Scangauge MPG

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Originally Posted By: zloveraz
UltraGauge actually has a great tool to look up your vehicle and it will list what your ECU can provide: http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/support/support.htm (select the gauge availability estimator)

ScanGauge has a similar option: http://www.scangauge.com/support/pdfs/XGAUGE.pdf (this will open a PDF)

Uhh... no BMW on either one of these.

I just bought the BT adapter/dongle thingy. We'll see what I can read, but I'm guessing not much. Oil temp/pressure was really the main thing I was hoping for. Most of the other stuff like MPG I can get on my OBC directly.
 
Your best bet would have been to borrow a live data scanner from a friend or Chinamart and grab the list of the PIDs for your car.

- Vikas
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Your best bet would have been to borrow a live data scanner from a friend or Chinamart and grab the list of the PIDs for your car.

- Vikas

Well, I already have an OBDII scanner (VAG-COM), but it is more VW/Audi specific. It can only read basic info from my BMW, and oil temp is not part of it.

However, another poster here, shanneba has AutoEnginuity scanner and is able to pull oil temp info through it from the same engine as mine, so I know it's possible:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2019460#Post2019460
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Your best bet would have been to borrow a live data scanner from a friend or Chinamart and grab the list of the PIDs for your car.

- Vikas


Well, so it turns out that finding a list of BMW-specific PIDs is not an easy task. Would a live scanner tell me the actual PID codes which are necessary to access the relevant info using an app such as Torque? Or does the scanner only present PID descriptions and their scanned values but not the actual IDs?
 
It probably depends upon the scanner. I don't think my scanner shows the raw PID but let me re-check that. Aren't generic PIDs standardized? I remember reading some public domain OBD-II source code sometimes and there must have been a decoder ring in that program. I do know that scanner issues a command to the car cpu to get the list of supported PID's and then scans each. I believe the list returned is only for the generic PIDs.

- Vikas

Here is a snapshot of a late model BMW 135i (stolen from ultra-gauge) (The list that you referred to probably had a mix of generic and proprietary PID's. Professional scanners are capable of getting the manufacturer specific PID's but I think they have to pay the licensing fees to respective manufacturer. That is one of the reason why pro-scanners cost lot more than my run of the mill Horror Freight scanners :)

Vehicle #1
Manufacture Date: 05/2008
Transmission: Manual
Protocol: 11-bit CAN

Open/Closed Loop Emissions Status
Percent Engine Load
Engine coolant temperature
Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 1
Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 1
Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 2
Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 2
Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) PSI
RPM
MPH
Ignition Timing Advance
Intake Air Temperature
Absolute Throttle Position Percentage
Bank 1 Oxygen Sensor 2 Voltage
Bank 2 Oxygen Sensor 2 Voltage
ECM RUN TIME
Distance traveled with Check Engine Light on
Fuel Pressure diesel (very high pressure)
Commanded Evaporative purge Percent
Fuel Level Percent
Number of warm-ups Since Check Engine Light cleared
Distance traveled since Check Engine Light cleared
Barometric Pressure (inHg)
Catalytic Converter Bank 1 Sensor 1 Temperature
Catalytic Converter Bank 2 Sensor 1 Temperature
Battery Voltage
Relative Throttle Position Percentage
Ambient Air Temperature
Absolute Throttle Position Percentage
Accelerator Position 1 Percentage
Accelerator Position 2 Percentage
Commanded Throttle Position Percentage
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Vikas

Here is a snapshot of a late model BMW 135i (stolen from ultra-gauge) (The list that you referred to probably had a mix of generic and proprietary PID's. Professional scanners are capable of getting the manufacturer specific PID's but I think they have to pay the licensing fees to respective manufacturer. That is one of the reason why pro-scanners cost lot more than my run of the mill Horror Freight scanners :)

Vehicle #1
Manufacture Date: 05/2008
Transmission: Manual
Protocol: 11-bit CAN

Open/Closed Loop Emissions Status
Percent Engine Load
Engine coolant temperature
Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 1
Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 1
Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 2
Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 2
Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) PSI
RPM
MPH
Ignition Timing Advance
Intake Air Temperature
Absolute Throttle Position Percentage
Bank 1 Oxygen Sensor 2 Voltage
Bank 2 Oxygen Sensor 2 Voltage
ECM RUN TIME
Distance traveled with Check Engine Light on
Fuel Pressure diesel (very high pressure)
Commanded Evaporative purge Percent
Fuel Level Percent
Number of warm-ups Since Check Engine Light cleared
Distance traveled since Check Engine Light cleared
Barometric Pressure (inHg)
Catalytic Converter Bank 1 Sensor 1 Temperature
Catalytic Converter Bank 2 Sensor 1 Temperature
Battery Voltage
Relative Throttle Position Percentage
Ambient Air Temperature
Absolute Throttle Position Percentage
Accelerator Position 1 Percentage
Accelerator Position 2 Percentage
Commanded Throttle Position Percentage


Yeah, these are just the generic ones that the Torque app picks up on its own as well. But I know there is more. I know some prof scanners can read oil temp for example, so there's got to be a PID for it.
 
Well, isn't a PID only 8-bit identifier? All you have to do is try all the 255 values until you find the right one :)
 
I think it's a 4-digit code, so theoretically there are 10,000 possibilities. But testing blindly isn't of much use since I won't know what parameter the value I obtain represents.
 
I believe it is 8-bit code. 0x5C is the PID for engine oil temperature.

I am guessing that it follows the same format as the engine coolant temperature which returns single byte as results offset by 40°C i.e. the range is between -40°C through 215°C rather than from 0-255

Tell your Torque application to get Mode:01 PID:0x5C and subtract 40°C from the returned data to get the current engine oil temperature.

Give it a shot.

- Vikas
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas

Tell your Torque application to get Mode:01 PID:0x5C and subtract 40°C from the returned data to get the current engine oil temperature.

Give it a shot.

It's not accepting the 0x5C value. It's expecting a 4-digit hex value, so it cannot be 'x'. Or are you saying I need to experiment with various values in place of 'x'?
 
If it is expecting 4 digit hex number, then that would be "015C"
The 015C is saying Mode 01 and PID 5C

"0x" of 0x5C means "hexadecimal", so it is 5C hex (92 decimal)

The returned value might be in hexadecimal too. Use Windows calculator to do the conversion, subtract 40 from it and that is your answer.

Also try "0105"; this should give you coolant temperature and then you can verify it against the already decoded coolant temperature on Torque.

- Vikas
 
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Thanks. So far, neither of these two are working (015C, 0105), even though the built-in coolant gauge does work fine. I'm trying to find out whether I need the paid version of Torque for custom PIDs to start working... Right now I'm using the free version.
 
to the op, if all you are looking for is to "tame" your driving style, and increase your MPG, I would personally opt for a "vacuum gauge".....they got some simple ones, or some more extravagant ones....

But basically, the way it works, you slam on the gas, the vacuum increases, take your foot off the gas, vacuum decreases (err....maybe it's the other way around...lol), but the idea is to keep the gauge reading as close to "zero" as possible.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/econometer-vacuum-gauge-installation-guide-3428.html has the details....basically, you want the gauge tapped in to the closest vacuum line possible. As noted in that post, the dude used the brake booster line, and it wasn't reading right, so he went to the PCV valve, and it read a tad better....
 
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