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There are a lot of bluetooth and wifi obd adapters but only a handful of them(e.g blurdriver) claim that they can read and clear abs and srs codes, so I'm wondering whether a cheap elm327 based adapter can deal with srs and abs modules?

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    Beware that many ELM327 adapters out there are knockoffs and don't support all OBD-2 protocols. I have one, only worked on a 2008 Hyundai, didn't work on any other cars I've tried.
    – tlhIngan
    Nov 2, 2017 at 21:06

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Most "cheap" or "universal" type code readers are only going to be able to do things that are exposed as OBDII parameters. The car manufacturers are free to do whatever else they want using whatever proprietary protocols they want.

Air bags are not a part of the OBDII spec, and thus requires a special reader. Some readers might have the right protocols and may be able to read the airbag codes, but even then they might not be able to clear the code for technical or liability reasons.

Also, there's not a huge demand for a device that can do this because the airbag and SRS systems normally require other special tools that are out of reach for most do-it-yourselfers. They are critically important and delicate systems.

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  • That's correct. For the records, let me add that it's usually not a problem of the hardware, but of the software. As long as the ECUs speak UDS or KWP, even a cheap ELM327 clone can read out the ­– vendor specific ­– trouble codes. However you need the proper data base to be able to interpret them correctly.
    – DrMickeyLauer
    Feb 23 at 16:03

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