Community rules

OBD4 exists to help people diagnose and repair vehicles with legitimate tools. Discussion of security, repair, diagnostics, recovery and owner-authorised coding is welcome when it follows these rules and the law. These rules are part of the Terms of Use.

Not allowed

• Pirated software, licence bypasses, cracks, key generators, stolen credentials or unauthorised copyrighted files, including links to them or requests for them.
• Malware, dangerous executables, deceptive links and credential harvesting.
• Instructions whose main purpose is theft, odometer fraud, emissions fraud, unauthorised security bypass or other illegal harm.
• Harassment, hate, threats, doxxing, impersonation and spam.
• Publishing other people's personal data, including a VIN or registration number linked to a person, without their permission.
• Fake reviews, undisclosed commercial promotion and coordinated manipulation of votes. If you work for or sell a product you discuss, say so.
• Dangerous repair advice without appropriate context or warnings.
• Any other content that is illegal.

Good publications

• Name the tool and version, the vehicle (model, year, engine code) and what you already tried.
• Remove the last digits of your VIN and hide number plates before sharing them.
• Mark the reply that solved your problem as the accepted solution.
• Say clearly when something worked only for your configuration.

How moderation works

Moderators are people, and they review reports and queued publications. Automatic checks only do the following:

• A new member's first publication goes to a review queue, as does a new member's publication with more than two links.
• Limits on how often actions can be repeated help stop spam and abuse.

Moderators may hide, lock, move or remove content, and warn, suspend or ban accounts. The response depends on how serious the problem is and whether it has happened before. Serious cases can lead to a ban without a prior warning.

Every action is recorded with a reason. If it affects your content or account, you receive a notification with the decision and the reason.

If you disagree

You can complain within six months through the contact page. Someone will review the decision, and we will tell you the outcome and reverse the decision if it was wrong.