I purchaced an "Utlra gauge" and plugged into the OBDII diagnostic port, I'm in the process of calibrating it to record the MPG, currently it's reading to low. At the next fill up, I'll enter the gallons used, and it will start recording the actual mpg.
The gauge is pretty neat, it had 47 differant items for the TDI that I could monitor, there are 7 different screens that you can select. The cost was cheap, 55 dollars. It also will let me see the error codes, and reset them.
A short video follows.
The following is a list of the verious things it will monitor for the VW TDI. (more options for other types of vehicles)
Protocol: 9141
•Percent Engine Load •Engine coolant temperature (°F) •Engine coolant temperature (°C) •Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) PSI •Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP)(kPa) •RPM •MPH •KP •Ignition Timing Advance •Intake Air Temperature (°F) •Intake Air Temperature (°C) •Mass Air Flow Sensor output in grams/sec •Absolute Throttle Position Percentage •Boost Pressure, (Relative Pressure) (PSI) •Boost Pressure •Brake Horsepower 1 •Brake Kilowatts 1 •Torque 1 (ft lbs) •Torque 1 (N.m) •Brake Horsepower 2 •Brake Kilowatts 2 •Torque 2 (ft lbs) •Torque 2 •Volumetric Efficiency •UG Battery voltage •Mass Air Flow 2, Calibrated/Calculated •Instantaneous MPG •Instantaneous KPL •Intantaneous Gallons/Hour •Intantaneous Liters/Hour •Instantaneous L/100km •Distance to Empty(DTE)(miles) •Distance to Empty(DTE)(km) •Time to Empty (TTE) •Fuel Level •Oil Distance(miles) •Oil Distance(km •Service Distance(miles) •Service Distance(km) •General Purpose •Average MPH •Average MPG •Average Gallon/Hour (GPH) •Fuel Used (gallons) •Run Time •Distance (miles) •Average KPL •Average L/100km •Average KPH •Average Liters/Hour •Fuel Used (liters) •Distance (km)
[This message has been edited by CoolBlue87GT (edited 03-31-2014).]
I have a Scan Gauge II on my truck (6.0 Powerstroke Diesel) mainly to monitor water and oil temps. It has all of those MPG functions, but I've never played around with them.
Oh boy, Oh Boy, one more thing to take your attention off the road, WTF. while it is a good thing to be able to see just what your car is doing and what it is affecting while it is happening. but come on, all it takes is less than 1 second of inattention to get yourself into a world of hurt.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
Originally posted by 84fiero123: Oh boy, Oh Boy, one more thing to take your attention off the road, WTF. while it is a good thing to be able to see just what your car is doing and what it is affecting while it is happening. but come on, all it takes is less than 1 second of inattention to get yourself into a world of hurt. Steve
Steve, I understand your point, the "WTF" seems a bit unnecessary..
I've set the alarms for the verious things I want to be notified of, such as water temp, low voltage, low fuel, and so on. Because of the alarm feature, I do not need to take my eyes off the road. Since I installed it a few weeks ago, I've gotten over the golly geewhiz stage of a new product, find I'm looking at my cars speedometer more than the new gauge.
Last month, before I bought this gauge, I had a failure of a hose, which drained all the coolant out of the system, before the dash red "idiot light" came on, I noticed the temp gauge on the dash was quickly heading into the red area. I was able to pull into a gas station and shut to down before doing severe damage. I was able to fill the system up with water, and limp it over to the repair shop.
The engine usually runs between 190 & 195, I set the over temp alarm for 210, to give me an early warning that somthings not right. Since it's a diesel, fuel stops are monthly, instead of weekly, so the low fuel alarm is set for three gallons left to give me plenty of time to remember to fill it up. A few other alarms look interesting, I may turn those on, such as oil change, I can set it for # of miles in the future to remind myself it's time for an oil change.
Overall, I don't view this as a distraction, it actually lets me not monitor the dash gauges, giving me the pleasure of just driving and avoiding all the crazy drivers out there watching their gauges. lol
[This message has been edited by CoolBlue87GT (edited 03-31-2014).]
I had to google search to see what Trim levels were. I'm not sure if you can set an "out of trim level" alarm with this, check the website I posted above.
Following copied from my search.
The computer watches the output from the oxygen sensors, and adds more fuel, or adds less fuel to get the "perfect" reading from the O2 sensor. The amount it needs to add or subtract from the builtin values is the "fuel trim" So if your injectors slowly get plugged, it can keep adding more and more duration to the injector pulse to get the right amount of fuel in the cylinder. You will notice this as a long-term fuel trim getting towards the maximum of it's range.
