[Chhanda Das]

Hello friends, this is a product recommendation and long-term user review of an interesting product.

Disclaimer : This is not a paid review and the views expressed are solely my own. I bought this generic/unbranded product with my own money. I have tried my best to keep this review as unbiased as possible from the point of view of a car owner.

When I got my 1st generation pre-facelifted Creta AT Petrol in 2017, I noticed that it lacked a few essential features. Two of them were that neither did it show live fuel consumption rates nor did it show current battery voltage. The two aforementioned parameters are amongst some of the first indicators when something is wrong with a vehicle's engine and/or transmission, electrical system, etc respectively. So I was looking for a relatively cheap solution to my problem with the added condition that I should be able to install it myself. I did not consider replacing the driver's display console since that would have set me back by around INR 40k at the very least. After some research online, I found a couple of easy and relatively cheaper solutions.

Firstly, I could go for a wired OBD2 display, but I didn't like its obtrusiveness especially with my stealth car camping goals. Plus I didn't want to spend upwards of INR 4k for that.

My second option was to get a Bluetooth OBD2 adapter with inbuilt GPS but that was way more expensive to the tune of INR 6k and I would like my car GPS tracker to be in a more clandestine location instead of on the OBD2 port.

The third option and my choice was a Bluetooth-based car OBD2 adapter whereby a mobile phone would be its display. I got it from Amazon India in a lightning deal for INR 430. This is a generic product and can fit in any car with an OBD2 port. The purpose of this device is to convert the signals from the car's ECU to Bluetooth frequencies. There are similar devices based on WiFi frequencies as well but those cost more than the Bluetooth ones.

Anyway, coming to the installation, it was a breeze. Download and install Torque App from Google Playstore, start car engine, fit device on OBD2 port, pair phone (just like with any other Bluetooth device) and voila, I was ready to go. Setup of the app requires some tinkering. Currently, I have setup the App to display only the following : Fuel used, Fuel Flow Rate, Average fuel consumption, Battery Voltage, ECU voltage, Oil Temperature, Coolant Temperature, Lambda aka oxygen sensor readings, Commanded Equivalence Ratio (to get an idea of the air to fuel ratio going into engine), etc.

Touchwood, the whole thing is working flawlessly and has not failed even once. The best part is that it can be installed in almost any car with an OBD2 port by anyone. Also, as car camping is my ultimate goal, the idea of being stranded somewhere doesn't appeal to me and I like to do as much preparation as necessary to prevent that.

From what I can understand, this OBD2 adapter is as accurate as the ECU of the car since it cannot think for itself and merely converts the ECU's signals into Bluetooth frequencies.

The only downside of this product is that it continues to draw very minute quantities of power even when the car is off but we can easily keep the device plugged in unless the car is going to remain unused for more than a few days at a stretch or else the battery may get drained.

Here you can see it installed on the OBD2 port below the cabin fuses of my car on the lower right side of the steering wheel in front of the driver's right knee area :




And here is a closer look at the device itself. The small red LED on it glows/blinks red when idle and blinks green when it is connected to a smartphone or computer :

Here is a small video of the Torque App made by my son during the pandemic-induced lockdowns. The video also shows the effect of turning the air conditioning system on/off on the rate of fuel consumption and the RPMs after a cold start :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gEJTzWlKU

A word of thanks to our Team Bhp Moderator GTO for the kind suggestions and for providing the inspiration to start this thread

Thank you all for reading and I wish you all happy and safe drives ahead

[nik0502]

Hello ma’am,

I have an almost similar set up in my Civic. The difference is the OBD device I have has an on switch. If it is left idle for sometime the phone or the device doesn’t detect it and press the on button and the device will detect it immediately. I also don’t like keeping the phone mounted and using it as a display so I have installed an android head unit from a company foxfire. I read about it on the forum itself. It works great and looks very neat. The only downside is that the sound quality went down a bit. I was very satisfied with the original audio setup in Civic. Not so satisfied with the audio setup in my brothers Creta same model as yours however after changing the head unit I got disappointed and went in for a complete audio upgrade. The head unit costed me around ~10K.

[dhruv45in]

Nice, very informative. I too have the old gen Creta and would like to use these features.

Is it possible for you to add the link you used to purchase this from amazon please?

