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Engine Temperature Gauge

16K views 56 replies 24 participants last post by  drheem 
#1 ·
Here is a possible temperature gauge. I can't believe we only get "idiot lights".
http://www.martelmeters.com/pdf/QM_110T.pdf

It is availible through digikey for $46, you will need to add
a sensor and power. I might put it in the dash tray above
the radio. K
 
#4 ·
I think the OBDII port is on the bottom of the sterring column. This seems like a really anoying place to have a cable attached all the time. That is what got me to thinking about the alternitives.

Things I would like to monitor:
Engine Temp.
Battery Temp. not availible on OBDII??
Oil Pressure. not availible on OBDII??

I have thought about the OBDII gauges, they were more costly
and did not seem really set up for constant use. K
 
#8 ·
Does anyone know how to get into diagnostic mode into our cars? Our radios whould be able to display speed like the 8th gen radio can.

It seems to me that the heater fan never kicks in while on auto until it gets warm so there has to be a sensor somewhere telling the climate control the engine temp
 
#9 ·
#12 ·
OK, I'm curious as to what 4 parameters you are going to be monitoring?
When it says it reads boost pressure, would that be from a separate sensor (seems to have multiple inputs), as I don't understand how it could get that from the OBDII data?

It looks interesting. Odd that transmission temperature is not one of the available options (or I missed it - oh look, a castle). I doubt you would need that data, but I've seen it on other similar gauges (the others in this thread).
 
#16 ·
Anyone know if Honda makes a SW upgrade that allows the engine temperature to be displayed as a selectable window on the information screen?
No they do not..
 
#19 ·
So, for those who bought hard-wired ODBII based gauges, what are you finding that you can access via these tools? I think they are a great idea, but I'm trying to figure out which one to use.
The PLX one is intriguing, but I'm not sure I want to run my phone down by using it as a display.
 
#21 ·
I have an Ultra Gauge. Have not tested it with the Cr-z but have used it with my Civic. It's a nice little unit. One of the things I don't like between the Ultra Gauge and Scan Gauge is that the UG isn't detachable from the OBD II cord. But, because of the price difference it isn't that big of a deal.
 
#27 ·
OK, I've been playing with the ScanGauge II for a few weeks, and have a clue about it, so I thought I would post a bit of a review here, for anyone else who is considering which way to go.

First off, here's the site:
ScanGaugeII : Linear Logic - Home of the ScanGauge

In Canada, you can buy from Gifford Automotive in Ottawa - good service and fast shipping, and price was comparable to getting it out of the USA. I paid $160 CDN, shipped, plus tax.

I really like the form factor, and the display. It is just over 4-3/4" long, 1.5" high, and 1" deep.
The display is backlit, and the device is powered off the ODBII port that it reads data from.
It does not tie up your phone, rely on bluetooth, or hog your 12V power supply.
I mounted mine fairly easily on the fugly chrome trim under the audio.

It mounts with supplied Velcro strips, and the included data cable is quite long.

Basic setup is a snap - you can tell it the units you want to use (SAE or Metric) for distance, temperature, and pressure, the engine displacement, fuel tank size, and whether or not the car is a hybrid, gas, or diesel.
After that, you are good to go (actually, you can probably skip the setup for a lot of the gauges and just hook it up out of the box).

The device can display four "gauge" values at a time, and there are about a dozen that it automatically pulls from the OBDII port. These include some we get on out dash, like RPM and fuel economy readouts, but also useful but missing things such as coolant water temperature, intake air temperature, MAP, and battery (12V) voltage.
Now some of the gauges are wonky, and I contacted the manufacturer (Linear Logic) about them. MAP seems to be all over the place, but if you select "Boost" instead (useful for me), it actually compares the MAP with ambient pressure, and the readings start to make sense. I think that the engine braking messed me up on the MAP readout.
It says that one of the standard values for the CR-Z is real-time horsepower, but that's bunk. I asked about this as well, and they calculate this value based on a number of parameters, including fuel consumption, using a proprietary formula. My suggestion would be that they make it an open source formula, so someone can "fix" it, because it is not working for the CR-Z. It also can tell you "engine load", but basically after 3,000 RPM, that is 99%, according to the gauge, so I don't see the purpose. Other readouts like fuel trim, I don't really understand - so I cannot tell you much about them.

