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Hi folks,

I've been HMing my MT Eclipse (90K) for a month or two now, and this morning some very strange things happened. I wonder if this is HM-related or not, and in any case seek your take on it.

I FASsed into my son's summer camp as per usual, about 0.5 miles. I used potential parking as per usual, face in. After taking him in and coming back out to the car, I tried to start it, but only got one turn then dead. One turn then dead. The SGii reported the voltage at 12.1, which should be ample I think. I finally pushed back and bump-started in reverse (thankfully, HMing has taught me that technique well). The car started up.

Then, on my drive to work, I noticed that my MPH read 0. On the highway. The SGii also reported 0. And the odometer wasn't turning at all. I would have thought that odometers were indestructible for fraud-avoidance reasons. Needless to say, I didn't FAS anymore the rest of the way to work. :)

Once I got to work and parked, I shut her down and tried to restart it. It restarted fine, and the speedometer and the odometer work fine.

Bottom line:
1) Are my start-up problems likely to repeat, and were they HM-related?
2) Is the speedometer/odometer problem an anomoly, or a bad sign?

hidden corrosion on battery terminal (loosen the positive and clean ... then put back on)

or an old battery .... where you are begining to get terminal separation inside the battery where the positive pole joins up with the fins

I did not have the starting issues you did, so pdw's suggestion should help you out some.

as for the odo and speedo, I believe that is sg related. my car has a mitsu engine and control, also my fiance's 01 sebring is very much like your eclipse. It causes your speed sensor to malfunction, you may get a check engine light, which would mean your speed sensor is gone bad. also, if the battery is having issues, then this could lead to a check light also (coming up as your egr sensor). It may be due to the type of connector you received. If I were you, I'd contact linear logic to send the other type of connector (I'm guessing you have the connector with a few pins missing?) It may just be with the mitsu engines, which would make sense to me.

Read my posts about the inspection deal if inspection is strict in your area.

My fiance wont let me connect the sg to her car anymore though, so we need to get the sensors fixed before inspection in oct. it's easier to avoid having a check light in the first place tho. good luck.

With 90k, it's quite possible your alternator is starting to go bad. If your only getting 12 volts with the engine running, this is quite possible.

It's also you have a corroded cable or a bad battery. Fortunately, all this can be checked for free at Autozone. So I'd suggest a trip there.

12.1V on a car battery represents about a 25% charge (~12.7V indicates a full charge). Considering the vehicle operates normally while driving (as far as ignition, etc. goes) the issue is likely the battery rather than the alternator.

Time for a new battery. :)

Folks,

These are all great suggestions. I believe I have the original battery, which is now over 5 years old. Sounds like it needs replacing, or at least an eye kept on it.

The voltage spikes nicely into the 14s with the engine on, so I think the alternator is probably ok. I'll do the AutoZone diagnostic -- that's a great idea.

Now, as for the speedometer:


as for the odo and speedo, I believe that is sg related. my car has a mitsu engine and control, also my fiance's 01 sebring is very much like your eclipse. It causes your speed sensor to malfunction, you may get a check engine light, which would mean your speed sensor is gone bad. also, if the battery is having issues, then this could lead to a check light also (coming up as your egr sensor). It may be due to the type of connector you received. If I were you, I'd contact linear logic to send the other type of connector (I'm guessing you have the connector with a few pins missing?) It may just be with the mitsu engines, which would make sense to me.

Read my posts about the inspection deal if inspection is strict in your area.

My fiance wont let me connect the sg to her car anymore though, so we need to get the sensors fixed before inspection in oct. it's easier to avoid having a check light in the first place tho. good luck.

I think you are on to something. I posted elsewhere that I am having problems with my SGii, which I just got last week. It shuts off during FAS most of the time, like it's not getting any new data. I think it is not even counting my mileage during the FAS. JusBringIt: do you think a new type of connector could fix that? And is my SGii actually going to break my speed sensor? That would be very bad, I assume, and costly?

As for inspections, I have no idea if I'm messing that up. I'm probably trading this baby in for a Fit or similar car before my next inspection, so maybe I'll just let the dealer or next owner handle that....

