Scan gauge alternatives / Turbo gauge III

mulisha00

mulisha00

Well-known member
Apr 30, 2010
295
0
Dallas or some hotel away from home..
Just wanted to give you guys a heads up that may be interested in the scan gauge what I've just got.

Per all the advice on here I wanted a scan gauge to monitor that water temp. Even on my D1 gauge I don't trust as it never moves once at running temp.

Anyhow I searched ebay for a few days and ran across this Turbo Gauge that the seller informed me was the same as a scan gauge but with data recording. I literally opened it up 20 minutes ago and hooked it up. It works on my 96 d1 and reads a lot of the values that are listed. I think for sure it will not read the map sensor value. I have yet to "play" with it much.

It does read o2 values which is another big reason for me buying.

Hopefully at $125 shipped it will give some of you guys a cheaper option with the additional data recording option.

The auction that is still active and has the most time left is here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Turbogauge-III-obd2-scan-tool-trip-computer-scangauge-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ330463575407QQptZMotorsQ5fAutomotiveQ5fTools

Seller is a rookie from what I can tell but was very prompt in answering any question and had me a Canada tracking number which was worthless the day I paid. I got it in a 7 business days to VA so I was pleased.


Overall it looks like a quality piece and has no cheap "harbor freight" kinda feel to it. I'll post more when I get it. Anyone else have one or used one?
 
mulisha00

mulisha00

Well-known member
Apr 30, 2010
295
0
Dallas or some hotel away from home..
Is that the thing that I saw a glimpse of on an short commercial? I heard it from another room and ran in to find it sounded like what I just hit buy it now for a cheaper price. Its the same basic features correct?

Upon further reading of my instructions ect. The black box feature is kinda worthless in a sense of its more like what was the top speed of the vehicle. How many full throttle accelerations took place ect. Not o2 sensor value went to this at this time kinda stuff.

So far I'm getting that I have a dying alternator 12.ish volts while cruising along at 65. It goes in the 13's some. Also looks like rear o2 sensors are bad.
 
wheelen disco

wheelen disco

Well-known member
Jun 20, 2010
1,089
0
rice lake Wisconsin
http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm
It just got more expensive, its now 59 I got it for 39 two weeks ago, on my d2 it reads alot of stupid shit, but I use it for coolant temp mostly, the MPG and fuel level are all estimated but pretty close. The only reason I got it is because you can set alarms for everything, and I told the girlfriend if it goes off shut it down, she really doesn't drive it much, but she has managed to ruin some nice vehicles
 
R

rrc.swb

Well-known member
Nov 17, 2009
723
0
Northern VA
wheelen disco said:
http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm
It just got more expensive, its now 59 I got it for 39 two weeks ago, on my d2 it reads alot of stupid shit, but I use it for coolant temp mostly, the MPG and fuel level are all estimated but pretty close. The only reason I got it is because you can set alarms for everything, and I told the girlfriend if it goes off shut it down, she really doesn't drive it much, but she has managed to ruin some nice vehicles
Click to expand...
talk about inflation... Can you please start a new thread with your findings??? We don't want to hijack this one...:victory:
 
B

broken rover

Guest
that ultra guage looks fairly useful, but does it pull up codes, or just turn off CEL?
 
D

DevilDisco

Well-known member
Aug 3, 2006
160
0
Swansboro, NC
It pulls up current and pending codes and you can reset both, CEL (SES) or not.
Aside for finding out that all my guages are off a little it's a good piece of gear.
I found out that when I thought I was doing 25mph was doing 23 MPH, my coolant temp goes up to 221 on warm days. Fuel gauage dos not budge if I use a gallon of fuel when filled. My RPM is at least +100 RPM from what I though they were, but hey no more SES light. Saved a trip to the dealer and go a new purge valve, for half what that trip would have cost me.
Just trying to figer out the guages. It has MAF values, Air intake Temp, lots of interesting things.
 
B

broken rover

Guest
so essentially it is like a scan tool and various guages all in one.. I'd say that is pretty cool. Price isnt too bad either, pretty good actually. The website kinda sucks though, it doesnt really show the product in detail.. makes me wonder, is the plastic shell/ screen cheap looking? Is it GPS portable unit quality looking, or something you might buy in China Town and hope it works the next day?
 
