Unexpected Orange Juice - Dom's Twingo GT

[oscar]

I've got a scangauge off a forum member. Works great, using it as a boost, water and MPG gauge. Working fine, only issue is it doesn't turn off with the ignition, I have to unplug it which is quite annoying. I've looked into how it shuts down and its supposed to shut off when it sees 0RPM, but when I switch the engine off the gauge always shows 290RPM so it doesn't shut down.
I changed the shutdown mode to volts, this makes it switch off when it sees the voltage drop (when the alternator stops charging essentially) but this doesn't work either because when I switch the engine off the voltage it reports drops from about 14.4v to 13.9v which doesn't switch it off.
Any ideas?

shoulda got a new one! sounds like the problem will be a bad earth somewhere in the scanguage's connection or something has tripped inside of it, resulting in a constant draw from the battery so it will never turn off .. untill the battery has been sooked dry!

could perhaps also be some kind of software fault but you should be able to reset it or something mate? never used one myself

 

[Didge3]

shoulda got a new one! sounds like the problem will be a bad earth somewhere in the scanguage's connection or something has tripped inside of it, resulting in a constant draw from the battery so it will never turn off .. untill the battery has been sooked dry!

could perhaps also be some kind of software fault but you should be able to reset it or something mate? never used one myself

Its entirely powered from the OBD port which is constant 12v so the way the scangauge is supposed to shut down is when it sees 0RPM or a sudden voltage drop (alternator stops charging) but neither of these methods seem to work for me. I've contacted scangauge support, supposedly their support service is pretty good so I guess I'll find out.

 

[singlespeed]

With the ignition switched on, but the engine not started, is your rev counter reading zero?
The rev counter should only display the reading that is being transmitted around the CAN bus. If that also shows 290rpm then the scangauge is probably reading correctly

 

[Didge3]

With the ignition switched on, but the engine not started, is your rev counter reading zero?
The rev counter should only display the reading that is being transmitted around the CAN bus. If that also shows 290rpm then the scangauge is probably reading correctly

I'm not sure exactly, the rev counter does move slightly when the ignition is switched on but not sure if it actually moves to ~300rpm will check tomorrow.


Anyway onto more important news, I finally got round to washing the Twingo today which meant I could apply my first and essential modification.

 

[LC]

With the ignition switched on, but the engine not started, is your rev counter reading zero?
The rev counter should only display the reading that is being transmitted around the CAN bus. If that also shows 290rpm then the scangauge is probably reading correctly

I'm not sure exactly, the rev counter does move slightly when the ignition is switched on but not sure if it actually moves to ~300rpm will check tomorrow.


Anyway onto more important news, I finally got round to washing the Twingo today which meant I could apply my first and essential modification.

+10bhp

 

[oscar]

please remove that eco2 sticker or i may be forced to kill again.

 

[Didge3]

please remove that eco2 sticker or i may be forced to kill again.

You can even see it in the picture?
I wondered what its even there for?

 

[oscar]

it was an emissions thing to say that ''we are the best in the class'' super economical engines and all, most little renaults are classed under eco 2 renault's standards. you don't want to be screaming i have a turbo, and then following it up with .... but it's efficient! hahahaha POWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Didge3]

With the ignition switched on, but the engine not started, is your rev counter reading zero?
The rev counter should only display the reading that is being transmitted around the CAN bus. If that also shows 290rpm then the scangauge is probably reading correctly

Getting back to my scangauge issue, the rev counter definitely reads 0 when the engine is off. Scangauge will read anywhere between 240 and 300rpm :?
I set the 'Sleep mode' (what triggers the scangauge to shut down) to voltage again and switched the car off, after about 4-5mins the voltage has actually dropped enough to make the scangauge shutdown. Which sort of solves my problem except the fact that I either have to sit and wait for it to shutdown or just trust it'll turn off, in the case that it doesn't it could kill the battery so its not really a fix....

Scangauge themselves got back to me and said it may be an issue similar to something they had with certain Mazda's where it wouldn't read 0RPM when the engine was off, does anybody on the forum have a scangauge with a GT so I can work out if its just mine?

 

[Didge3]

An update on the scangauge issue, they don't know why it isn't reading 0RPM when the engine is off but that's why the voltage sleep mode is there. Apparently my firmware version (4.06) had a problem with the voltage sleep option though. They've sent me a new 'circuit board' which I am assuming has the latest software and I just have to swap mine out for it. No charge either, their support is top notch

 

[Didge3]

Oh, and to avoid this becoming a boring wall of text thread my first 'nice' picture of the car

 

[oscar]

i spy with my little eye, something beginning with ...... turbo!

 

[Didge3]

Does anyone know the temperature at which the Twingo will turn its cooling fan on?
It got a little hot sitting in start stop traffic a few days ago (Scangauge reported 101C at one point), I'm going to go run it today and see when the fan kicks in to see if its the controller for the fan/fan itself or if it just needs new coolant (not sure when the coolant was last changed).

