Scanguage II

I wanted to be first at something so I figured I'd be first to post in this section and review the Scanguage.

There has been a bit of talk about these things lately and the talk is justified. These toys are capable of providing car owners with so much useful information that it seems quite silly not to have one.

For $200 there will be more than a few of us who don't come close to using these things to their full potential but even in the most basic form they are well worth it. To be able to see at a glance things like temperatures, speed (which can be calibrated), RPM's, fuel usage, fuel costs and many others things not only helps a driver understand their vehicle but can also help them driver better and more efficiently.

Added to this the Scangauge's ability to read engine codes which can then alert the owner to errors the car might have before they become a problem this toy also becomes a valuable tool in keeping your car running properly.

As with any toy there is a learning curve and that curve may be steeper for some but all in all it's well worth learning even the basics operations of these things.

Installation is a piece of cake and entirely up to the vehicle owner. The plug is usually found under the dashboard to the left of center (although some vehicles may vary) and once plugged in the unit can be routed just about anywhere with the 1.5 meters of cable provided, Sticky Velcro is even provided to allow the gauge to be stuck somewhere.

Overall these things are a great bit of gear and are compatible with most newer vehicles, and there is a list at their website showing which vehicles are compatible.

Although these things are made in the USA and can be brought from OS there is an Australia distributor at
ScanGaugeII - Australian Sales - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool - Ample Outdoors I believe somewhere on the Australia website there is a statement claiming that and warranty claims/repairs will only apply to Australia brought units so buying from OS may not be that viable, but having said that I don't know anyone who's needed a warranty claim. And with their postage which took less than 3 full days when I made the purchase the few extra dollars spent to buy locally was well worth it.

One thing owners of a Scangauge should be weary of is that some dealerships frown upon this types of things being connected to vehicles. Reasons may vary but the bottom line here is that if you take your car in for its service at a dealership either remove the gauge first or at least be ready for them to say something. They obviously can't stop you using one but they could technically make it hard for warranty issues on new cars if they wanted too.

If you can't already tell I like these things!

Got any pics of the different screens you get mate?

for some reason on my 08 navara the live figures for fuel, etc including fuel trip data only work when set in GAS mode. when in DIESELA or DIESELB i cant get any of those figures to work.

i sent it back to them to check it out and they couldn't flaw it so sent me a new one. so i'm just using it in GAS mode now, but just calibrating it for correct fuel consumption.

Sorry I haven't got any images of mine, I haven't even got mine mounted yet, it's got to go in for it's first service next week so mounting will happen after that.

As a web designer myself I hate it when external sites link only to my images so I wont post images from the Scanguage website but check out the link above it shows a number of different screens, including different illumination colours, and it also has a list of what gauges can be shown.

Basically there is room for four different gauges to be shown at any given time although that doesn't mean other gauges aren't recording data. There is 4 different screen colours so that it can be read quite easily under most conditions and it's only about 122mm x 38mm x 25 mm so it can fit almost anywhere

maddogrc said:

for some reason on my 08 navara the live figures for fuel, etc including fuel trip data only work when set in GAS mode. when in DIESELA or DIESELB i cant get any of those figures to work.

i sent it back to them to check it out and they couldn't flaw it so sent me a new one. so i'm just using it in GAS mode now, but just calibrating it for correct fuel consumption.

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I didn't have any issues setting mine up as DieselA once the engine was warm, before the engine was warm it looked like it could have been trying to use DieselB but 10 mins of running and do as the book says and DieselA was proven right.

If I'm not mistake too the GAS mode you refer to is actually petrol and not gas as we know it in this country. Because the gauge is made in the US it has GAS and LPG not petrol and gas like we tend to call it.

KraftyPg said:

I didn't have any issues setting mine up as DieselA once the engine was warm, before the engine was warm it looked like it could have been trying to use DieselB but 10 mins of running and do as the book says and DieselA was proven right.

If I'm not mistake too the GAS mode you refer to is actually petrol and not gas as we know it in this country. Because the gauge is made in the US it has GAS and LPG not petrol and gas like we tend to call it.

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yeah, by GAS i mean petrol

like all those kW and other included options for Xgauge function dont work unless its on GAS (petrol) mode.

what year is your nav?

also do you have it on ISO mode?

Oh ok well all those work on mine with DieselA selected.

