ScanGuage II

Hey has anyone hooked up and used the ScanGuage on their TDI?

Does it work well? Seems like it would be very accurate. My 01 Jetta doesn't have the built in Computer so I would think this would be the next best thing.

Any recommendations?

http:///www.scangauge.com

Yes, many people here use this successfully. Do a search for it. There could be 100 threads to choose from.

There is another group buy starting up and this would be a good time to get one for a good price. I purchased one during the last group buy. And yes it works well on the TDI.

ebay has them for $159.95 plus free shipping, so keep that in mind if you are considering the group buy. Yes, they are nice, but it does take a few tanks of fuel to get the device calibrated to display accurate numbers.

Mine is at version 3.01. Can anyone comment on whether the upgrade is worth living without it for a couple of weeks to get it flashed?

Thunderstruck said:

Mine is at version 3.01. Can anyone comment on whether the upgrade is worth living without it for a couple of weeks to get it flashed?

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Well worth the effort and time

The last group buy here was $149. and free shipping in the continental US.
Good price and very useful. IMHO I may want to buy another for my gasser Golf if the price is right.

Best money spent, get one already!

MPLSTDI said:

Best money spent, get one already!

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I second that.

Once I got one, I started to Hypermile (P&G mostly) and was able to watch how/when my fuel was being used.

I've gained 10-15% fuel mileage with use of the Scanguage.
It's basically paid for itself in just over 6 months.

Act now if you are going to get in on the Group Buy.... It is ending sooner than expected.

Saturday June 21, 2008 is the last day.

The best upgrade for any car (works in any car too!) Got one and went from 5.7L/100km lifetime average to 4.3L/100km recently. I've had it on the dash for 6 months and still look at it every single trip. The best is clearing CELs... Blew a co-workers mind when I cleared the CEL live while driving. I LOVE IT! Also great for checking other people's CELs no matter what they drive.

I am debating getting a second one if only I could find someone with first hand experience running two at the same time in the same car. I tried running scangauge and vagcom at the same time using a Y cable and using the extra port on the scanguage but they always conflicted. Anyone running two scangauges?

I don't see the point of running two. The transfer rate on the OBDII is only so fast.

milehighassassin said:

I don't see the point of running two. The transfer rate on the OBDII is only so fast.

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It would be good for keeping an eye on averages, totals and stuff that doesn't change rapidly... Km driven, km left on the tank, average economies, temperatures, voltage, etc etc etc.

I would set up the second one in my wife's Mazda5 (4cyl currently uses 10L/100km) but I want to confirm that I could use it in tandum in my car 'cause my wife won't authorize the expense just for her car... if it goes it my car then I can justify it in the "Dad's hobby" expense column

True, one of the limitations of the Scangauge is its slow update speed (2 samples per second or so) so do not buy it for a boost gauge, its not good for that. But it is fantastic for the trip functions that can be set up as gauges.

Just ordered mine, $10 savings will pay for lunch.

i have been running mine for a week now, and am already noticing where i am wasting fuel.

i have changed my driving habits in only a few days due to this thing. i think i may have mis-calibrated the thing tho, since its saying my average mpg for several trips now in town has been only 27-29 mpg, on a 2003 manual.

i have only calibrated the fill-up once, and i changed the speed setting.... since i am not sure if the un calibrated speed readout is correct from the ECU, because its 5 or 6 mph slower than the speedometer.

For my car, the uncalibrated speed was not correct. I had to just 4% to get it to be correct, verified via the odo and milemarkers.

I just posted this data on a diff thread, but it seems relevant here. I've had my scangauge for almost 2 years now, and here are my settings (which should be pretty close as a starting point for those of you with stock TDI's):

Tank size: 16 gallons
Fuel: Diesel A
Speed offset: 4%
Fillup offsetP -13.1%
prog user colors: 0 red, 0 green, 2 blue (gets me close to dash color)

(note: my speed offset is calibrated with a gps unit. My odo reads spot on, dial indicator is off a few mph)

Also note that any time you unplug your scangauge II (like to check/clear codes on a diff car) then you will lose your settings, so it's good to keep track so you can quickly get it back where it was. Enjoy the mileage gains!

Will the speed offset change from a PD to A VE? I know the PD has different gearing.

Also, you have your tank size being 16 gallons. I have put 17 gallons in my tank, of course that includes the vent and fill neck, but I do count that as capacity.

mchapek said:

Also note that any time you unplug your scangauge II (like to check/clear codes on a diff car) then you will lose your settings, so it's good to keep track so you can quickly get it back where it was. Enjoy the mileage gains!

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I learned from Torque Delight how to keep it from doing that!

Unplug the cable from the back of the SGII before unplugging the cable from the ODBII port. And *I think* the reverse when plugging it back in.

Inspector14 said:

i have changed my driving habits in only a few days due to this thing. i think i may have mis-calibrated the thing tho, since its saying my average mpg for several trips now in town has been only 27-29 mpg, on a 2003 manual.

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If your mpg's went down, then you probably put the correction factor in backwards--you probably needed to use the negative % correction, not positive.

