Scan Gauge II - With X Gauge

Put the Scan gauge in this afternoon - a nice piece of kit to help monitor various functions within the engine etc. Got the gauge side sussed but the trip and X gauge functions will take a bit more learning.

Managed to 400l/100km (yes 400) on heavy acceleration up hill but at 90kph on the freeway was down to 2.5l/100km.

On cruise control - the throttle seems to always be open even on overspeed but when driving normally you see 0l/100km when the foot is off the throttle.

The amber colour setting even matches the dash lighting. While appreciate it only has limited code reading capability it did say I have no codes in my system.

On the gauge selection I am going to use litre/hour fuel burn, instantaneous fuel consumption and turbo boost. Not sure about the other position as I am not interested in duplicating gauges and information already displayed on the dash.

Garry

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Originally Posted by garrycol

On the gauge selection I am going to use litre/hour fuel burn, instantaneous fuel consumption and turbo boost. Not sure about the other position as I am not interested in duplicating gauges and information already displayed on the dash.Garry

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I display Voltage and Water Temperature in degrees F, as well as the litres / hour; no turbo, so LOD, a readout of how hard the engine is working, or sometime the Vacuum - kind of similar.

I like having the water temperature read out as I find that most often, thermostats do not fail instantaneously, but over time they start to act up. By watching the water temperature in F as that is a "finer" readout, that if the numbers start to fluctuate, probably the thermostat needs replacing. The factory temp gauge will rarely move until the problem becomes severe, this way you tend to have a warning of trouble to come.

Fitted the scangauge and just did 900km on one fill so fuel burn has only just been calibrated.

Some interesting things though.

On cruise control the engine throttle still stays open a bit (1 litre/100km) even though the car is going faster than the speed set - explains my overruns where the car does not slow down in some circumstances. Without cruise control and throttle closed fuel does go to 0l/100km.

Water temp is around 95-97 degrees which I find surprising as most of my other vehicles are around 85 degrees.

Over the 905km out of the tank the car trip showed 7.7l/100km, the scan gauge showed 6.7l/100 and actual calculated was 8.8l/100km. Hopefully the scan gauge will be more accurate after doing a calibrated fuel fill. As mentioned in other threads I am surprised the car trip computer is so inaccurate.

Air intake temp was always just a little higher that outside ambient temp which implies the intercooler must do a pretty good job.

The two power figures - HP/% indicate that only about 30% power is needed to push the 2.5t along at 110km.

Boost is displayed but there is no chance of getting overboost so of limited value - I would prefer to have a EGT display but that is not available - whether the car ECU does not monitor it or it is that the scan gauge cannot display it I do not know.

I find the scan gauge well worth having but is a bit of a pain changing between the menus - particularly where I have it mounted behind the steering wheel. Once I understand the X gauge function I should be able to display the actual information I want in windows rather than having to scroll between different functions with my arm through the steering wheel.

Works well.

Garry

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Originally Posted by garrycol

Water temp is around 95-97 degrees which I find surprising as most of my other vehicles are around 85 degrees. Garry

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Water temperature has to me always been an interesting number; well that and voltage. The water temperature reading is of course where the sensor is, and voltage, the same, wherever the pickup point is and that is why I always found the numbers interesting - more an indication of what is going on rather than a statement.

On older vehicles, it was easy to know where the water temperature was taken - at the round brass threaded thing with the single wire coming off it, and for electrical, it seemed to be somewhere just behind the volt meter.

Now days however, or at least with the ScanGauge, the water temperature readings are generally wherever the engine computer takes them; the voltage, well that is a good question, but I think for the 3, it is the output voltage at the alternator, probably some pickup point inside the internal regulator as the voltage fluctuates a fair bit, at least on my ScanGauge from about 12.4 to 14.9, sitting mostly around 13.9 volts.

Water temperature on my petrol V8 sits about 93C on a 20C day.

95-97 seems high. Mine (2.7 D) shows 90-93 my V8 D2 showed 93-95. I have temp, speed, instant l/100 and trip l/100 displayed on mine.
The fuel economy took about 4 refills before it was calibrated right. I haven't bothered with the X-gauge as I get all the info I want.
Calibrating is annoying the first couple of times especially when you fill with 150 plus litres and the gauge is out by 40l or more.
My fuel economy isn't anywhere near yours. 10-11l/100 on Hwy 14-15l/100 in peak hour Sydney traffic.

I have done the first calibrated fill but things are still out - as mentioned might take 3 or 4 fills to get set right. Distance remaining in the tank is at least 100km out compared to the car trip meter. AVG fuel consumption is still less that the car system which is already 10% low.

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Originally Posted by eddomak

On the D4 3.0 it is near the accelerator pedal, facing down.

I use a bluetooth OBDII adapter that talks to my Android phone running the Torque App.

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Hi eddomak,

Today I found the torque app on the android app market. Looks promising. Can you please tell me a little more about your setup. What Bluetooth OBDII adapter do you use? Where did you purchase and how much? Do you get good info using this method? Can you reset codes etc?

Would you recommend it?

Thanks,
Peter

I'd recommend the Torque (Android) app - I have the PLX Kiwi bluetooth adaptor (bought off their on-line site), and it works well.

Cheers,

Gordon

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Originally Posted by gghaggis

I'd recommend the Torque (Android) app - I have the PLX Kiwi bluetooth adaptor (bought off their on-line site), and it works well.

Cheers,

Gordon

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Thanks Gordon. How have you used it? Is it for information only or can you actually do something with it?

It's essentially info only - I use it for distance/speed/acceleration and temp readouts. It does however, claim to be able to read engine ECU faults.

Gauges look quite good on an HD phone display.

Cheers,

Gordon