Chevy & GMC Vans

This is pretty much a rant.

I have come to the conclusion that I love my scan gauge and can't for the life of me figure out how I survived without one before.

The data is amazing. The trip functions incomparable. The peace of mind AWESOME!

What made me want to post this is an incident that happened on the way to work today.

I was stopped at a red light waiting to turn left. Then suddenly my van had a severe shudder for a second. It felt like every cylinder misfired sequentially and then all was fine. I looked down and sure enough the SES is on. Normally I would at this point be running a million scenarios through my head all driving me insane not knowing what is up and how much it's going to cost me to repair. Not this time. I quick reached forward pressed the home key then the scan key. Scanned the ECM now I was expecting a 3000 series misfire code but what do I discover, that pesky PO113 code that's been jumping on and off as of late. So I hit clear codes then the home key then back to gauges......All before the light turns green. Once again happy content and concentrating on driving and work.

Never have I had something like that happen vehicle wise before....... I've had many of weird occurrences with worried thoughts until I could get my van scanned. Never just poke poke oh ok back on task.

Now to replace that pesky IAT sensor and finally be done with it.

Also I did the math..... I've pulled 2 different codes and done one initial checking for saved codes scan. By my calculations my Scan gauge has now paid for it's self. Well if your paying the dealer to pull codes anyways.

F-N awesome, yet more increased desire to buy one. Wonder if my tax return will be enough to register Grumpy and get one.

So Potski, what type of scanner did you get and where did you get it and all that?

Post title is what he got.

Here's the link

Ok, that is great. It is just what I would like to have for the van and my wife's Mazda (the Mazda keeps throwing the same code but it freaks my wife out to have the warning light on, this way I could check and clear it while on the go.) Now to find the money for it.

I got mine from Tom Gifford at Gifford Automotive. http://www.giffordautomotive.com

It was $193.73 CDN to my door. I ordered it on a friday and it was in my hands on monday. That price is without shipping too. Dunno if the deal is still on but they had a no shipping deal due to the "strong canadian dollar"

Yep, I'm loving mine. Wifey had a SES that would pop on, now and then on her Pontiac. Scanned it, found out it was the MAF, cleaned the MAF, drivability improved and got almost 5 MPG back on the highway !!

Well I ordered a ScanGauge II, and I have read a lot of good things about this unit. The only thing that's got me pissed is after I ordered one today. I checked to see if AS.com was up and running and it was. I searched ScanGauge and read the threads only to my disappointment to find out trans temp is not supported til '98. It was one of my reasons for justifying buying this. I'm sure I'll use it for a lot of other reasons, but that would have been a deal breaker if I had known beforehand. Just a heads up to people with '96 & '97's.

Here's the quote from AS.

'cudapaul wrote:OK, I finally got a chance to play with my newer Scangauge 2 (ver 3.15). I still have my earlier ScanGauge 2 and will send it in for a firmware upgrade.

Here's what I found:

In my '97 Astro, only the HP (horsepower) XGauge function works. I used the GM VPW settings, and programmed all of the XGauge functions in, but none of them worked, except for HP. I haven't tried it on the '96, but I don't expect any better results.

I recieved my ScanGauge II and as I feared it did not support TFT(Transmission Fluid Temperature), but it does have a lot of other features. I had one stored code P0144 Heated Oxygen Sensor Circuit High Voltage Bank 1 Sensor 3. I'll keep my eye on that one. I cleared it and it hasn't come back. I drove from Chicago to Indianapolis I got 16.9 MPG not bad. I noticed when I set the cruise at 80 MPH it doesn't take much for it to drop out of 4th(looks like I need a V8).

Hi Everyone,

Hey Potskie, I bought a scanguage from gifford also - got it the following day after I ordered it. Great service - fellow Canadians take note! I bought it to moniter Tranny Fluid Temp - which in the 2001 it does support. Kind of handy little guage, no codes to fix currently but I am sure it will pay for itself!

Cheers