 

[oscar]

Thermostat opens Degress Celsius : 89

renault-twingo/twingo-maintenace-t917.html

the cooling fan comes on as soon as the thermostat opens, rule of thumb!

 

[Didge3]

Thermostat opens Degress Celsius : 89

renault-twingo/twingo-maintenace-t917.html

the cooling fan comes on as soon as the thermostat opens, rule of thumb!

I had a right faff trying to get the car to overheat. Sat in the sun (although not overly warm of course) revving the car at a standstill etc and couldn't get it to budge over about 86.
Switched the aircon on and it jumped up to 95 in no time and the fan came on and bought it back down to 85 in no time and the fan went off again. So think the cooling system itself is actually working fine, coolant change is probably due though.

 

[oscar]

basically dom, when you start your car up the thermostat is closed.

it's a little needle and when the wax melts (at 89 degree celsius) and the spring overcomes the wax and lets the needle move to let coolant circulate from the engine to the radiator. it is a pressurised system, on average to around 1bar (14.7 psi) and for each psi you increase you will get an increase in boiling point by 3 degrees. pressure is maintained by the pressure cap offcourse and the actual pressure the GT's cooling system operates at can be found on the cap itself.

it would appear that your thermostat is opening and then closing again which isn't good as this isn't allowing coolant to circulate. my first thoughts are that you have air pockets in the cooling system, or a more remote chance of a stuck open thermostat which allows the car to run to cool all of the time. a stuck open thermostat would result in the car taking a long time to get upto temperature and a noticed increase in fuel economy as the coolant temperature is directly responsible to the fuelling. engine temperature (determined by cooling) has a big big part to play in deciding fuelling

 

[Didge3]

it would appear that your thermostat is opening and then closing again which isn't good as this isn't allowing coolant to circulate. my first thoughts are that you have air pockets in the cooling system, or a more remote chance of a stuck open thermostat which allows the car to run to cool all of the time. a stuck open thermostat would result in the car taking a long time to get upto temperature and a noticed increase in fuel economy as the coolant temperature is directly responsible to the fuelling. engine temperature (determined by cooling) has a big big part to play in deciding fuelling

The car runs at about 84C under normal driving, very rarely budges and I'd say it gets up to temperature quick quickly. Not sure how accurate the scan gauge is but its been reporting 45MPG on my light footed motorway journeys (70mph, light acceleration only) however drops to 38-39MPG when driving around town trying to hear my dump valve

 

[Didge3]

Sorry for the absence, I very recently became an Uncle so I've been a bit distracted.
The Twingo has been going along fine, nearly at 104,000miles now. I think mine is one of the Twingos with cold start issues that I've read about here and there, sometimes when its sub 3C it'll turn over for about 10seconds or so before starting but it'll always start so I'm not bothered as yet.

I read somewhere on here about removing the recirc pipe from the dump valve to get a bit more noise from it. I've always been a bit annoyed that I have a turbo car and nobody can tell so I've removed the pipe and plugged it up (with a plastic bottle top but its clamped on and not going anywhere so, whatever...)
I didn't realise just how loud this would make things though. I went for a little drive after removing the pipe and laughed my arse off when I pulled out onto the street and dipped the clutch at about 3000rpm, the noise is hilarious!
Everyone must think I'm some 17 year old boy racer

 

[oscar]

sounds more like there could be a problem with your battery if it's taking 10 seconds to start regardless of temperature. batteries are rated for cold cranking conditions over various climates and your car will no doubt be on the factory battery (and we are told renaults are unreliable...100k+ miles and you're still on the majority of factory components!). seems as if it's on the down slope and on it's way out, as is mines but i have a bad earth somewhere which i really should sort out lol. i'd suggest getting a health check on your battery, any local motor factors can test your battery for you or you could do it yourself if you've got a half decent multimeter that can check high amperages

glad to see you're still enjoying your baby reanult, and on the baby front congratulations on becoming uncle dom with the noisy dumpvalve. PSSSSSHT! hahaha

 

[Didge3]

sounds more like there could be a problem with your battery if it's taking 10 seconds to start regardless of temperature. batteries are rated for cold cranking conditions over various climates and your car will no doubt be on the factory battery (and we are told renaults are unreliable...100k+ miles and you're still on the majority of factory components!). seems as if it's on the down slope and on it's way out, as is mines but i have a bad earth somewhere which i really should sort out lol. i'd suggest getting a health check on your battery, any local motor factors can test your battery for you or you could do it yourself if you've got a half decent multimeter that can check high amperages

glad to see you're still enjoying your baby reanult, and on the baby front congratulations on becoming uncle dom with the noisy dumpvalve. PSSSSSHT! hahaha

I've checked the battery myself with a multimeter, with alternator getting a solid 14.4v obviously. Battery shows 12.8v with engine off even an hour after the engine has been off. Its not that the engine won't crank fast enough to start, it'll sound normal but it just takes the engine a while to actually start. I googled it when it first happened a lots of peopel mentioned having to get the ECU updated from Renault because it was a known fault.

Anyway, yes PSSSSSHT noise is utterly ridiculous but funny anyway, thanks for the congratulations