M

MNinWI

Well-known member
Dec 19, 2007
83
2
I tried a ScanGauge II about two and a half years ago, it kept locking up. They sent a second one which had the same problem so I sent that one back too. D2, 2003.

The UltraGauge so far is working quite well for me.
http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm

I got it last week before they raised the price. I only have a few miles on the gauge so far so I can't say too much and since I have no pending codes have not had a chance to try it to identify and clear codes. So far it has less than an hour of use, but I hope it does not lock up like the ScanGauge II did. If it does, considering the low price that I paid I will put it on the shelf and use it on the next car or truck I buy instead of return it.

They are keeping the price low by keeping expenses really low. Example, no instructions in the package, you download those off of their website.

It is a new product. So far their website is not fully built up, there are several links on it that do not work yet.

On my UltraGauge, the unit listed the software version as 1.0 with the version date of Aug 13, 2010. I am not sure if that is the date that they built it or if that is a software version date.

The mount is kind of weird with a really long arm on it, but it works.

These types of units (ScanGauge, UltraGauge) work differently with every vehicle depending on what sensors are available to the OBDII connection. On my 03 D2, the UltraGauge listed the following:
9141 Protocol
no fuel tank sensor
uses MAF sensor

Voltage gauge is not available on UltraGauge. It was available on ScanGauge II, not sure why the UltraGauge won't read it.

Their website and instructions list up to 70 some gauges that it can monitor but they are clear that it varies with vehicle. On the 03 D2 (USA specification) it only has 38 available. The 18 default gauges that it displays in the instructions on the three main pages are all available, I changed three of the default ones to instead list engine output in percent, instantanious (instead of average) gallons/hour and mass air flow in grams/second (MAF2).

The average mpg and some other averages are continuously updated and are not reset until you manually reset them. Thus, if you drive 10k miles after you install it, the average mpg will be for all of those 10k miles. I would have prefered the averages to be reset with each tank fill, but I can re-zero them anytime that I want to so it is not a big deal.

It is too early to say if it is accurate for gallons used (and all of the other numbers based on that) and mileage, I might have to calibrate it for fuel use and for mileage but I won't know until I put a lot more miles on it. There are calibration procedures that I have not tried yet. Since a lot of the data is estimated by the software in the unit, I am unsure yet how consistent the readings will be, that will take a long time to figure out.

I am running stock tires, but if I was running the huge tires some of you use, the ability to calibrate the UltraGauge for mileage would come in handy.
 
D

DevilDisco

Well-known member
Aug 3, 2006
160
0
Swansboro, NC
broken rover said:
so essentially it is like a scan tool and various guages all in one.. I'd say that is pretty cool. Price isnt too bad either, pretty good actually. The website kinda sucks though, it doesnt really show the product in detail.. makes me wonder, is the plastic shell/ screen cheap looking? Is it GPS portable unit quality looking, or something you might buy in China Town and hope it works the next day?
Click to expand...

Actually I found the quality to be suprisingly good. The case is very much like a mini GPS. Even comes with a GPS style mount for the glass. For now I just put mine in front of the Transfer case lever. I get good visibilty from there and it blends in with everhthing down there when its off since everything is black. I still have to read the manual as you can customize the screens to show what guages you want. You get 3 screens displaying 6 (I think) guages of info, but the total number of gauges you can choose from are approx. 38. I like the alarm feature just have to figure out what engine temp I want to set it at.
 
E

Efox1111

Guest
I just ordered one of these yesterday, how long did it take to come in once you ordered. I seem to get any number of silly codes and MIL light on a lot and figured it was time to "man up" a bit and try diagnosing and fixing some of this shit myself.
 
M

MNinWI

Well-known member
Dec 19, 2007
83
2
UltraGauge came in about 3 days (to Wisconsin) but I am sure it depends on where you live.

A few years back a dealer quoted $107 to read the codes. I decided to instead buy a code reader, which I paid $100 for. Using the search function on this forum website with the codes I got off of the meter, I figured out in a few minutes where the vacuum line fell off of the connector. Reconnected the vacuum hose and no more codes. Thus, that code reader paid for itself in the first use.

I put the UltraGauge above the dash using the windshield mount, but I might move it to the same spot DevilDisco (above) cited where it would be less obvious. But for now when I am looking at it a lot, I will keep it up high.
 
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