The ecm can only correct for a certain amount, then the check engine light will come on. This usually happens at about 20%-25%, - or + A lean condition will set a P0171 and a rich condition will set a P0172 (174 and 175 for bank 2). These codes mean that the ecm has reached its limit and can no longer compensate due to some other problem
The documented use of such a device might actually help you have a higher re-sale value. You could potentially show that the systems were closely monitored and symptoms were eliminated before they had a chance to become problems. Could also show regular routine maintenance intervals. I for one would like to be assured that a previous owner took extra special care of the car I was interested in.
When I bought my GT, it had 62K miles on it and it was very clean and original. Less than a year later, it dropped a valve ruining the engine. Pretty and clean are no indications of reliability or adherence to scheduled maintenance.
I don't have an UltraGauge, but I do have a ScanGauge-II. It does pretty much the same thing. For some reason, it took quite awhile to calibrate the fuel economy gauge (7 or 8 fill-ups). I mainly use it as an auxiliary gauge pod in my daily driver. But it can also do diagnostic stuff like reading trouble codes, displaying engine sensor data, etc.
My main reason for buying it was so I could refine my driving technique to improve fuel economy. In that respect, the gauge was very successful. My daily driver's average fuel economy has improved by about 20%. The gauge paid for itself in less than 6 months.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 03-31-2014).]
I have thought about buying the HUD versions of those in the past for our GTP. I never really thought about a HUD before, but after having our GTP that has a factory hud that displays, Speed, Radio Stations and such, they are starting to look more appealing. If I could find a good one for OBD1 cars I would buy one for the Fiero.
------------------ 857GT Part 85GT Part 87GT Part Caddy, 93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything Now with Nitrous. Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics For Sale $4000, Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.
I have one in my 2006 Scion Xb. I think when I first installed it, it said that it found something like 56 or 58 gauges. I only use it for the temp and volts gauge. Stock the Xb only comes with, speedometer, tachometer, and fuel gauge and I just wanted to add a temp gauge and volts gauge because it didn't come with them otherwise I would of never got it. Plus it can do more as I'm sure you already know owning one yourself.
Have been using this gauge for about a year now, has helped me detect problems before the check engine light ever comes on. The unit will alarm when a pending code is dectected. I know of at least 4 problems over the last year that it detected that would have left me on the side of the road if I'd waited for an idot light to come on. Has paid for itself many times over.
Here's the unit after being fully dailed in, now reading correct mph & fuel usage.
[This message has been edited by CoolBlue87GT (edited 03-05-2015).]
I don't use them, but only because of my ignorance in HOW to use them and what the readings mean, but I see them as a very useful real-time visual/audio tool to use while driving as well as one you can look at after the fact thru logs--maybe even a printed out log. Changes can be made in the vehicle and driving habits, (or both) depending what the end goal of the user is. Performance, fuel economy, & it won't be long before you will be able to monitor bearing temps and wear on components and parameters such as coolant flow--any number of things. These type things can be done as part of any dash instrument scan that takes less than a second--no different than checking gas gage and water temp, which brings up another aspect. Many people complain about these add ons, but the same that do were also the first to complain about parts of the instrument clusters being deleted and an idiot light put in their places, then turn around and go buy a aftermarket cluster with water temp, oil pressure, even transmission temp, and of course, an aftermarket tach because their vehicle didn't come from factory with one. Can't tell ya how many times I saw those aftermarket clusters installed under the dash or over to the right where the radio might have been--they took out the radio and mounted a stereo somewhere else. I see this tech as a plus and wish I knew enough to be able to put them to use.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-05-2015).]
No Ultagauge, but I use Torque on my smartphone and an OBDII WiFi dongle. Seems like it might do all the Ultragauge does. $5 for the Torque app, $20 for the WiFi dongle.
Used it three times already to check trouble codes, so it's paid for itself already, so all the fun stuff is free.
I have an UltraGauge EM semi-permanently installed in our new 2015 Subaru Legacy. I use it to monitor mph, rpm, coolant temperature, intake air temperature, battery voltage, and throttle position by default. The Legacy's on-board computers already keep track of fuel consumption, so I'm not using any of those UltraGauge features. The Subaru has several CAN-bus PIDs that I'd like to track (e.g. engine oil temperature, transmission fluid temperature, and other transmission parameters) but aren't supported in the EM, so I'm thinking about ordering the more complex but more programmable UltraGauge MX. Overall, the UltraGauge has been a useful tool for this engineer/gearhead, who likes to know more about what's going on under the hood than the standard Subaru instrumentation reveals.
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 03-08-2015).]
After reading this thread I bought one for my Outback. It picked up 60-some odd guages. I'm going to custom mount it with my XM sat receiver using remote buttons since I won't have access to the back. I haven't had a chance to dig into it too much yet, but it looks like it should be well worth the investment.