Toggling between displays is as easy as pushing the button beside each readout, until you get the one you want. It is just a continuous loop, so if you miss it, just keep pushing until it comes round again. Setup uses the same buttons, and is quite intuitive to navigate. If you have ever scrolled though menus on a printer display, you can do this thing easy! The unit powers up automatically, and shuts off about 10 seconds after you remove the key (if you set to Hybrid - if you leave it as a gas car, it will shut off every time auto-stop happens).

Also included is what they call "X-Gauge", which seems to be a way to query the car's computer for additional readings. I have not played with that yet, but hope to find more hidden gems there some day.

As well as the real-time displays, it can show you trip history, including speed, RPM, distance travelled, and fuel used on the last outings. Again, I have not used that feature, as our car does a good enough job for me in this regard. Might be useful to tell on your son, who borrowed your car last night, though!
It can also keep track of "performance parameters" for a short duration - but this is not a feature that I can tell you about just yet.

The ScanGauge II also doubles as a code reading / resetting tool. Again, not something that I have dabbled into yet, and the Hondata FlashPro probably does a better job of displaying errors anyway. But you get this feature thrown in for the price, and who has their FlashPro and laptop with them everywhere they go, anyway?

But since our province just moved to OBDII emission testing, I figure that I can check for pending trouble before taking any of my vehicles in for a pass.
This device will plug into any OBDII port, and connect automatically, so you can swap from car to car with ease.

Although it is far from the fancy display that drheem set up, but the basic information is there and easy to read while driving. For the price, I'm going to give it 1-1/2 thumbs up.

Hope this is helpful to somebody.
 
#29 ·
Thanks - yes, you almost have to look twice to realize it is an ad-on. You can select different colour backlighting, and I chose blue which matches the rest of the CR-Z interior well. OneFitZ could actually pick a custom colour that matches his swapped out dash LED's though. It is really a neat little tool!
 
#31 ·
Garmin makes an item called a Garmin Mechanic that plugs into the OBDII port, and hides up under the dash. It communicates with any Garmin (with Bluetooth), or any android phone. It gives engine temp, voltage, rpm, intake air temp, vacuum, mass air flow, etc.

...and is less than $100.

I love it.
 
#32 ·
So, are you using this with a Garmin Navi unit, or on your smartphone?
When I looked it up online, I could only find reference to bluetooth connection to a phone, which I didn't want to do (tie up the phone, or use up the battery with a continuous bluetooth data transfer and presumably overriding display sleep mode).

Where I looked
 
#34 ·
You can see from my picture on the last page, where I installed.
The device has an input from the back, and another on the "passenger" side end.
Pulled the chrome trim, dremmeled out a square hole in it behind where I wanted to install the ScanGauge, and also made a hole in the plastic dash piece behind the console (an alignment pin and hole was sacrificed for this, but all the other clip holes are still there and holding the chrome trim on very well).

Once you have the chrome trim off (it just pulls straight back and out), you can get the black plastic trim piece (that is kind of the ceiling of the cupholder area) off - it just pulls down front-first, and swivel out the LED. You can then reach right through from the footwell (either side, if your car is RHD or LHD) to route the wire from the OBDII port. That is the only wire required (power comes from one pin off the OBDII port). There was lots of wire left over, so I just twist-tied it into a loop and set that on the part of the dash trim that is above the driver's knees (there is a lip there, and the looped wire stays put without rattling or fear of falling down). All tucked and neat.

The device uses supplied Velcro tape to mount, so I could align the data port at the back with the hole in the trim, and not sweat about it being off.

Just be sure of where you want to install, so that it does not rattle against the dashboard (to the left in my pic), or block the AUX port on the radio. I just marked the outline with painter's tape while the trim was still on the car, then used that to locate where to put the hole in the trim. Because that lined up with a mounting pin, it was easy to see where to put the corresponding hole in the dash behind the trim.

You could choose to locate it below the trim, without cutting holes, but that is further out of your field of vision, and interferes with the cupholders and gear shift.
 
#35 ·
So, are you using this with a Garmin Navi unit, or on your smartphone?
When I looked it up online, I could only find reference to bluetooth connection to a phone, which I didn't want to do (tie up the phone, or use up the battery with a continuous bluetooth data transfer and presumably overriding display sleep mode).

Mine is hooked to a Garmin 2460 GPS unit. it can have up to 5 gauges at once, but you can't view GPS info then...
 
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