Thank you Gus. I'll give that a shot.

 

According to the Troubleshooting link on the Ultra-Gauge site there is a way to force the correct CAN format but I haven't had time to check that out. Normally it does an auto detect but that doesn't appear to always work. This is supposedly explained in the user manual but haven't gotten to that either. Too much going on.

 

Today I tested the Ultra Gauge on my 1999 xk8 and failed unmercifully. It found the car automatically and began scanning for the gauges and all was going well until it went into alarm. I pulled the codes using the gauge and it gave me P0171 & P0174 and I cleared them and continued down the road. When I pulled into the parking lot I got Check Engine light, Transmission Failure and Traction Control Failure. At that point I shut the car down removed the gauge and installed my OBD II code reader to find a P1642 and cleared it. All reset and took the car out for another run and all was OK. This unit worked well with my 2000 S-Type but failed my test in my 1999 XK8.

 

Sorry to hear that the Ultra Gauge wreaked havoc, I was really wanting to get one myself. Maybe you can figure it out...let us know if you find a solution.

 

It is a little disconcerting, I have yet to try mine driving down the road, I have a timing chain job and engine bay detail on the go at the moment, perhaps once I am done I will plug it into that one and see what happens, on my first try on a 2004 XKR I had no probs but I was just sitting in the car idling

 

Got the gauge in the mail today. Had just a little time to check it out.
Read the warning note in the box to go to the web site and read a required warning and fill out info on the car. I then plugged it into my 1999 XK8, turned the key to the 1 position, waiting, then turned the key to the 2 position.

The gauge lit up and then scanned for the protocol. If found 9141. Said it found 36 gauges. The screen showed the default gauge settings. I fussed around trying to select the gauges I wanted in the positions I wanted but I couldn't save it, well I didn't remember how to save it!

Took the car for a short drive. RPM seemed accurate but the speedometer was 5-6 mph different. Needs a calibration I'm guessing. Noted the engine temperature was 194 degrees F. Is that about right??

An alarm did come up on the screen with instructions to press the "down" key to remove or silence, don't remember exactly. What alarm, I haven't a clue.

I then checked DTC codes and it said one pending code and it was the P1111 which is always there and not a fault.

That's the quick and dirty test I did. I did not want to go to far down the road and run into trouble like Gus and Walt mentioned. I did warn my wife to stay near the phone, and where to tow strap was!

More to come with time and warmer days, my top is still down!

 

I was just reading the manual to better understand the produce and the force option. I will be trying the force option but not in this weather (snow). What concerns me is that this car is a foreign and domestic (Ford) element and as confused as it is on its own adding this unit is just another element in to the mix. I will give it a try with hopes that it will work.

 

Prior to starting this thread I attempted to get some engagement from Ultra-Gauge but they chose to hide behind the wall of secrecy. At the time I had informed them of what was going to happen and that the lack of support would be a deal killer. I guess we flushed them out. I'm rather disappointed that they didn't complete the discussion by informing us as to which protocol to force. Apparently they don't know so we get to experiment on our cars. Some good news, CAN Bus is designed to withstand collisions so no permanent harm is done beyond the need to clear codes. If you have problems just pull the plug and they will go away although the Check Engine Light could stay on.

We can rest easy in the knowledge that Jaguar has upheld the tradition of quirky independence despite the Ford influence. God forbid they would stick to any standards. I think this also means they have used more than one comm channel so we may not be able to access the secret Jaguar only codes.

Some of us who have taken this plunge have had success so I think it is about 50-50 whether Ultra-Gauge will choose wisely. If someone can figure out which protocol is working that would be good information for the Forum. The value is $60 versus $200+ for something that could have the same issues.

 

194 degrees sounds about right. Most thermostats open at 190 degrees, so you'd expect the coolant temperature to be close. The fact that it's not reading exactly 190 could be because of the calibration tolerance of the thermostat or the temperature sensor.

I don't think there is a way to calibrate the speedometer. I've seen aftermarket kits that include a little electronic module that measures the frequency of the input pulses from the speed sensor and allows you to adjust the frequency of the output pulses, but I don't think there is an adjustment on the car that allows the speedometer reading to be tweaked. Fortunately for me my speedometer is almost spot-on. You should check your speedometer with a GPS. They are incredibly accurate as long as you're driving a steady speed. If you're changing speeds they lag slightly.

 

I checked the speed with GPS and it was spot on with the UltraGauge but the car indicator (2000 S-Type) was 5mph off on the high side. As for the temperature when I used my computer OBD II I noticed that it maintained around 220 F with my XK8, with the UltraGauge on my S-Type it was at a constant 210 / 220 F. I do not know the thermostat rating in it but I think it should be 195F.

