Made in USA. 3 Yrs Limited Warranty on ScanGauge Monitors
For most of us the main use of our ScanGauge is to monitor the gauges in the real time. The gauges like transmission temperature, water/ coolant temperature, battery voltage, horsepower and so on. Most of us also do know how to read and clear the trouble codes with the ScanGauge if the engine light goes on.
But I guess not many of us fully utilize the TRIP COMPUTER function to monitor and to improve their FUEL ECONOMY.
As per the user manual to use the car trip computer and to get the correct fuel consumption we need to complete the initial setup which include the fuel type, currency, tank size, engine size and pressure units etc.
One of our good customers recently tried to monitor the fuel consumption one his last outback adventure and here are his findings.
Enquiry from our customer:
‘My Scangauge2 was purchased about early 2012. It has Version 4.06 Firmware. It is fitted to a 2011 Landcruiser 200 series, 4.5litre diesel engine, fuel tank 138 litres.
I corrected fuel consumption figures when it was new, until it seemed accurate enough to no longer bother doing it, and since then I have not been correcting the fuel consumption.
During a recent outback trip, I felt that my Scangauge was not reporting correct fuel consumption. For several sections of this trip, I was travelling in convoy with other people who were towing the same model of camper trailer weighing about 2200 kg, obviously on the same road at the same speeds, with a similar vehicle. Terrain varied from flat highways to slow, steep 4WD roads. We compared our fuel consumptions. After deciding to correct the Scangauge, I did the following:
At the first refill, my Scangauge recorded less fuel consumption than actually occurred. I corrected this.
At the second refill, Scangauge recorded more fuel consumption than actually occurred. I corrected this again.
At the third refill, Scangauge recorded less fuel consumption than actually occurred. I corrected this.
At the fourth refill, Scangauge recorded more fuel consumption than actually occurred. I corrected this.
In each case, the reported consumption was substantially incorrect, something like 20%, and oscillated between an over figure and an under figure. The discrepancy did not become smaller with each adjustment.
Next, I tried to correct Scangauge by making a smaller adjustment at two refills, but it still did not work. Unfortunately I did not keep any further information about this.
I did not keep any precise records of the discrepancies, because I kept expecting Scangauge to revert to the correct figures after each refuel.
I always refilled on level ground, to the same full level, in substantial volumes between about 60 litres and 110 litres.
You mentioned that a firmware update might correct the Scangauge accuracy, but I’d like to have an assurance of this before getting it done. The $50 does not bother me, but the accuracy is more important.
Has anyone else had this experience? Can you suggest a solution?
I love my Scangauge to bits, so I really hope you can sort me out, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.’
So why the fuel consumption was not reporting correctly?
To explain this behaviour, this is likely due to not following the fill up procedure for a while.
Of course considering that the intial set up (user manual page 12) and the calibration (user manual page 22) was completed correctly. We need to take the note here that the trip fuel consumption is not reported as one parameter from the vehicle’s ECU. It has to be calculated by the computer over certain number of trips in order to get the accurate information.
When you don’t follow it for weeks or months at a time and then go back to entering this information there will be an adjustment period. When a ScanGauge is brand new it can take 3-5 fill ups for the readings to be accurate, depending on the vehicle. Now add in an X amount of time of trip data without the fill up procedure being followed and this adjustment period could be larger than the original 3-5 fill-ups.
A firmware update would possibly help to get to the accurate reading faster as it would also clear out all old data and help start fresh with the fuel economy.
Our customer has decided to keep carry on with the current firmware version and work on the calibration so we will update you what were his findings- how many fill-ups did it take to get the fuel consumption reporting correctly once the feed-back from him is received.
Do you have any interesting findings, news, announcements or a story about your ScanGauge? Contact Us!