Strange plug under heater controls

[chrisd59]

Just under the heater controls in front of the gear stick is a small panel which unclips. Inside on the LHS is a small yellow/black plug - looks a bit like an i-pod connection but I guess it's nothing that exciting. Anyone got any idea what it is? MArk II Megane Sports Tourer Dynamique1.9dci.

[ANDI]

hi Chris
do you mean the panel right down by the cup holders, if you do,thats where my local garage and probably every garage plug in the diagnostic kits to find and trace any problems ,
its amazing what they can do these days

[TheFinn]

Yeah it's the diagnostic/OBD2 socket.

The diagnostic computer of the Renault garage plugs into it, plus at least here in Finland at the annual technical inspection the MOT man plugs in his equipment to read possible OBD2 error codes (mainly emission related) stored in the fault memory. Any stored fault codes means an automatic MOT failure at least here in Finland. AFAIK, the OBD2 test should be mandatory within the EU to all cars first registered after 2001, IIRC. CMIIW.