Installed my new Ultra-Gauge

[chris_flies]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

What codes? Can you elaborate, as I was not aware that a temp gauge was available.

I believe he was talking about the secret menu. It would display the temp as a digital readout in the cluster. Search for 'E82 Secret Menu' on YouTube, there are a few videos showing how to access it.

[olds350]

Hey mackeroni, after seeing this post and reviewing the gauge options, santa brought one of these gauges to the house. I have it basically setup, but I can't get the gauge to turn off. What did you do? I see there are options to either have it read battery voltage or RPMs. What options did you use to have it auto on and off?

Appreciate any feed back you have please!!

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by olds350

Hey mackeroni, after seeing this post and reviewing the gauge options, santa brought one of these gauges to the house. I have it basically setup, but I can't get the gauge to turn off. What did you do? I see there are options to either have it read battery voltage or RPMs. What options did you use to have it auto on and off?

Appreciate any feed back you have please!!

When plugged into your IBD II port, it comes on when you start your car, and it goes off when you turn off your car. Does yours behave differently?

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by olds350

Hey mackeroni, after seeing this post and reviewing the gauge options, santa brought one of these gauges to the house. I have it basically setup, but I can't get the gauge to turn off. What did you do? I see there are options to either have it read battery voltage or RPMs. What options did you use to have it auto on and off?

Appreciate any feed back you have please!!

Just checked the instruction manual. (Did you get one. Haha.) There are options in the menu for setting up the Ultragauge. There are several modes to auto-detect when your ignition is off or on. You may have inadvertently changed one or more of these modes. Check the manual. It is also available online at...

http://ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/su...lus_3_4_14.pdf

See pages 43-45

[olds350]

Originally Posted by mackeroni

Just checked the instruction manual. (Did you get one. Haha.) There are options in the menu for setting up the Ultragauge. There are several modes to auto-detect when your ignition is off or on. You may have inadvertently changed one or more of these modes. Check the manual. It is also available online at...

http://ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/su...lus_3_4_14.pdf

See pages 43-45

I wound up setting the default low battery warning down 2 tenths, but I think what threw me off was when you turn off the car and remove the key, the gauge is still on. I think that's due to the residual systems still being "awake". Once those systems shut down, the gauge will shut down and that takes about 10-15 minutes. Just a little weird... Looks like I'm good now. Just looking for the optimum place to mount the gauge now.

Gotta say, bang for the buck, this little gauge is pretty impressive...

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by olds350

Gotta say, bang for the buck, this little gauge is pretty impressive...

Agreed!

[onenutt]

Hey Mack!
Did you consider the P3 Vent Gauge?
If so, why did you decide against it?

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Hey Mack!
Did you consider the P3 Vent Gauge?
If so, why did you decide against it?

Not Mack but I would guess the lack of multiple things being shown at once plus it costing $230 is a significant enough deterrent. Looks nice but $230 is still a lot for a boost gauge essentially.

[olds350]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Hey Mack!
Did you consider the P3 Vent Gauge?
If so, why did you decide against it?

I'll give an answer here as well. I'm running the P3 gauge in the wifes e91, it was a transfer from my previous e90. While the fit of the P3 gauge is nice in regard to fitting into the vent, this ultragauge is the better option in my opinion due to the shear quantity of guages you can view at one time and you can still reset codes. The P3 only presents 1 gauge at a time and I've found the clearing of codes via the P3 a bit cumbersome.

Bang for the buck, I prefer the ultragauge over the P3 gauge just because of it's depth of gauge options. I wound up running a magnetic vent mount for my gauge, makes the install look "clean" and it doesn't have the "clamp" wings like a cell phone holder. Gotta say, I'm pleased with this setup now.

[HyeWarrior]

Brother has one of these in his 996 Turbo, planning on getting one myself as well!

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Hey Mack!
Did you consider the P3 Vent Gauge?
If so, why did you decide against it?

Yeah... what they said. P3 is pricey and gauge choice is limited. P3's main advantage is the slick appearance, but its not ALL about looks, is it?

Peace... Mack

[onenutt]

Originally Posted by mackeroni

Yeah... what they said. P3 is pricey and gauge choice is limited. P3's main advantage is the slick appearance, but its not ALL about looks, is it?

Peace... Mack

Anybody go for the wireless/iPhone version of the Ultra-Gauge? The only thing I really want is to keep an eye on charging rate and coolant temperature so that I can spot trouble before it strands me somewhere. I must admit that I really like the look/slick appearance of the P3...... If they made a version that displayed two gauge I would be all over it. Meanwhile trying to decide between the standalone and the wireless Ultra-Gauge.

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Anybody go for the wireless/iPhone version of the Ultra-Gauge? The only thing I really want is to keep an eye on charging rate and coolant temperature so that I can spot trouble before it strands me somewhere. I must admit that I really like the look/slick appearance of the P3...... If they made a version that displayed two gauge I would be all over it. Meanwhile trying to decide between the standalone and the wireless Ultra-Gauge.

I chose the plug-in version of the Ultra-Gauge because I like to keep things simple. It comes on automatically when I start my car and shows me what I want to see at a glance.