Mine is an 09 D40 STX (guess I should put that in my sig).

I don't believe its on ISO mode, i just plugged the thing in and everything worked, I haven't really changed any of the settings other than making it metric.

Oh and a note from further up there is actually 7 standard screen colours and a custom mode which allows more.

well i know another guy with a d22, fairly sure an older model has a scangauge running in iso mode and is fine...

next time 4wding will have to try it on various cars of different years to see...

They do claim that it doesn't work on all cars and that some functions may work on cars they don't list but in general people I've spoken too all seem to be getting similar results. But each person is different with what they have it read so what is working properly to one person may not be working properly to another

all in all i give a thumbs up to it also!

great handy little product, but would be awesome if i knew how to add extra programs/sensor readings........that actually work, lol

i've googled and found oil, outside temp, pressure, and a few others, but they just dont seem to work?

you got any custom ones?

I haven't even looked into adding gauges yet, I'm still getting used to all the stuff it does from the factory. I haven't even delved into the X-gauge add on that much yet.
I just don't drive enough these days and playing with all the settings isn't something I've had time to do because there is so many of them.

I am with you KraftyPG I reckon the Scangauge is a good bit of kit. It gives you so much more info than what is standard on the Navara.

Colour wise it is possible to get the Scangauge to replicate the Orange ish colour of the D40 dash instruments by using a custom colour......have aplay and you will get the colour the ssme.

How does it pick up its information guys?

Is it wired in to sensors or something?

It's plugged into the OBD2 (On Board Diagnostics ver2) port, usually located around the steering column.

It's the same port the Nissan service guys use to run diagnostics tests when you get a service.

ah ok that makes sense.

Cheers

Just a note on Scanguages

I've just been doing some manual calculations on my fuel economy and for the last 3 tanks I've averaged 10.2 Lt/100 under normal driving conditions. I'm in regional Vic so the traffic isn't as bad as peak hour Punt Rd but there is still stop signs and 60k zones just not as much stop start.

The thing that I found most interesting is that scangauge reported the same average to be 11.9 Lt/100. Now this isn't a problem and by no means changes my mind about how scanguages preform because there is so much more to them but it does show that a scangauge is only as good as where it gets it's data from.

Given that the ECU doesn't know how many liters are in the tank because even the fuel gauge doesn't report this information (in litres anyway) the scangauge can only take your word for how many litres there are. With the engine running the ECU counts the squirts from each injector not the physical amount of fuel being delivered and both scangauges and car computers base their mileages on the number of squirts. The quantity in each squirt may have a theoretical value but it will never be exact due to a wide range of conditions. While these errors may be minor it can throw out fuel figures over a period of time.

Like I said this isn't enough to discourage me using this toy but it shows there can be differences between recorded and manual calculations. I wont stop using the scangauge to measure fuel economy but I will be making sure I spend 30 seconds making the calculation needed to get my figures the old fashioned way so I can compare the two.

I just got my scangauge and started playing with it. If you are a gadget kinda guy you will love it! Just need to figure the best way to mount it now.

kraftypg: Did you calibrate the gauge? I haven't had it long enough to calibrate the gauge but at the moment the fuel consumption seems to reading somewhat high.

Interestingly the speed reported on the Scangauge seems to be accurate, which makes the inaccurate speedo in the car even more annoying as the ECU does know the correct speed!

the 08 str must have somewhat different programming as none of my fuel figures work at all unless in GAS (petrol mode)

i even had scangauge replace the unit with a brand new one and still does it?

wonder whats different between the str and dx d22 utes ECU-wise...

Yes the gauge is calibrated as per the way the manual says it should be and like you before it was fully calibrated I thought mine was reading wrong. I can now confirm it's readings are different compared to a simple calculation of fuel used versus distance traveled but due to the way it gains its information its not hard to see why such errors are possible.

The gauge is only as good as the ECU and the ECU is only as good as the information it's programed to receive. If you expect 100% accuracy on any gauge you'll need to spend more than $200.

maddogrc said:

wonder whats different between the str and dx d22 utes ECU-wise...

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With some of the differences I'm seeing from one supposedly identical car to another it could be something as stupid as the programmer had corn flakes for brekky on the day he did yours and fruit loops on the day he did another.

As much as they probably wont admit it it could be the way different dealers do things as well given that each of them have the ability to re-write atleast some of the ECU.