[roby.thomas]

I did this earlier with ELM327 OBD very long back (at that time, I had to get it through a friend in US, I didn't find it available in Amazon or anywhere here) in my Hyundai i10. A few sensors weren't reporting, however it was a pretty amazing insight into how the vehicle behaved.

While the statistics are all correct, I've experienced erratic behavior of engine (spinning up without throttle input). Initially I was not all suspecting this, but later I started to grow concerned over whether connecting this scanner permanently to OBD port is a good idea after all. The reason is this port is for diagnostic purposes. I do not know if reading data continuously affects the ECU in anyway (power draw / bad OBD adapter behavior itself / ECU cpu cycles stolen away for data streaming / you never know). The manufacturer wouldn't have designed around this usage of the port. The problem never did arise after that incident and I never put OBD device permanently connected since then.

[gomnivazca]

Yes. Its a very good tool, a must have for a car enthusiasts. Torque lite does not have a good user experience. Try "infocar" app instead. It will record your travel history as well with very good app interface.

Last month unfortunately my car hit a dog @ 40+ kms bang on the middle of the car. Dog went downside the car and my rear tyre ran over it. Luckily the dog survived as the car was not loaded. I was heading for an important work which required another 250 kms for the day. I stopped the car and looked for any visible leaks. Thank god nothing visible to me.

OBD2 device was very helpfull on that day. I connected and kept monitoring vehicle temperature till the end of my journey. It was a rainy day. OBD2 temperature data was a luxury for me as i cannot stop and keep monitoring coolent levels.

With respect to fuel economy from the app (Both Infocar & Torque lite) did not show correct average for Figo 1
4 tdci. It showed just 15 kmpl against 18 to 19 actual mileage.
But same device showed relatively correct average on my Alto & Nano.

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by nik0502

I also don’t like keeping the phone mounted and using it as a display so I have installed an android head unit from a company foxfire. Not so satisfied with the audio setup in my brothers Creta same model as yours however after changing the head unit I got disappointed and went in for a complete audio upgrade.

Very nice, I have always admired the Civic

I too do not like keeping the phone mounted but it gets overheated without an active cooling system due to the combined loads of the Torque App, 2G/3G/4G, Google Maps, Android Auto, Dashcam software, etc running simultaneously. I have even had batteries getting swollen to the point that they would push out the screens of the smartphones from their casing. I did not face any issues like that ever since I started mounting the phones on the AC vent in the car.

I have heard about Foxfire as well and many of my fellow Creta owners have indeed installed it in their cars. However, I found that the AVN (audio, video and navigation) head unit works reasonably well (especially after the software updates) for me and hence, I never considered upgrading it

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by dhruv45in

Is it possible for you to add the link you used to purchase this from amazon please?

Sure, here is the link to the exact one that I got but please note that you may find cheaper and equally relevant ones elsewhere as well :

https://www.amazon.in/Android-Torque.../dp/B01DVU666M

I hope this helps

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by roby.thomas

I've experienced erratic behavior of engine (spinning up without throttle input). Initially I was not all suspecting this, but later I started to grow concerned over whether connecting this scanner permanently to OBD port is a good idea after all. The reason is this port is for diagnostic purposes. I do not know if reading data continuously affects the ECU in anyway (power draw / bad OBD adapter behavior itself / ECU cpu cycles stolen away for data streaming / you never know). The manufacturer wouldn't have designed around this usage of the port. The problem never did arise after that incident and I never put OBD device permanently connected since then.

Thankfully, I never faced such issues in my car and it remains plugged in all the time. The only time we did not keep it plugged in was during the pandemic induced lockdowns to prevent the car's battery from getting drained. You may have faced this issue due to an older version of the ELM controller/s on the device which were known to have a few bugs in them.

About the continuous data reading affecting the ECU, I confirmed from Hyundai India and abroad that the ECU is not affected due to the usage of such devices if solely used for reading the data. This is because ECUs are designed keeping various usage scenarios in mind. And one such scenario is the collection of data continuously over several days/weeks to analyze driver behaviour. Moreover, the OBD2 Bluetooth adapter that I am using draws much lesser power than the ones used by Hyundai themselves at their research and development facilities or their authorized service stations.

I hope that I was able to assuage your concerns