I have an iCarsoft LR V2.0. I was trying to use it to check my coolant temperature on my '98 XK8 this afternoon. I used the Diagnostic function for the 1998 XK and ran a manual scan on the temperature gauge via the Instrument Pack. The readings were silly - far too hot on my car and far too cool on my friend's '06 XK8. Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know why this happened? I'd appreciate any help or advice.

 

Engine coolant temperature is a standard PID that you get from the ECM (PID 0005). It is also shown as being available from the instrument pack, which is presumably what you are trying to read. Any reason you aren't reading it direct from the ECM? There are several other temperatures you can get, including the instrument pack temperature itself, so maybe that is what you are seeing.

 

Thanks for the reply. There is probably no good reason I didn't try to read it from the ECM. We were trying to do this after a fairly long day. I lost confidence in my OBDII scanner after getting the apparently 'wonky' temperature readings. My friend's OBDII scanner didn't want to work unless the engine was running and we wanted to check temperatures with the ignition on, but not the engine on. When I got home ;last night I went 'back to basics' and re-read the iCarsoft User Manual. I'm going to try using the OBDII/EOBD function on the scanner to get the temperature from the ECM when we try again today.

 

You need the ignition on to connect, but the engine doesn't need to be running.

On my 2001 XKR there is a bug with the engine temp, so some scanners will read it, others just see corrupt data.

Let us know how you get on.

 

So, yesterday I tried reading the temperature via the ECM - same result, unrealistically high temperature in both ignition on/engine off and ignition and engine on conditions. We then used my friend’s Centech 60794 scanner to check the car (which has shown no signs of overheating during recent, lengthy trips) and obtained realistic coolant temp. readings.

Then, I tried the same procedure with the LR V2.0 on my friend’s 2006 XK8 - and it read accurately. (We used my friend’s Centech 60794 scanner to validate the reading.)

I've contacted iCarsoft Tech Support, let's see what they have to say.

Jim