new calais dash in/problems

[gone_nutz13]

new seats are in, gotta love it, so comfortable, yesterdays project was to get the dash in. very, very interesting experience that was. after studying the above diagrams and how too's i slowly started getting more and more pissed off ha ha. but it's in and all working now, (after 3 hours yesterday arvo and about 1/2 an hour this morning)

my problem is is the all the fuel displays, last time i checked i can't get 0.4litres per hundred k's when i'm giving it a bit.

wondering what is up with that. wondering if the wire i ran over to the computer is on the piss maybe?

anyway thoughts would be grately appreciated, thanks

plus: i'll try and get some photos up soon

[stocky]

if you didnt have the wire running to the ecu, your instant fuel usage would stay on 0. just make sure its connected to the ecu wire properly

[lsprewell]

Not sure quite what you mean, explain it a bit better. If you are saying that its showing .4L/km when you accelerate hard, than that is definately not right. Make sure the wire from the ECU to the Trip Computer is correct, if so, than you definately have an issue there. There are othere questions like, does it show you correct fuel usage? Does it show your speed correctly when you enable the speedo function?

[gone_nutz13]

yeah like it just shows really low values, like if i multiplied it by ten it'd be right, yeah the speed alarm and all that works fine, just the fuel, dte, instant and average, thinking i might tweak the ecu wire if that's the problem? just a bit stumped

[lsprewell]

Yeah sounds like the ECU wire is not right, it should be yellow/black wire (A2 on the ECU). When I mentioned the speed, I meant the digital speedo, as in, when you turn the ignition on, you hold the reset button down, this puts the dash in diagnostics mode, and has digital speedometer function on the left lcd screen if you tap the mode button to change screens. If its not hooked up correctly to the ECU, then this function will not work either, thats all.

See how you go.

[gone_nutz13]

ok awesome, going to give it a tweak in a sec, yeah i'm pretty sure that it wasn't working, the wire that i've got running to the ecu has got like 4 joins in it, just joined a couple of shorter one's to reach the computer, figure that there might be too much resistance from the joins, so a bit of the signal is getting through but not the correct strength

[AirStrike]

Your all forgetting the most basic thing. Have you check the calibration number hasnt been changed?
AirStrike

[gone_nutz13]

yes i was wondering about those, what should the values be for those? there is one on each screen i believe

[stocky]

default value is 625

[gone_nutz13]

cheers, i'll go put that in and take it for a small spin around the block, any thoughts if it could be the dodgy wire draining voltage through the joins?

[gone_nutz13]

went to a car store, got proper wire, so there is just one wire going from the computer to the yellow/black wire, i did the dash reset thing so the electric speedo came up, it did and was working fine, so i turned my car off then on to get the dash back to normal, then drove off, started working fine, sat around 8 though, but seemed to be fine, gave it some curry to see if it really was working and it dropped down to 0.0's and stuff, so i'm stumped,

[gone_nutz13]

re wired the ecu cable, all good, digital speedo works good, problem is still the fuel displays, so wondering if the problem lies with my exhaust and air intake mods? screwing the computer around or something? coz i've wired it all up correctly and have no idea what to do next

[lsprewell]

Cool, well if the Dash digital speedo worked, than the cable going to your ECU is correctly connected, so you can rule that out for now. The other question would be, does this dash belong to this car originally, or was it installed later? And also your ecu (computer), do you know if they are original for your car, or have they been changed as well?

These are important , and probably the first question to ask is, has this feature (fuel average/usage etc etc) worked previously and than stopped working, or has it never worked at all?

The exhaust mod and air intake mod would not be the cause of this, let us know!!

[gone_nutz13]

yeah i'm not sure about the ecu, i'd say it's probably stock, but not sure about the modifications history for it, the dash was straight out of a vn series one calais v6, and put it into my series one exec. v6, so figure the dash shouldn't have any other tweaked bits in it, and yes i'm pretty sure the fuel sensors work as i gave it a drive around the farm before taking the driveline out.

I have the ecu from the calais so i may swap that over and see if it works after that perhaps? it's a very intriguing problem.

ill stop cutting and playing with the ecu wires now

[lsprewell]

You shouldnt have to swap the ECU, I didnt when I did my conversion over. I would double check the assignments of plugs 1,2 and 3 on the back of your dash. Make sure that they are all fine (flexible circuit board not cracked) and check cause you should have to swap a few wires over when upgrading from level 1 to a level 3 dash. There is also the possiblity that you do have a crook dash, can never rule that out!!!


And in regards to the calibration, I wouldn't see that throwing the figures down so low, or even getting 0, it will always read nothing when you are stationery, but once tha car moves, fuel averages will start showing, but the calibration i would say is fine, especially because when you install a level 3 dash in, everything is reset, thus making all the calibration settings at their default. (fuel used and trip time work stationery or on the go)

[gone_nutz13]

yeah no worries, going to go have a tinker and a play this afternoon so i'll take the dash out, inspect all the plugs and see if the wires are all correct, pretty sure they are but doesn't hurt to check, i'll check the dash to see if its busted.

just go through and do some elimination :P ha ha

[lsprewell]

Check the bottom of the dash, there is a black plug where the flexible printed circuit connects to the lcd display box. I have found that in the past, these can crack due to thei right angle nature, and some re soldering is sometimes needed to fix this, I had an issue with spd alert light not coming on , the buzzer would, but not the light, tested the lights over and over, and than with further inspection found this, re soldered and dash was perfect, I put some masking tape of it cause solder doesnt like flexing.

Not sure if this will fix your issue, but its also something to look out for!! Good Luck!!

[gone_nutz13]

ok cool, i swapped the computer, didn't to anything ha ha, like you said, but figured it was worth a shot, i check the connections and wires and they were all good, but this new little plug is interesting, i'll pull the dash out again and have a look, might need a bit of tweaking.

also my car being a manual shouldn't have anything to do with it hey?

Thanks

[lsprewell]

hmmm, maybe, is the dash out of a manual or auto, cause they are different!!!!!!

[gone_nutz13]

yeah the dash is out of a vn calais series 1 auto, i've got a exec. series one manual. thinking that might be the cause? coz it seems to work sometimes but then it just drops right back down again. what's the difference in them?

[lsprewell]

Not 100% sure on the difference exactyl as I have never had my hands on a VN Manual Level 3 Dash to inspect it further (could be nothing but I doubt it). I would point to this as being the issue, GM has a different model VN L3 dashes for different engines and gearboxes, but just to make sure, give your local holden spare parts a call and question them regarding a manual level 3 dash. The manuals use different fuel consumptions than the auto's, so, check it out before you end up pulling your whole car to pieces......LOL!

[gone_nutz13]

ha ha yeah that sounds like a better idea. manuals must have better fuel consumption, i did at least 200ks driving on sunday and used 12 litres!! stoked ha ha yeah i'll give them a ring and see what they say, beats ripping apart all my electrics to find i need some fiddly little thing, coz knowing me i'd pull it to bits and not be able to remember how to put it back together and be left with spare parts ha ha, cheeers

[stocky]

didnt think the calais came out in manual, so if it is a manual dash, it might be out of a hsv model?

[gone_nutz13]

yeah pretty sure calais = auto, but i've got a exec. manual, and i took the level three dash out of the auto calais and put it into mine, so everything works perfect except anything to do with the fuel displays, been stumped for a little while as all the wiring and everything is a-ok.

[stocky]

oh i see what you mean. auto dash in a manual exec. not manual dash in an auto.

well, good luck, i dont know how to help