On my PD, I found the speed was spot on (indeed, I checked miles traveled vs the odo, and found a 3mile difference after 575miles). But I couldn't wait to get through that first tank of fuel, as it kept telling me I was only getting 34mpg! Correction factor of -26.9%! I'll have to see if now it's correct; but even if it's off by a couple percent, the instantaneous readout and the mpg on the tank info is well worth it.

BTW, I goofed when doing the fuel calibration. The procedure isn't tricky, but I like doing things twice, apparently. Anyhow, when you go to do the initial calibration, take note of the gallons it thinks it went through, and don't hit "Done". At least I noticed what it thought it burned prior to hitting "Done", so I was able to do a bit of math and still correct it after one tank.

My correction factor started at +20 in the winter, went to +10 after spring cleaning and adjusting IQ and now its at -4.6 after swapping my MAF with an older one that I set at an angle to read lower and fake out the ECU into not knowing my EGR is not working...

There are way too many varables and every car is different... even with these wild swings it is only ever out by a couple of liters (half a gallon). Any "tune up" type changes including a timing belt changes should affect the calibration. Good thing there is calibration in there, people with the build in style multifunction displays are stuck with whatever they are reading.

I love my Scangauge... they should sell T-shirts and bumper stickers for huge fans like me.

Sweet Tip!

Bob_Fout said:

I learned from Torque Delight how to keep it from doing that!

Unplug the cable from the back of the SGII before unplugging the cable from the ODBII port. And *I think* the reverse when plugging it back in.

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Thanks Bob! Wow..what a great little tip to know! They should have that in the FRONT of the little manual! (if it is, then apparently I didn't read it very thoroughly...oops!) Too bad the Scangauge doesn't have a simple 'memory' function..as in multiple car setup. I could keep my settings in Mem #1, my wife's car in #2, and then could still take it out to help someone clear CEL's and such w/out losing any settings. SCANGAUGE, are you listening??? Easy feature to make I'd think! Memory is CHEAP these days! But no matter, I LOVE the thing, really miss it when I'm in a rental car...it's addicting having all that data available!

First ScanGauge II questions

Did my first driving with it today and have a question (2003 TDI Jetta):

1. When going downhill coasting/out of gear, I get something like 300MPG gauge....and I pickup speed
2. When going down hill, foot off accelerator (and deaccelerating from the engine braking), I see 10 or 100 times the MPG when coasting. ***?

I would think that #1 would be better (plus you pick up speed)...
Is that in the case of #1 some fuel must be expended to keep the engine turning over, whereas with #2, the engine is being turned over by the hill and no fuel is being expended.
Not what I expected. I realize that 33000MPG is a figment of the SG imagination...

MPG in the 2nd situation is infinite. A finite distance / 0, and the SG isn't sure what to do

Situation 1 or 2 can be better depending on speed, road conditions and traffic.

The Scangauge is the best fuel economy tool, ever. Too bad they are so hard to keep in stock. (I sell them in Canada, but am always backordered...)

Bob, please explain your response to my question...from what the SC reads out, it would seem theat #2 is always better

sdean7855 said:

Bob, please explain your response to my question...from what the SC reads out, it would seem theat #2 is always better

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"Better" is relative to what you are wanting to do, road conditions, traffic control devices and traffic.

Coasting out of gear is better if you want to not slow down and travel farther, coasting in gear is better if you want to slow down some and travel less.

Mis-judging either of these for conditions etc. means you'll end up accelerating or braking unnecessarily.

sdean7855 said:

Bob, please explain your response to my question...from what the SC reads out, it would seem theat #2 is always better

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While in gear and going downhill you are not using ANY fuel. While going downhill and the car is running (idle) you are moving but you are using as much fuel as it takes to idle.

The advantage to having it out of gear is you go faster and might go further without having to use the throttle.

The advantage to having it in gear, is that you don't use ANY fuel, but you will not be able to do that as far and because of the engine braking you will be slowed down eventually.


Something I have noticed that if you have cruise control on and are going down a hill where no throttle is needed, you are still actually using some fuel. Yet if you tap the brake to turn cruise control off it will go back to the infinite reading. So while using cruise and going down long hills, you are ahead to take CC off.

Thanks for the answer, guys

It makes things clear.

milehighassassin said:

Something I have noticed that if you have cruise control on and are going down a hill where no throttle is needed, you are still actually using some fuel. Yet if you tap the brake to turn cruise control off it will go back to the infinite reading. So while using cruise and going down long hills, you are ahead to take CC off.

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Yes, you will be using fuel to maintain your speed if the hill is not steep enough, if you have cruise on and scangauge shows you are using fuel then you need that fuel to maintain the speed you are travelling... This is where you need to know your hill, you MAY save fuel by idling in neutral on this hill, you MAY slow down if you turn cruise off, or you may be like me leave the cruise on.

I don't think you need to turn CC off... my experience says that if CC is adding fuel then you need that fuel to maintain speed. There is no savings by turn CC off, unless it is one of those special hills where neutral is better than gear for maintaining speed.