Issues with bluetooth OBD2 adapter.
 

I received a my OBDLink LX yesterday and popped it on the car. Everything seemed to work fine, Torque was able to read everything as expected. I noticed that when I turned off the car the adapter stayed powered on. Is that normal? I don't recall if the OBD2 port should have constant power even with the car completely off or not. Either way, I figure this thing isn't going to drain my battery over night so I leave it. This morning when I start the car my dash was all lit up.. Check engine light, ABS light, traction control light, etc... but it started and idled fine. I shut down, pulled the bluetooth adapter and cranked the car again and had no issues. After reconnecting the bluetooth adapter torque reported no codes so I'm not sure what's going on. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
-Matt

I'm pretty sure mine keeps the light on. I'll let you know for sure by tomorrow.

Mine keeps the light on when I turn the car off - that is normal.
I unplug it whenever I leave the car. There is no reason to leave it there.

The OBDII port always provides power, even if the car is off.

The OBDLink LX is supposed to go into a power down mode when there is no activity to prevent power drain.

No idea why you would have had all the lights when you started the car with it in. I've never had that issue with mine.

Hmm.. yeah, seems the OBD port is connected directly to battery power so that's fine. I was hoping to leave my adapter plugged in all the time for extra gauges in Torque. I have it plugged in now so I'll check if all the lights come back on when I go to lunch today. Would be a pain to plug in/unplug it all the time. I suppose I can rig up some sort of extension cable with a relay to cut power when the ignition is off...

no lights on the dash this time.. maybe it was a one-off thing? I'll keep an eye on it. Strange...
-Matt

Just wondering if you had the "all dash lights on" issue again.... I am about to buy the LX and would like to get your input based on your experience

thanks!

No, I think it was related to trying to run the ActiveOBD android app. It is able to pull additional data from subaru ECUs and I use it on my Forester... but apparently the BRZ ecu is more toyota than subaru and it didn't like the commands sent from ActiveOBD. Since switching to Torque I've had no problems.
-Matt

FYI - I set up the OBD2 and connected it wireless to a Nexus 7 tablet so that when I started the car Torque would show. So I was leaving everything plugged in. But after a week with no problems, a problem! I found that I had to pull the OBD2 dongle when stopping the car overnight because it would throw 2 codes after driving 20 min the next day (always happened when slowing down from cruising 60 exiting freeway to feeder road). The dash board warning lights lit up and even when I unplugged everything and stopped and started the car several times it was still in 'limp' mode and would not go faster than 45 MPH. Went to a local mech shop and they reset my ECU. Everything works fine if I unplug whenever leaving the car for more than a couple of hours. But if I forget and leave the OBD2 plugged in, the same thing happens. After three times back to the shop, I figured out to unplug because it does SOMETHING although supposedly the OBD2 dongle has no reset or mod capabilities! It's read only so how is it affecting the ECU?

You could grab an extension OBD cable and splice a toggle switch between the ground and the voltage supply to the OBD reader.

OR add a relay in between the cable and the car accessory wire. Essentially a bypass loop

Think that could work

I put an obd extension cable in, wired it to a fused +12V so it's only on when the car is on, and added a ferrite filter around the wires. Haven't thrown a code since.

I've left my OBDLink plugged in my car for a few years now lol. Never had an issue with lights/error codes.

After leaving my car sitting for about a month, it wouldn't connect to my phone's torque app anymore, but I simply unplugged & plugged it back in.. it worked again like normal.

Also, I don't connect my phone to the bluetooth of the Nav/stereo system. I tried it once, and it makes the OBDLink/Torque app have problems connecting. I'd rather use the OBDLink/Torque app, so I deleted the phone connection on the car stereo.