Car computers often do some funky things when their supply
voltage gets too low, and can misremember some funny state
information or lose parts of their functionality. See, they
never really stop running, but usually go into a low-power
sleep/keepalive mode when the car's off. To do a real, full
reboot you sometimes have to completely remove power for a few
minutes and then reconnect, whereup they'll restart and learn
everything they need to learn. When you go to change batteries,
this will likely happen as a side effect.
.
_H*

I think you are on to something. I posted elsewhere that I am having problems with my Sgii , which I just got last week. It shuts off during Fas most of the time, like it's not getting any new data. I think it is not even counting my mileage during the Fas . JusBringIt: do you think a new type of connector could fix that? And is my Sgii actually going to break my speed sensor? That would be very bad, I assume, and costly?


In 95% of the scenarios, your sg II will not come back on unless your car is stopped and restarted. Like hobbit stated, when you try to turn it back on right away, after shutting down the engine, it will go "berserk" so to speak, and will not give/display any info on your scangauge till possibly your next FAS or restart. If you don't FAS, this will not happen, you can glide to lights, your car has DFCO so you wont lose TOO much on your fuel economy.

you will however be better able to keep track of it if you glide to a stop, put it in park, then turn your car off, then of course start it in park and go back to drive when you're ready to leave. I have not been able to use the sg II with my fiancee's car as she wont let me put those things near her car, but from the customer service rep i spoke with from linear logic, the new connector worked great on his friends mitsubishi evolution.

our engines are a lot alike, so your basic options are, just continue fasing and just find out what your mileage is at the end of the tank, (the sg will come on half the times you drive and fas) or you can cut out fas to keep a better reading. good luck whichever way you choose.

This is a question that comes up a lot. If you go to home, more, fuel, type and change it to hybrid then the data will continue to update even when you FAS.

mine is set to hybrid, for some reason, the mitsu 6g72/3 doesnt respond well to the sgII no matter the mode, it wont continuously record....It did for me once before, I'll give it a shot with the other connector and see what gives, but for right now, it doesnt seem to work too well.

I believe that the SGII only receives signals from the ECU, and does not send any signals back. Is that not true?

I believe that the SGII only receives signals from the ECU, and does not send any signals back. Is that not true?

No. If you look at the OBDII protocol (wikipedia, f.ex) you will see that it is all about sending a PID and listening for a response. If you show IGN, f.ex it will do that.

Again, thanks all. I had already put it in "Hybrid" mode but am still encountering problems with the SGii. I think I'll take JusBringIt's suggestion and call Linear Logic. I need to call them anyway since I lost a row of pixels this morning. :(

ok, the connector that does not have all the pins does NOT work, it kills my speedometer. the connector with all the pins works ok. whenever i put the car in neutral and shut it off however, the sg gets confused and stops showing info. that's all though, if i coast in neutral, the info is always there, i use it when it's on, i just ignore it when it's off, I may try something else with it to see what gives.

Car computers often do some funky things when their supply
voltage gets too low, and can misremember some funny state
information or lose parts of their functionality. See, they
never really stop running, but usually go into a low-power
sleep/keepalive mode when the car's off. To do a real, full
reboot you sometimes have to completely remove power for a few
minutes and then reconnect, whereup they'll restart and learn
everything they need to learn. When you go to change batteries,
this will likely happen as a side effect.
.
_H*

^^^ is correct and it problay is time for a new battery. 5 years on a OEM is about all I have ever managed to get. And that is unusal. Let us know how it comes out.

For the sake of completeness, I offer this update:

I just talked to the (very nice, knowledgeable) folks from Linear Logic. (Tip: CALL, don't email, if you have a problem. I'm still waiting on a response to that email....)

Apparently, in certain cars, including older Mitsubishis, the mfr decided to have the OBD-II connector be an interface not only for receiving info, but also for odometer / speedometer programming or something like that. In such cars, the regular SGii cable may interfere with proper odometer / speed calculations. LL is happy to send a cable with a few more pins missing, which should clear it up. The fella said that there was a law of some kind passed in 2003 to forbid mfrs from configuring the port this way. So my 03 Eclipse just missed the cutoff.

The fella suggested that it may be possible for the SGii on such older cars to confuse the ECU into not starting. He said he'd only heard of this for Toyotas.

I'll post again once I hook up the new cable. Thanks again for the help.