[stkman]

Hi All,

Since I bought the i30, I looked at the Scangauge as a useful edition. I like to monitor a few functions as the car is running but didn't like the look of the scangauge. Then I came across the Ultra-gauge. Has just been realeased in a metric version (was US units only for a few years!) and I thought it would do what I wanted nicely. Was just over $100 to my door. Am happy with the supplied mount and decided to use it.

Plugging it in to the OBDII port showed there are 41 parameter available to be able to be displayed ... 8 pages available and between 4-8 items can be displayed on each page on the Ultra-gauge. So far have decided on instantaneous L/100km, turbo boost pressure, engine coolant temperature and battery voltage. Fuel consumption is not correct and am currently performing a calibration (fill with diesel, drive, refill and note litres of fuel to fill and the unit calculates a calibration factor). May add average consumption also and reset after every tank. My Hyundai display is set for average since 60,000km (am at 90,000km now) and displays 5.4L/100km (I tow about 10% of the time). below 10L/100km, consumtion shows in 2 decimal places which I like. The blue colour of the Ultra-gauge suits the i30 in my opinion. It has a light sensor so varies between day and night.

There are a multitude of alarms available ... I have a speed alarm set as Police revenue gathering is in full force in NZ (I don't have cruise control unfortunately).





Andrew

[Dazzler]

Wow.. I like that a lot.  Certainly a step up in the looks department from the Scanguage and like you say the blue figures make it look almost factory!

If we still had a diesel CRDi as our main drive I would definitely get one.. The coolant temperature readout would be invaluable in view of recent posts on this forum.

[stkman]

I agree about the displayed temperature ... the little diesel gets up to temperature quite quickly really and sits between 85-89 degrees centigrade unless heading up a long hill where there is some turbo boost showing. Then the temperatores heads on up ... the highest I have seen is 94 degrees centigrade.

Oil pressure isn't available. Battery voltage is interesting ... sits between 14.3 and 14.6 volts. Bit higher than I thought it would have been. Have blown two sets of headlight bulbs in 3 years and 90,000km. Maybe this is why. I now have 'cheap' chinese bulbs in there and they seem to be fine! Decent light output also.

Thanks for the feedback,

Andrew

[Dazzler]

I agree about the displayed temperature ... the little diesel gets up to temperature quite quickly really and sits between 85-89 degrees centigrade unless heading up a long hill where there is some turbo boost showing. Then the temperatores heads on up ... the highest I have seen is 94 degrees centigrade.

There was a recent thread on here Warning to CRDi owners (or something like that) where a member lost his coolant and was very lucky not to cook his motor because the standard temp guage didn't move !

Oil pressure isn't available. Battery voltage is interesting ... sits between 14.3 and 14.6 volts. Bit higher than I thought it would have been. Have blown two sets of headlight bulbs in 3 years and 90,000km. Maybe this is why. I now have 'cheap' chinese bulbs in there and they seem to be fine! Decent light output also.

Yes, definitely an issue with the CRDi and we suspect voltage spikes are the cause. Again one member (Druggist? I think ... has replaced something like 9 sets   )

Thanks for the feedback,

You're welcome  

Andrew

[stkman]

I did read the thread about the 'lost' coolant. A friend had something similar with his motorcycle. Lost the coolant and the fan did not switch on when it got really hot. It wouldn't as the temp sensor needs coolant around it. Same as the coolant temperature sensor in the i30 ... although I suspect if I lost all the coolant, the temperature reading would drop.

May ask my local friendly auto electrician about the voltage regulation when I get my daytime running lights wired up.

Andrew

[2i30s]

looks great Andrew.  its a nice size compared to my scangauge II,a bit small for my aging eyes.  can you change the colors of the text,i have my scangauge also set on blue and it looks like its a factory item.      Steve.

[neptune]

 when I get my daytime running lights wired up.

Andrew

will you be taking photo's of your daytime running lights....I can't see a place to mount them......

[stkman]

Hi Neptune,

I know what you mean about nowhere to mount them! I have figured out how I am going to do mine, yes, will take photos along the way and post when all done 

Andrew

[2i30s]

i eagerly await your post and pics.  I'm also looking into the same mod. 