 

Sam, you are right about calibrating the speedometer in your car. But the UltraGauge can be calibrated to display the correct speed and distance regardless of your tire/wheel size, etc. It's all in the operator's manual.

 

1999 XK8



I tried to arrange the gauge settings to the layout I wanted. Could not get it to take the settings, and the one time it did they were not what I had setup A through F.

Took the car out for a 40 mile drive with 3 stops where I shut off the car. On the first leg the alarm came on 3 times with pending codes, I just pushed the silence button.

Other than the alarms everything worked normal with the default gauge display.

The temp did go up to 203 degrees F Vs. the 193 F or so on a shorter drive I had taken a couple days ago.

I attached the Ultra-gauge just below the oil\clock\battery gauges. Used the adhesive\velcro patches.

The car's speedo is 5mph faster than what the Ultra-gauge displays.

No problem reading the Ultra-gauge in bright sunlight with the top down. Now that's it's mounted I'll be able to see how it operates longer term.

 

Good for you! Questions, did you force the protocol and if you did what did you set it on? Also what settings would it not take and what alarms did you get?

 

Have received my kiwi, and all works like a charm, reads all that it should, reads&clears DTCs etc all via my iphone. I will open another thread for this one once I have also installed the extra devices (boost and exhaust temp).

 

Andre- How are you going to install the EGT sensor? Do you have to weld a bung on the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe?

 

A couple of comments about speedometer calibration. The speedometer is dependent on tire circumference so will be in error by the difference between what is built into the speedometer circuitry and the tires on the car. The wheel sensor produces pulses as the wheel rotates so once it is calibrated to the actual tire size it should be very accurate as long as the tires are maintained at the same pressure. As far as I know there is no provision for calibration within the ECM although it is theoretically possible. I would not be surprised to find that there is a hidden capability to do this given the range of wheel sizes that were available for the XK.

GPS speed data is updated no faster than once a second (and could be slower) and is based on the straight line distance between coordinates. If the road is not straight you will not get accurate numbers from a GPS but instead the speed as though you drove the chords between points. Therefore the GPS will make it appear that the car is going slower than actual because the apparent distance is less than actual. Also, the GPS coordinates dither. If you set a GPS in one spot over time you will get a pattern of coordinates around that spot that fall within a circle 20 meters in diameter. Therefore the straight line accuracy is dependent on speed. The faster you are traveling the lower the percentage of error due to dither.

 

The protocol it found was the 9141 (Chrysler and Foreign). I'm assuming that it's the correct one!

Nope, never forced the protocol.

When I first plugged this thing in it gave me transmission fault and one other maybe the same as you and Walt got. I went to the DTC codes and deleted them and started over.

When I was doing my 40 mile drive I didn't want to search the codes while driving, I'm just not that good at keeping this thing out of the bar ditch.

On setting the gauges, I tried to put the engine temp in the "A" position I can't remember what else I tried to set. When it came on with the gauges is was nothing close to the settings. Also when you set say, A through F should it just automatically go to those gauges or do you have to some how exit out. While setting all those up I could not figure out what it wanted to display them. Unless it times out and then goes to them.

When I first plugged in the gauge it was really cold in my garage and I wasn't very patient.

Today it will hit 74, so I will be out in the Jag for sure and see if things go smoothly with the Ultra-gauge.

 

Let us know how you make out. You have the same protocol 9141 that my car set. I would like to see your long term results are.

 

OK... I tend to be misunderstood a lot, so let me start off by saying that I'm not trying to be difficult or confrontational! I agree with just about everything you said about the GPS, Walt, however, when driving down the road at highway speeds, a GPS is going to be much more accurate than the cars speedometer. The speedometer is affected by tire size, tire temperature, air pressure, tire wear...

In the UK, speedometers are required to be manufactured so that they are accurate from 0 to +10% over. In other words, the speedometer can never read slower than the actual speed, but they can show that you are going up to 10% greater than the actual speed. Manufacturers intentionally build the speedometers so that they show you are going faster than you actually are. That's so that they are in compliance with the law.

GPS, on the other hand, is so accurate that commercial jets can fly precision approaches and land without the pilot having to ever touch the controls. Even on small planes like I fly, we can now land in bad weather at airfields that don't have Instrument Landing Systems. The issue you mentioned above about the chord of a curve is negligible for normal driving. While turning circles in a parking lot or making a tight U-turn at an intersection it might have an effect, but when driving down the road at highway speeds, no curve is going to be tight enough to affect the accuracy of the GPS speed by more than an fraction of a percent.

Basically, I'm saying that GPS isn't perfect, but in comparison to your car's speedometer, it's almost always going to give you a more accurate reading.