Thread: Value of a Nanocom for 'Light' Work

Not sure about the setup with a puma but generally temp gauges are not that helpful for rapid coolant loss as the sensor needs water around it to read a temp......and even if the temp gauge does pick up something it rents to be too late.

A low coolant alarm would be a better option.

Although a nanocom will display the temp rather than the OEM gauge that sits somewhere in an ‘ok’ zone.

I monitor it all via my phone

- OBDC bluetooth sender , about $30 on ebay (I bought one from Jaycar for $60)
- Torque app ($4) from the app store

The OBDC sender plugs into the fuse box under the steering wheel.

Here is a screen shot of my current display setup (you can customise it, different type of displays, digital, analogue, all measuring a host of metrics available via the ODBC port). Bonus feature, each "meter" can be configured with an alarm eg water temp goes over 90c, battery under 13V etc

Screenshot_20181128-092019_Torque.jpg

Long term plan is to install a 8 inch tablet permanently into the dash where the radio is. Will allow GPS, Torque app and music

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a Nanocom more for fault finding and clearing than for monitoring? They are fairly cumbersome in terms of being permanently plugged in. I use a small Scanguage which shows engine temp, battery, etc live.

What's the consensus? A low coolant alarm would be good, but I'm pretty sure on a Puma the sensor on the coolant overflow would alert you to this, put you into limp mode? You'd then check / rectify problem / clear fault with Nanocom? or would it be better to have a separate low coolant alarm?

Originally Posted by Zeros

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a Nanocom more for fault finding and clearing than for monitoring? They are fairly cumbersome in terms of being permanently plugged in. I use a small Scanguage which shows engine temp, battery, etc live.

What's the consensus? A low coolant alarm would be good, but I'm pretty sure on a Puma the sensor on the coolant overflow would alert you to this, put you into limp mode? You'd then check / rectify problem / clear fault with Nanocom? or would it be better to have a separate low coolant alarm?

Yes ... but - The Nanocom does have a monitor function that allows it to behave similar to the Scangauge (displays a bunch of key parameters). I have seen setups where people have permanently mounted the Nanocom on the dash.

The OP was questioning whether the price of the Nanocom was worth is where its use would be infrequent.

To that end I think either your suggestion (Scanguage) or my earlier post would easily do the job and have a a sub $100 price tag


PS. I own a Nanocom, mandatory piece of kit when you have a P38. Just haven't purchased the cable and licences to suit the puma yet.

Yep definitely worth it in my opinion. Also good for when you will need to find and clear codes. And it will happen

If you do your own maintenance and fault find then it will pay for itself quickly, to use just as a gauge as mentioned above there are other cheaper options.

for about the same money as the Nanocom there is the GAP diagnostic tool. Being BT you can use Android or iOS to both receive live data feed (and record the feed) and fault testing & clearing. Worth my weight in gold to have a diagnostic tool at all times. I recently used it to fault find an earth on my throttle. The position sensor reading on the foot throttle body was working but the ECU feed data was showing zero. With that info i focused on the harness between the throttle body and ECU. Found the exposed wire under the steering column. Fixed on the spot and my trip continued. It's not recommended to use the GAP as a permanent fixture. I concur with those that suggested the ScanGauge as a permanent monitoring device.

is it worth it, BIG YES if you don't want to be the focus of ridicule of the ignorant toyota driver that feels compelled to tell you that his grandfather had a LR series on the farm and forever working on it, which is why he bought a toyota.

To be honest, I’m still confused by ‘fault finding’ with a Nanocom or similar.

When you find the fault, don’t you need to repair/fix the problem/fault before clearing the fault? What do you do if you don’t have the parts?