[stkman]

As to the text colour, no it cannot be altered. The point at which it switches from 'day' to 'night' mode can be altered (change the senitivity of the light sensor).

My eyes aren't getting any better with age either - have restricted the main screen to four gauge displays, eight would be too difficult!

Andrew

[Dazzler]

May ask my local friendly auto electrician about the voltage regulation when I get my daytime running lights wired up.

Yeah, you would think it would not be too hard to put a regulator of some sort in the loop..

[2i30s]

i would have thought those LED strips you buy on eBay only pull a very small amount of power.  if i open my door the volts on my scangauge II only drop 0.02 volts with an 8 watt globe. I'm sure the LED'S would be far less of a voltage drop when turned on. IMO. 

[Dazzler]

i would have thought those LED strips you buy on eBay only pull a very small amount of power.  if i open my door the volts on my scangauge II only drop 0.02 volts with an 8 watt globe. I'm sure the LED'S would be far less of a voltage drop when turned on. IMO. 

I think Andrew and I were thinking more of reducing the voltage spikes to the headlights...

[2i30s]

i would have thought those LED strips you buy on eBay only pull a very small amount of power.  if i open my door the volts on my scangauge II only drop 0.02 volts with an 8 watt globe. I'm sure the LED'S would be far less of a voltage drop when turned on. IMO. 

I think Andrew and I were thinking more of reducing the voltage spikes to the headlights...

sorry guys,i assumed you meant in regard to the LED lights. 

Voltage spikes will come from the starter motor - I'm sure you knew that. However filtering them might be more difficult than imagined.

The electronics are turned off for a reason during starting. The lights would be significantly less prone to failure but not immune it appears.

The best option is to leave them turned off until the engine is running. I do and not that it's necessarily Representative, I have not had any light blow in nearly three years.

[Dazzler]

The best option is to leave them turned off until the engine is running. I do and not that it's necessarily Representative, I have not had any light blow in nearly three years.

  Sounds like that is the probably the best option ..

[Lakes]

Voltage spikes will come from the starter motor - I'm sure you knew that. However filtering them might be more difficult than imagined.

The electronics are turned off for a reason during starting. The lights would be significantly less prone to failure but not immune it appears.

The best option is to leave them turned off until the engine is running. I do and not that it's necessarily Representative, I have not had any light blow in nearly three years.

Thanks for that bit of information Pip, i think i was leaving my lights turned on while starting when i had two globes blow on Betsy, but she was two years old b4 the first globe blew, still the next one blew soon after. Crystal is still only young at 6,500k so no lights blown as yet.

the only thing i don't like about useing these gauges is they plug into a very important service point as thats where the factory service plugs there computers in. i had a scangauge plug leave half its pins in the port, the port had to come apart to remove them, the service guy asked me were did you get this rubish from. he thought it was cheap & nasty. so i gave mine away about two years ago. will never play with that type of thing again!

[Dazzler]

i had a scangauge plug leave half its pins in the port, the port had to come apart to remove them, the service guy asked me were did you get this rubish from. he thought it was cheap & nasty. so i gave mine away about two years ago. will never play with that type of thing again!

I didn't realise that happened John... Guess you were just unlucky.. I really like the look of this alternative though...

[Lakes]

i had a scangauge plug leave half its pins in the port, the port had to come apart to remove them, the service guy asked me were did you get this rubish from. he thought it was cheap & nasty. so i gave mine away about two years ago. will never play with that type of thing again!

I didn't realise that happened John... Guess you were just unlucky.. I really like the look of this alternative though...

i like the look but you would need to remove them if you take car to dealer for service. & if the pins stay in the port you have a problem. don't know what factory thinks about these gauges, but they need to use that port if you have any problems you ask to be solved, they also use it to do a print out to give customers each dealer service.
Also when i had the pins stay in the port i was very worried as if anything earthed on those nakid pins what would happen?

[stkman]

Hi All,

Rather than reply to all private messages individually, I'll let you all know that the ultra-gauge is working fine. It is not calibrated for fuel consumption yet (need to run a tank of diesel and then note how many litres used - a calibration factor is then created and used).

