A CAN bus label does not automatically mean it will fit your car

CAN bus is the network most people picture when they hear about vehicle electronics, and it is genuinely the backbone for a lot of what a car’s modules say to each other. But CAN bus is not used for everything. Simpler components in a vehicle, things like certain switches, sensors and smaller control modules, often communicate over LIN bus, a lighter and cheaper network designed for exactly that kind of low-complexity signal.

Some circuits are simpler still, and are read as a straightforward analogue voltage rather than a digital bus message at all, which is what an ADC, or analogue-to-digital converter, line is for.

An immobiliser built to talk to CAN bus only is reading part of the car’s electronics, not all of it. On some vehicles that is enough to fully control engine start. On others, the exact signal needed sits on LIN bus or comes through as an analogue line, and a CAN-only device simply cannot see it.

When you are comparing immobilisers, “CAN bus” on its own tells you the device can read one specific network. It does not tell you whether that is the network your particular vehicle actually uses for the signal the immobiliser needs to intercept.

CAN-IMMO is built to support CAN bus, LIN bus and ADC bus, which is what allows it to describe itself as universal fitment rather than being limited to vehicles where the relevant circuit happens to sit on CAN. Installation is still vehicle-specific, typically around six connections depending on the car, with a fitting guide and programming number supplied for the exact vehicle it is going into.