Thread: OBD2 and smartphone ap.

It will depend on what you are hooking up to.

OBDII is a diagnostic protocol and is not really supported beyond reading engine fault codes on pre 2006 passenger diesels.

On the D2 Td5 for example you can read and clear engine codes and see real time data for road speed, rpm, throttle % and calculated load.

D2 V8's have far better OBDII coverage as this was mandated for Petrol engine passenger vehicles from 1996.

As vehicles get more recent there is more you can do via OBD-II but this is still really aimed at testing for emissions compliance, not providing dealer level configuration.

The Nanocom (and Hawkeye) are the only tools to consider if you want to be able to reconfigure and diagnose ALL the systems on D2. For the D3 and later there are more players and you have more choices but none of these are just a dongle and app.

The closest thing to an OBDII app with reasonable diagnostic capability is the Launch X431 iDiag which will access virtually all the systems on a D2 (except ACE) for diagnostic and some very limited configuration options. The interface is around $120 but you also need an unlock which covers the entire LR range up to 2012 for $66US a year.

cheers
Paul

i have used Torque and a cheap bluetooth dongle with my samsung phone on my 2008 defender, quite handy to find out what the temp was doing when the engine cuts out. can reset error codes, theres a bit of mucking around setting things up and personalising the screens. I havnt had any issues but a mate had his bluetooth dongle die and cause all sorts of grief to his 2013 triton, unplugged and all reset ok.

I leave the bluetooth dongle in all the time, powered up, hasnt caused any issue yet! it beats trying to juggle the size 12s around the cable hanging between while driving up the road.

I tried the heads up displae option, it reflects double from the windscreen.

I also have the torque program on my tablet but it is a little slow.
I am hoping the trending can be used to make Hyundai do their job and fix the air con in the wifes new car, can record to graphs etc.

I use the Torque Pro ($4) and a $20 Blue Tooth dongle on a S2 phone and a S G Note 10.1 tablet. Works well on the P38, SWMBO's 2005 Astra AH (canbus), BIL's Subaru Impreza, etc. etc. It is simply a scan tool with ability to reset adaptive EFI values and clear some trouble codes. Reported maxed out (+25%) Long Term Fuel Trim values on recent interstate trip in the P38 and alerted me to a leak in the inlet manifold which was causing other problems... wouldn't have been alerted to it or been able to diagnose the problem as quickly otherwise. Not a substitute for Nanocom or Faultmate but extremely useful.

Thanks for the feedback. (And thanks mods for putting the thread in the right spot).

Originally Posted by OffTrack

On the D2 Td5 for example you can read and clear engine codes and see real time data for road speed, rpm, throttle % and calculated load.

Hi Paul,
can you catch this data in the D2 TD5 with a simple OBDII dongle?

Hi,

I am using the DashCommand App on iPphone, and it gives me the basic bosch ECU information and allows me to read a bunch of stuff on my P38.

A worthwhile investment but limited in it's functionality

Steve

Originally Posted by mzs

Hi Paul,
can you catch this data in the D2 TD5 with a simple OBDII dongle?

I have used two different ELM327 based devices - both with genuine ELM chips - to do so. Can't comment on the cloned chips but I can't see why not.

cheers
Paul

Add: attached screenshots of what is reported by a D2 Td5 via OBD using a cheap chinese interface that has had the cloned elm327 replaced with a genuine elm327 v2.0 chip.

Thanks, i will give a try based on that.