The OBDII port will not be used by Hyundai unless I take it to them and now that I am out of warranty and do all my own servicing, this will be unlikely for some time (never I hope!). The connection seems sound.

If you are interested in one, just search on GOOGLE ... these are a US product, recently reconfigured to provide metric options (need to order the EM version). They appear to be considerably cheaper that the scangauge and cheaper than the Scangauge E as well. May not offer as many options, I don't know.

Andrew

[Reaper]

Would a thing like this be able to tell battery level? Sorry don't know much about OBD stuff, but could use a battery meter, as they are able to tell at the dealer, cause of ISG.

[stkman]

Hi Reaper,

I have mine set to show battery voltage ... see the photo at the beginning of this thread. While the car is running, this would be reflective of the charging system efficiency I would imagine. When the engine is off (but the unit is one - key in the ACC posoition), I'm thinking the voltager displayed is that of the battery.

Anyway, as soon as I see it dropping well below 14 volts, it will be off to the auto electrician to get the battery tested. I find a battery dying is always really inconvenient. Have had it a couple of times.

Andrew

[Reaper]

Hi stkman thanks for the info, is it showing 14v all the time, when driving? Or can you tell when its charging while driving?

On the isg topic i learned something new. Have had 2 i30's blues, a petrol and now the new isg enabled diesel. Had trouble with both keeping it enable, though i dont use it much. Both times dealer mentions battery power, so this time i took the car for a good long drive, thinking i was charging the battery well. But I wasnt.

They measure the power and his gear says it below 60%, the car charges battery as normal when driving but only for around 60%, isg is disabled at 80%. Also said its no help driving to charge over 60%, only way to achive that is by engine breaking, to save on fuel its supposed to be designed this way. They charged the battery some, and started changing my driving style to do more breaking with engine. True enough after 2 days the isg is enabled again.

Always been fair at driving economicly, and slow down with engine, now jusat doing it everytime possibleand everywhere. Seems to keep the battery fit, but would like to monitor the charging.

Anyways reading all this obd, pretty keen on getting a wifi unit and hook up with idevices.

[stkman]

Hi All,

Just an update on the Ultra-gauge fitment ... I did the fuel calibration and the instantaneous mileage is just annoying! So I turned it off. Looked through the other gauges offered and the only thing I thought may be off use to me is intake air temprature so I have enabled it. I do like the information that measurement gives me. The air temeperature is at ambient air temperature when starting, then climbs to a 'working' temperature which in my diesel i30 at this time of year (ambient temperatures 12-20 degrees C) is between 25-33 degrees C. When pushing the car a bit more, the temperature rises after a few seconds as turbo boost heats up the air. Drops fairly quickly when coasting. Gets nowhere near as high as I thought it would. The intercooler must be fairly effective. Of course in a 40 degree climate (parts of Australia) the intake air will be higher than I ever see - NZ has a very mild climate.

Have definitely noticed both Intake air temperature and Fuel consumption are almost directly related to turbo boost (also displayed). So what I have found is the way to keep temperature in the engine down and  fuel use low is to resist pushing down that right hand pedal. Logical but the gauge shows it.

Andrew

[Dazzler]

Thanks Andrew .. as usual very interesting 

[ryane]

Hi stkman,

I know this thread was created a while back, but i just today installed a UC into my car and have programed a few things for display, one of them being my Boost, but it seems to go all over the place, up and down and so does my  DTE gauge, just wondering if you had this problem when you first got yours.

I also have a 08 (MY09) i30 CRDI

Cheers

[ricardo172]

Hi Stkman
i have just bought a 2012 i30 trophy and would very much like to get an Ultragauge. I have found what I think is the OBD2 port just behind the dash as described by several people and there is also one in the engine bay but it seems to have a couple of extra pins on it. Do you or anyone else know if the port behind the dash is a compliant OBD2 port on this model?

[Phil №❶]

Yes it is. 

[ricardo172]

Thanks very much. I guess I will go ahead and order one

[Phil №❶]

What are you going to use to interface it to, PC or phone