As has been mentioned on this forum before, the speedometer is not accurate nor is the water temperature gauge (in certain ranges). If you use a ScanGauge II, does it give the correct speed and water temperature? I realize speed is dependent on wheel diameter and there is no way for the car to know what wheels/tires you have on the car but I am wondering if the ScanGauge II is more accurate with its readings than the dash gauges.

At the track I've seen some high oil temperatures (via the chrono pack gauges) and I'd like to know what the really water temperature is during those times.

 

The scanguage give you a number read out for the water temp. and speed... my scan gauge reads about 1-5 mph slower then my speedo.... indicating that the speedo is intentionally calibrated wrong.

When I'm doing my spirited driving i see temps between 190-212(max ever)

 

I have the SG II, and I believe the readings to be accurate. My water temp sits right around 190F, which is the thermostat setting, with some minor variation. The speed reading, taken directly from the wheel speed sensors, can be easily verified with a stopwatch and mile markers.

 

You can also get the actual water temp through the hidden functions in the MINI's computer. You use the odometer display under the speedo. Do a search on MINI2 for instructions.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

The ScanGuage II speed is right on the mark with my GPS System. My temp sites at 191 degrees and I can also monitor Air Intake temp.

 

Here's the Mini2 Link...

http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?f..._obc_functions

 

I have seen this. Does it work on all MINIS or just some.
will it work with the NAV pak or chrono pak? or just the tach only setup.

 

I don't think that the water temperature gauge in the Chrono Pack suffers from the same accuracy issues as the standard MINI temp gauge.

 

Maybe someone will let us know for sure but I'd expect the water temp to be at least a bit a bit higher during the times that I saw higher oil temps and it was not.

 

Well, the coolant system has the thermostat to help regulate coolant temperature, but the oil system doesn't have anything similar. There have been many times where I've been autocrossing and the oil temperature has gone up without much of a rise in the coolant temps.

Once the thermostat is fully-open, there almost has to be something wrong in the engine for the coolant temperature to go up any further. In contrast, without a dedicated oil cooler and associated thermostat, the engine oil temp will continue to fluctuate with engine load.

 

The SGII reads every data point from the computer, (stating the obvious) so whether it is accurate and precise is really a question of whether the MINI computer is accurate. Simple gauges are often not very accurate as the needle is mechanically applied to the pin and the slightest discrepancy seems to be a big error given the range of the gauge. Digital readout doesn't carry the mechanical error aspects, so they should reflect the information the computer provides.
I've compared my speedometers to my GPS for our various vehicles and I've found that Toyotas tend to indicate a couple mph higher than real, MINI was slightly higher than real, and my Chevy truck was dead on (until the stepper motor for the gauge failed and when I rebuild it, I assembled the needle ever so slightly off, so now it reads slightly faster than real .)