Scan Guage

T

thataway

Active member
I purchased a Scan Gauge for the Yukon before we made out trip out West this Spring. The vehicle had many of the functions built in, but I could not watch them all at once. The scan gauge will allow you to view 4 "gauge perimeters in digital format: examples are voltage (as an economy feature the alternator output decreases and voltage an drop to 12.5 when the engine is running--sort of spooky--and I wanted to monitor this), Average miles per gallon, instant miles per gallon, Transmission fluid temperature, fuel burn rate, coolant temperature, RPM, boost pressure, instantaneous HP, throttle position, vacuum, fuel used, fuel left, range, etc--all of which can make your driving more efficient.

There is also a "trip meter"--which shows current trip, yesterday's trip, total mileage, this also shows items like the average mileage, coolant temp, max speed, as well as average speed etc. Makes log keeping much easier--and if you forget to reset the odometer--it is automatically done after the vehicle is not used for 8 hours.

The gauge also reads out any diagnostic codes, and the conditions which were present when the code occurred.

The one part I have not used is performance--such as o to 60, or breaking-distance, but the latter would be very handy to know when towing to check to see how well the trailer brakes are working....

Just yesterday, I found out that Scan Gauge not makes a unit for diesels, and have put one on the RV.

Both of these plug into the OBD port. (Square one on the gas engines, 6 or 9 pin round on the diesels. Two years ago, I lost all of the analogue gauges on the RV for about 1500 miles, until I found a tech who know how to reset the gauges. The Scan gauge would have monitored this for me, and saved a lot of worry--as well as helping to improve the driving habits.
 
Bob, Sounds like a nice device, useful and efficient. Where did you find it? and where is it mounted and what does it look like? Thanks.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Autozon sells them, but don't usually have it in stock.

I have one in my Saturn Vue becuase I missed having the economy monitoring features that my old Buick had. Works well.

One note- if you have Onstar, they will not be able to upload vehicle data while the Scan Gauge is plugged in, and your oil change reminder light will not work either.
 
I've had a ScanGauge II installed on my Land Cruiser since 2009. The gauges are great, but the biggest benefit for me has been the ability to scan the engine computer for trouble codes and reset them when necessary (i.e., turning off your check engine light). If you're a DIY'er, it can save you quite a bit of money in auto repair.
 
Great to get your real-world review. I've had a Scan Gauge II in my cart at Amazon, just waiting to gther up a few other things for an order. Knowing transmission temps (and what drives them up or down) will be really useful.
 
Sorry about the typo. Yes I put one on an 8.3 liter ISC Cumminsdiesel on the rv.

The rv unit is mounted on the top of the dash right above the instrument cluster. On the Yukon it is on the steering column. It partially blocks the view of the transmission selector display. But in manual mode the gear is visible

On star is blocked, but the oil indicator % works fine in my vehicle.

I did purchase thru Amazom.com.

On the diesel it stays on all of the time, even with the key off so I unplug it.
 
I have used a Scan Gauge for a few years now on my E450 Super Duty 7.3l diesel. Works very well and is great to have. I recommend it !
 
Scan Gauge is one useful tool. If you have used one for a few years, check the website for the software version and upgrade instructions. The guage updates are well worth it. I had mine back in a week. Allot depends on the vehicle that you plug it into. It shows the tire temperature and pressure on all four wheels, fuel rail pressure on my Dodge diesel, transmission temps and lots more. Also, check the website for specific vehicles. They have X-guage codes you can program to read more date. You can email them with your vehicle and get program codes that are being tested. They are interested in your feedback.

Chris
 
Thanks to Matt mentioning that Autozone carries them, I stopped and picked one up at an Autozone in South Dakota. I'm going to try to get it operational prior to traversing the Continental Divide (we'll see how patient I am and how fiddly it is).

I had planned on getting one from Amazon, but was having the "now where will I be when this shipping would arrive" problem so had put off completing the order.

Sunbeam :hot
 
Sunbeam, its plug and play. The hardest is deciding what you want to monitor--as well as remembering to hit "more" then "refill" after you fuel up...then back to "Gauge".
 
You know, Thataway is right -- it wasn't bad at all! I'm the sort of person who will buy a new tech device and then throw it in a drawer for six months just to avoid the potential frustration. But even I had the Scangauge up and running within ten minutes.

I did have one small hump: I found that it would not display "TFT" (transmission fluid temperature) right out of the package on my vehicle - and that was the number-one thing I wanted. However the manual said that for many vehicles there were additional codes that you could add once you got the numbers (free) from the scangauge website. I didn't have Internet access on my computer at the time, and my phone was making a mess of their website, so I texted a friend to see if he would look up the info for me, which he did.

Turns out each extra feature includes four categories of numbers to input. There were many options, but I was only looking for TFT currently. After the text came in I pulled over into a wayside, and within ten minutes had it all set up and displaying transmission fluid temp :thup

Although the unit can do quite a few things (gauges, mileage, reading codes), I'm currently using it in gauge mode. There is a display in each corner for four total visible at any one time. Each position can display any of the options, and you can also cycle through them easily.

I currently have RPM, water temp, transmission fluid temp, and MPG showing. The first three are very useful, and the fourth is just kind of for fun, and is probably the one that I'll change first when I want to display something else.

After setting it up I drove a few hours so I was able to get some baseline data before heading into the mountains tomorrow (read the surge/disc brake thread with interest as that is what I currently have).

Seems like a really handy and useful bit of kit.

(I also picked up an IR thermometer for checking bearing/other temps.)
 
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