I am starting a new thread in the hope that other owners of Ultragauge will comment. After driving over 100 mi. without a gearbox fault, I plugged in the Ultragauge today and went into gearbox fault and limp mode after one mi. I unplugged the offending gauge, shut off the engine and restarted with no fault displayed. Once clear of traffic I plugged it in again, and drove another 10 mi. without a problem, except the periodic warning that there is a pending trouble code. That code is P1000, since I reset with the Autoenginuity yesterday. Now I find a p1797 as in the past, but I expect that after the gearbox fault.
I will do further evaluation, but I am now fairly certain that the gearbox fault was caused by the Ultragauge. However, I will keep using it if all I have to do is restart. I did note that the engine temp. is now 194- 197 F after replacing the water pump and thermostat vs 201- 204 F before.
RJ
__________________
97 XK8 Conv. 85K mi.

 

I have the Scangauge II that will cause a similar fault. The solution is you need a special cable with the CAN network pins disconnected. The good folks at Scangauge call it a non-CAN cable and sent it to me as a free replacement.

Interestingly enough (off topic) my '96 Chev diesel pickup needs the same cable. Different symptoms but the same solution.

The standard one size fits all cable actually doesn't. But it worked on my Suzuki.

Call up the tech support for the Ultra and tell them what you have and that it actually is not the same as the S-type which I've heard seems to have no problems.

Mike

 

Have you tried setting the protocol? I know that one could get errors on AJ26 cars, as the ultragauge scans all the networks which seems to cause it. When you put in the ultragauge you will see which protocol it eventually finds, then you need to go into the menu and set it to that only.

 

Thanks avos, I'll give that a try today.

 

The UltraGauge works but will not work as a plug and play you need to force the protocol to have it work properly. I have not done this but I understand it works. Read the PDF on the UltraGauge on the unit and it gives you a how to. Do not panic over the codes caused by the UltraGauge they are bogus.

 

Gus, They may be bogus, but when the gearbox fault puts me in limp mode, that's real. This morning I plugged it in at startup and it put me in limp mode three times in four mi. Each time I could restart and and the fault would not occur immediately.
I then unplugged it, drove for a couple of miles and plugged it in while driving. No more problems after that.
Today it will be in mid 90's here, a good day to stay inside and go through the manual. As we used to say in the laboratory, when all else fails, read the manual.

 

Thanks to all for help. Forcing the protocol eliminated the gearbox fault. Now I'll put my original TCM back in, and if that works like I expect it will, I can put the used one on ebay. Or maybe I should just save it.
RJ
_____________________
97 XK8 Conv. 85K mi

 

What is a TCM?

 

TCM = Transmission Control Module
ECM = Engine Control Module
BPM = Body Processor Module (ties into multiple sub-modules like doors and seats

Other manufacturers may use slightly different acronyms.

 

Good deal! I have the UltraGauge in my 2000 S-type and love it. I installed it in my xk8 and it did not like it and did the same thing you experienced. I contacted UltraGauge about the problem and the forced protocol was the way to go.

 

Thanks Oregon Jag. Now when you guys talk in code I'll be able to translate. Kinda nice to know what is being talked about.

EZDriver