More Input!

When towing with the Excursion, I never really thought about the “extra load” on the engine, because I never towed anything heavy enough for the 7.3 to notice.

But if I’m going to tow with the Ridgeline, I’m going to have to monitor the engine a bit more closely.

The Honda engine & transmission have sensors on everything, but Honda doesn’t offer a way for the driver to access that information.

Screen shot from my phone running the Car Scanner app. *

Thanks to the App Store, I can now read every sensor in the car in real time. And record values over time.

I plugged a Bluetooth dongle into the OBD port and downloaded Car Scanner ELM OBD2 from the iOS App Store. The hardest part is going to be figuring out which sensors are meaningful to me.

With my MagSafe charger holding my phone between the steering wheel and infotainment screen, this dashboard is perfectly positioned for me to monitor the engine while driving.

*I’ve now upgraded to the paid version, $7 for a perpetual license.

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Author: rexplex

With a bachelors degree in history, I turn wrenches for a living. I’m most at peace when I hear the wind in the trees or the gurgle of a brook. I’m a believer in the Renaissance Man, as epitomized by DaVinci engineer, artist, soldier, statesman. As Heinlein said, “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

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