugging complex computer systems and software with cars these days. Rather than a quick poke under the hood to rebuild a carburetor and adjust the engine timing by hand, you’ll be pulling out a scan tool to gain access to the computer and figure out why the darn thing won’t start after someone else used a scan tool on it, as happened to [DiagnoseDan].
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[–] • 1 pt

Oh, to clarify this was a combo article and video on the matter. I did not have it happen to me. I have used scanning tools (some with write ability) since I am a crazy person but I have never killed a ECU myself.

Oh, well then I wonder what the person was using or doing that caused that. I suspect there's details that were left out because he probably was doing things that are outside the norm for such tools.