Hermann
Site Donor 2023
First off I will say that it is very easy to hook up and install with the supplied windshield mount. Took less than 5 minutes. The surprisingly high quality windshield mount has a nice flexible stalk, that can be bent and curved to accomodate just about any windshield and dash. I mounted mine in the lower left hand side of the dash.
The display is very easy on the eyes in any light. The auto contrast and brightness feature works real well. The main functions can be learned quite quickly, and putting the guages you want on each screen is very easy, although it takes a lot of button pushing.
Most folks buy this for the instant MPG readout. It is why I wanted one. Took a trip this week to visit Mom for a couple of days. By far I came home with more gas left in the tank than any previous trip to visit her. At 1/4 tank left I have about 30 more miles on the trip odometer than ever before, even with winter blend gas. This one guage will pay for the UltraGuage or Scangauge for that matter in no time at all, as it sure tells you when you are wasting fuel for no reason. At 68mph on level surface it shows 2mpg better than 71mph on the same level surface.
A real surprise is that instant mpg's with cruise control on is nearly as good as without on levels surfaces at the same speed. The difference was only about 1mpg. On hilly terrain the results with cruise control off were 2 to 3mpg better. The biggest surprise was that when the terrain is ever so slightly downhill that mpg's were about 10 better.
I have yet to fully calibrate the unit as this takes two fillups to do. This calibrates the unit to your fuel tank size to the signals from the OBDII computer. Although not the fault of the Ultra Guage, the Tacoma does not have a fuel tank sensor, or a oil temp sensor reading to the OBDII. The Tacoma has 47 possible gauges. My coolant temp is always between 186-190F when fully warmed up. It has a indicator for when the vehicle has entered cloosed loop operation. Out of a 60F garage it took less than 1 minute for the indicator to show closed. It is quite interesting to see how quickly the coolant starts warming. It starts climbing in just a few seconds.
There is not much to complain about. About the only thing I can think of is the Instant MPG indicator is a bit too sensitive as it updates about every 1/2 second. When your lift your foot or press a little harder it is instantaneous. The Ave MPG figure is optomistic by quite a bit, but like I said the unit is not fully calibrated. The manual is through and complete but you must print it yourself. It is 48 pages long. The procedure for obtaining the rebate is very long, but could prove handy if you ever have a problem as they will be able to tell if it is the unit or the vehicle. For about $65 after rebate it is a very nice piece.
PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try to answer.
The display is very easy on the eyes in any light. The auto contrast and brightness feature works real well. The main functions can be learned quite quickly, and putting the guages you want on each screen is very easy, although it takes a lot of button pushing.
Most folks buy this for the instant MPG readout. It is why I wanted one. Took a trip this week to visit Mom for a couple of days. By far I came home with more gas left in the tank than any previous trip to visit her. At 1/4 tank left I have about 30 more miles on the trip odometer than ever before, even with winter blend gas. This one guage will pay for the UltraGuage or Scangauge for that matter in no time at all, as it sure tells you when you are wasting fuel for no reason. At 68mph on level surface it shows 2mpg better than 71mph on the same level surface.
A real surprise is that instant mpg's with cruise control on is nearly as good as without on levels surfaces at the same speed. The difference was only about 1mpg. On hilly terrain the results with cruise control off were 2 to 3mpg better. The biggest surprise was that when the terrain is ever so slightly downhill that mpg's were about 10 better.
I have yet to fully calibrate the unit as this takes two fillups to do. This calibrates the unit to your fuel tank size to the signals from the OBDII computer. Although not the fault of the Ultra Guage, the Tacoma does not have a fuel tank sensor, or a oil temp sensor reading to the OBDII. The Tacoma has 47 possible gauges. My coolant temp is always between 186-190F when fully warmed up. It has a indicator for when the vehicle has entered cloosed loop operation. Out of a 60F garage it took less than 1 minute for the indicator to show closed. It is quite interesting to see how quickly the coolant starts warming. It starts climbing in just a few seconds.
There is not much to complain about. About the only thing I can think of is the Instant MPG indicator is a bit too sensitive as it updates about every 1/2 second. When your lift your foot or press a little harder it is instantaneous. The Ave MPG figure is optomistic by quite a bit, but like I said the unit is not fully calibrated. The manual is through and complete but you must print it yourself. It is 48 pages long. The procedure for obtaining the rebate is very long, but could prove handy if you ever have a problem as they will be able to tell if it is the unit or the vehicle. For about $65 after rebate it is a very nice piece.
PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try to answer.
