2008 Trailblazer SS

[Maverick]

Cool!! Would be nice if the manufacturers would offer an extended display with all that stuff but maybe they don't want us to know too much. I'd like to know what all Onstar is recording.

[wxo]

There are additional interesting pieces of data available to display which aren't working. AFR and Knock Retard are among them. I am going to tackle them next.

[Basement Paul]

My Ram has all that information in different menus. It's nice when you want to check it. You can set it up to monitor all the time, or just go look when you want to. It has voltage, tire pressures, oil pressure, engine temp, trans temp, and oil life. I normally just leave it on the menu that tells me how well I'm doing with my fuel economy. Their readings are a little generous. When I'm getting an indicated 21.5mpg over a tankful, I'm really getting just over 20.5mpg.

-BP

[wxo]

Yep. Automobile technology has certainly advanced in 8 years. I'm just glad I can retrofit my truck easily to do much the same.

[Basement Paul]

It's cool that all the info is there. I have a code scanner that will show EVERY dumb thing that ALL the sensors on the motor are doing on any OBDII car, Air inlet temp, throttle position, all the readings on all the O2 sensors... whatever you can think of. It's just not a cool looking gauge to mount on your dash. It's amazing how much stuff is going on at once and that most of the time it all works together in harmony.

-BP

[wxo]

Are you aware of the Torque App ($5)? It runs on android phones & tablets and communicates with a cheap ($15) blue tooth adapter that plugs into the OBD port. I've got the blue tooth adapter coming from Amazon and got a free android phone which my friend was discarding. I just want to mess with it to see what it can do. It's very popular. A lot of guys rave about it.

[Basement Paul]

A guy at work has it and was showing me how it worked on his new Jeep. He already has a dash mount for his phone near his dash, so he could run it while he was driving. It definitely has some cool things going on.

-BP

[AKROVER]

I downloaded the Torque app last night and have been playing with it today, but I didn't get my OBD device yet so I am only looking at the setup options and playing around with the acceleration sensors in my smart phone. I hate buying apps since I have played around with programming a few android apps myself, but the amount of work in this package is worth $5. It is pretty extensive. It would have taken me months to duplicate this. The online complaints seem mostly about pairing the OBD devices and the OBD device reviews seem to imply a reasonable chance of having problems with these cheap electronic devices from China, but for $17 total, I thought I would give it a try. Thanks, Walt, for putting me on to this. I also really looked at the ultra-gauge as I prefer a wired solution, particularly one that turns itself on and off with the car, but I wasn't sure how I would mount it in my truck and it is a lot more expensive. I'll post more on the Torque app when I get all the parts working on my Nissan.

[wxo]

Following are some images of my UltraGauge mounting location.

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I like the location for easy viewing and it has the additional benefit of keeping the unit out of the hot sun and getting cold air from the A/C vent. The visible wire is not ideal, but I couldn't think of a better way.

[Basement Paul]

Any way to run that cable into the air vent and poke a hole down low to let it out?

-BP

[wxo]

The large OBD2 connector on the end of the cable limits where you can go with it. But you did give me an idea. I'm going to explore pulling out the dash to see if there is any way to slip it through there.

[wxo]

I also really looked at the ultra-gauge as I prefer a wired solution, particularly one that turns itself on and off with the car, but I wasn't sure how I would mount it in my truck and it is a lot more expensive.

AKROVER, Check your Private Messages.

[wxo]

I'm thinking seriously of taking a tuning course to build a more solid understanding of fine tuning my TBSS. The current state of it's tune is that two different tuners have changed the stock tune and it runs great, but I would like to figure out how to increase the gas mileage (I believe there is some gain to be had) and also I would like to be able verify that my MAF and VE tables are as accurate as they should be from the work of those other tuners. In addition, I think the idle/low speed response could be smoothed out a bit. I'm looking at the offerings of "The Tuning School".

[TireSmoker]

That sounds like fun!

-Dave

[wxo]

I've decided to postpone this class until winter. It will make a great Christmas gift from some member of my family who always agonizes about what to get me.