Hit 7500 miles, 'maint' light came on...was hoping against hope that MY car knew better. Alas.

Now I get to shut the darn light off, AND see my instantaneous MPG! And sneak it onto the wife's Explorer to see how she's doing...

 

The maint light probably just means to change your oil. I think the proceedure to turn it off is to hold down the odo reset button while turning the key to the on position until the light turns off.

It serves no purpose execept to schedule your regular mantainence visit.

 

oh, I know that's exactly what it's for- came on at 7500.0 miles. I was hoping that my car was smarter than your average car

****- didn't know there was a reset for it without going into OBD2. Well, I was looking for an excuse to get the gage anyway...

 

Is that the type of scangage that can be connected to a laptop computer and you can see all of the engine processes in real time and/or a log of past events? I'm curious to know if it will read emissions in real time. It would be cool to learn how to drive to minimize emissions as well as maximize mpg, or maybe they go hand in hand. After you get it, let us know what you got and where and how it performs.

 

www.scangage.com

Standalone; no export to PC. Realtime display of 4 parameters simultaneously, log of all others for trip and day. Its a simple LCD text display, so no dyno graphing. And no data export. I emailed them, and they said it was unlikely they would add export capability- price vs demand. But it could probably be hacked.

The best part of this particular scanner is its small form factor, and it works for all the standards- Ford, GM, and Chrysler/foreign. So you can hit all your vehicles without buying separate software or parts. But no trending/export.

 

gonavy,

My scangauge arrived in the mail today - all I can say is wow! I think you'll enjoy yours

I wish it were a heads-up unit that put the data on the windshield. That MPG readout has almost hypnotic powers - you just want to watch it all the time!

 

Actually, I was thinking of an obnoxious rear display in 6 inch red LEDs, illuminating my instantaneous mpg whenever it was over 30 or so, just so those behind me knew. Kind of like the GH license plate holders, but instant and BIG.

"I am getting XX mpg RIGHT NOW!"

Illegal? maybe.
Annoying? yes.
Get me run off the road? very possibly.
Worth it to flash that while in front of a Suburban (or any American car)? absolutley.