RV8 Diagnostic Tool

[v8s4me]

Does anyone have any experience of using this piece of kit? Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/par...

(posted on Griff & Chim Forums (sorry Fora for you R4 listeners) as well.

[gizzardio]

Hi mate

Used it 100% successfully on my v8s. Dead easy to install software and hook up cable.

I found the realtime results really useful when checked ecu fueling and it gives all fault codes and button to clear them if you wish. You can also log data so when you go for a drive you can see if anything misbehaves.

I recommend it.

[GadgeS3C]

O/T (sorry) but is it possible to get something similar for the V6 cars?

Not sure if the engine management is sophisticated enough to give sensor outputs etc.

[Scoobimax]

GadgeS3C said:

O/T (sorry) but is it possible to get something similar for the V6 cars?

Not sure if the engine management is sophisticated enough to give sensor outputs etc.

I believe so (presumably listed under Scorpio/Sierra on popular auction sites).

My local garage have such a device but were unable to extract any diagnostic codes when I quickly nipped in last year. I'm sure they'd have got it sorted if I'd had time to stay or leave the car with them.

[GadgeS3C]

Scoobimax said:

GadgeS3C said:

O/T (sorry) but is it possible to get something similar for the V6 cars?

Not sure if the engine management is sophisticated enough to give sensor outputs etc.

I believe so (presumably listed under Scorpio/Sierra on popular auction sites).

My local garage have such a device but were unable to extract any diagnostic codes when I quickly nipped in last year. I'm sure they'd have got it sorted if I'd had time to stay or leave the car with them.

Thanks - I have a fault code reader was wondering if you could get sensor out i.e. throttle pot output or lambda.

Don't recall seeing that kind of stuff for the V6.

[Scoobimax]

GadgeS3C said:

Thanks - I have a fault code reader was wondering if you could get sensor out i.e. throttle pot output or lambda.

Don't recall seeing that kind of stuff for the V6.

There was a reader connector (to the ecu?) in the passneger footwell in the fuse box (I assume that bit is consistent with the V6's).

[The Big G]

How does this compare to Steve Heaths ECUmate which is also for the 14CUX found on our RV8's?
The visual display on a laptop looks useful, but are there any other differences for the untrained except for the price?

[shpub]

The Ecumate fetches more information and in particular the idle status and control and ALL the fault codes. It also fetches the data as quick as possible so that there is no data lag. This data lag is quite critical in that Rover Guage only gets the data when the ECU decides to send it and this can take a lot of time. So while it might look as if it is displaying consistent time related data, it can't be guaranteed and that does cause a lot of problems when trying to work out what it is doing.

ECUmate was designed to address this problem by using a dedicated embedded processor to obtain and display the data. The information is also time stamped and any inconsistency is shown by a comms error message to indicate that the data may not be that reliable. This timing is fundamental to getting the right information to see what is going on.

Rover Guage is quite slow in retrieving data and for example when logging it only gets an update of around every second. This does make trouble shooting difficult in some cases because the changes in data happen faster than the sampling rate and so can easily be missed. And yes I know the latest version allows you to turn off displaying items to improve the data update speed. It's still a bit slow.

You don't need a laptop to use it which for many is a bonus.