Don't suppose anyone's got a cheap turbo boost gauge to sell, want to install one on my old Audi TDI to keep an eye on a power lose seem to get. Don't want to spend loads but they're not cheap on ebay etc
If you have an android phone then Torque Pro and a bluetooth OBD2 scanner will give you boost pressure and many more parameters live. If you want to do proper diagnostics, however, download VAG-COM and use a KKL cable. Not cheap if you buy the full versions, but there's no finger piece of software for your car.
What weird is bluetooth is what was looking into for further work! I have the vag com software and cable but wasn't keen on having a laptop around were as an iphone or ipad would be fine. Only concern with the bluetooth adapters is what to get, so many varieties and prices, I don;t want to spend much as I'm only a hobbiest
That ELM327 I linked to is quite good, I have the cabled version and it's decent enough as a generic OBD2 scanner. For £5 you can't go wrong!
ooo... interested in this, i got a golf 1.8t, i have a gauge i keep meaning to fit. let us know how the bluetooth thing goes.
Is it a mk4 or 5? Mk4 goes in under the radio behind a little cover, but sadly will look a bit messy. In the mk5 it plugs in under the dash near your left leg. A true boost guage needs to get a feed direct from the inlet manifold.
If the current drain isn't much am considering connecting permanantly to my Golf Mk4 as well and get another for other uses
How reliable is it, and how many of the vast list of parameters actually work properly? I've always thought something like that would be cool just to tinker about a bit, but anything on ebay that's £5 from China always raises doubts.
I like it. I haven't used it extensively - its most common use is to drive the OBDII scanner in CentraFuse to give me readouts of what's going on in real-time. It also reads OBD codes nicely (helped a couple of folk out with this in the past). Dependent on the vehicle, you'll need an appropriate piece of software. CentraFuse gives basic info (often enough to get you by). Mine was shipped within the UK, bought via eBay, some years ago.
From the free, non-OE software you get all of these. For you I'd recommend buying a more advanced cable and using the BMW OE software, which lets you look at much more advanced parameters by interrogating the various ECU's through CANBUS.
I got the MK4 dont think they done a MK5 1.8T as the GTI is a 2.0T, i already have a cheap code scanner that i use alot (as any VAG owner will know) If these Bluetooth ones are decent i cant see it being too hard to come up with a permanent solution to hide it. I have a boost gauge and all the fittings just havent got around to fitting it, also made a end cap with a valve for doing some leak tests
I got my wired cable from China, works on shareware vag com for some basic stuff nicely. Found a ton of free ipad software to try it on
I can tell you a mechanical boost gauge is highly entertaining. The electric variant is rather expensive, but if you can run a vacuumline from the enginebay they're cheap.
If you are using an apple device you need a wifi adapter, Bluetooth for android. I have a wifi elm it's great when it works but mine seems to be really finicky. The other issue is there's no decent cheap apps for apple I ended up buying the palmer sport one which gives quite a few option but it's £30