To me, the wireless version of the Ultra-Gauge presents a couple challenges. The first hurdle is the size of that dongle sticking out into the space where I swing my feet every single time I get in or out of the car. Knowing myself, I am confident I would kick or kick it every week or so until one day when it simply snaps off leaving me without a gauge and an expensive repair. The second problem I would have is the fact that I do not have an old phone available to dedicate to receiving and displaying signals from the Ultra-Gauge dongle. I would have to use my one and only iPhone. This is problematic because I would like to use my iPhone for a whole host of other duties while driving... GPS, music and so on, not to mention the need to synch up and mount my phone every time I get into the car. That would get old real quick for me.

Just my two cents.

Peace... Mack

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

Does it show oil pressure?

No oil pressure sensor on N54 engines. Not sure about N55.

[mr.fabulous]

Originally Posted by olds350

<...snip>I wound up running a magnetic vent mount for my gauge, makes the install look "clean" and it doesn't have the "clamp" wings like a cell phone holder

Tell us more about that mount... do you have a link

[olds350]

Originally Posted by mr.fabulous

Tell us more about that mount... do you have a link

I just did a quick look in amazon and came across this for $14 via prime...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's the IKOPO Universal Magnetic vent mount. It works ok and there's enough angle to the mount to allow the gauge to face you. It comes with a round and rectangular adhesive metal plate. I chose the round plate as it will miss the menu, up and down buttons, but I did have to put about a 1/4" notch on the edge of it to miss one of the sensors.

I do like the way this works as it keeps the back of the gauge free so you can reach around to the back to scroll the different gauge pages if you have more than 1 page of gauges. It also allows you to reach the back for the "down" button to silence any alarms on the gauge.

After a week of use, the gauge did separate from the metal disk, so I removed the adhesive from the disk and replace it with some more aggressive 3M tape. No issues to date.

As far as alarms go, I've found this is gauge is very aggressive in regard to warnings, it starting warning me of low gas at about a 1/4 tank. It's nice that you have the option to either kill the alarms completely or change the frequency of the alert tone. I lowered mine to where I can hear it, but it's not the annoying high pitched warning.

Overall I think having this style of mount might be a bit better over the cell phone clamp style mount simply because it allows access to the back of the gauge while it's mounted. And if you're curious, no, there is no gauge distortion from the magnet itself.

One other thought in regard to wired vs the bluetooth gauges. Because the cord runs down the door jamb, the cable itself acts like a small shock dampener because there's only ~3" of free cable, so there is no bounce to the gauge while driving. I'd think you'd need a better mount if the gauge was wireless.

[onenutt]

Originally Posted by mackeroni

I chose the plug-in version of the Ultra-Gauge because I like to keep things simple. It comes on automatically when I start my car and shows me what I want to see at a glance.

To me, the wireless version of the Ultra-Gauge presents a couple challenges. The first hurdle is the size of that dongle sticking out into the space where I swing my feet every single time I get in or out of the car. Knowing myself, I am confident I would kick or kick it every week or so until one day when it simply snaps off leaving me without a gauge and an expensive repair. The second problem I would have is the fact that I do not have an old phone available to dedicate to receiving and displaying signals from the Ultra-Gauge dongle. I would have to use my one and only iPhone. This is problematic because I would like to use my iPhone for a whole host of other duties while driving... GPS, music and so on, not to mention the need to synch up and mount my phone every time I get into the car. That would get old real quick for me.

Just my two cents.

Peace... Mack

Can you still close the little door covering the OBD port when you have the UltraGauge plugged in?

[onenutt]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Can you still close the little door covering the OBD port when you have the UltraGauge plugged in?

I know the cable would be in the way but was wondering if the connector itself is small enough that it would not stick out past the door

[mackeroni]

Originally Posted by onenutt

I know the cable would be in the way but was wondering if the connector itself is small enough that it would not stick out past the door

I have not done this myself, but it appears that if you would fashion a small hole at the top edge of the door from which the cable can exit, I am quite sure the door can be installed over the Ultra-Gauge OBDII connector. I stowed the door in my glove box because I tend to unplug my Ultra-Gauge and plug in my Carly every few weeks to check and clear a couple of errant error codes. The door would just slow me down.

Peace... Mack

[olds350]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Can you still close the little door covering the OBD port when you have the UltraGauge plugged in?

yes... There is a small tab on the inside of the cover that you need to break off. I pulled the rubber trim off the side of the door and ran the cable down the opened slot. If you remove the hood release handle and a 2nd retaining screw, it gives you enough room to pry the kick panel out and run the end of cable behind the kick panel.

Once I had everything installed, I just pushed the cable back into the void in the kick panel and plugged it in and reinstalled the odbii cover.

[onenutt]

Originally Posted by olds350

yes... There is a small tab on the inside of the cover that you need to break off. I pulled the rubber trim off the side of the door and ran the cable down the opened slot. If you remove the hood release handle and a 2nd retaining screw, it gives you enough room to pry the kick panel out and run the end of cable behind the kick panel.

Once I had everything installed, I just pushed the cable back into the void in the kick panel and plugged it in and reinstalled the odbii cover.

Your install looks very neat and tidy in the picture. Is the cable only visible from the gauge to the rubber trim?

[olds350]

Originally Posted by onenutt

Your install looks very neat and tidy in the picture. Is the cable only visible from the gauge to the rubber trim?

Yes, the rest of the cable is either under the door weatherstrip or tucked inside the kick panel.