FEATURED Bully Dog 40402 Watch Dog Black Economy Monitor
- Easy installation (20-40 minutes) and free internet updates
- Monitors and displays vehicle parameters
- Full color display with multiple color themes
- Displays instant fuel economy and trip fuel economy
- Reads and erases diagnostic trouble codes
Watch Dog Economy monitor is a gauge to monitor vehicle temperatures, mass air flow, oil temperature and many other vehicle parameters. This product offers a comprehensive gauge package including all standard vehicle parameters included in 1996 vehicles and newer. It also provides realtime feedback to help users improve their fuel economy by using a patent pending Driving Coach feature designed by our top engineers. The Driving Coach feature shows people specifically where their current losses are coming from so they can make adjustments to correct their inefficiencies. This economy monitor works on all vehicles in North America manufactured from 1996 and newer.
Poor customer support, does not live up to the hype,
My main purpose in purchasing this product was to monitor my fuel economy. This Watch Dog disappoints me with its ability to give fuel economy data. First off, this unit is small. I knew about the size because I contacted the company before I purchased it. They were kind enough to give me the specs. I could not find it listed in the sales literature. The data displayed on the left side is big and easy to read. The problem is that you cannot get average fuel economy to display in one of those boxes. You can get instant economy to display, but that is worthless. The only way you can get average economy is to turn on the “driving coach” This is a program that monitors acceleration and braking and is meant to help you achieve maximum economy. On the bottom of the main screen under the “driving coach” you can see your average economy in 2 digits with no decimal point. The font is about a size 5. I have perfect 20/20 eyesight and can barely see it.
When you install this unit, it says to just plug it in to the OBD 2 port. If you turn off the key, it stays running. The literature says it will not suck much juice and will not be a problem unless you leave it sit for a long time. If you leave your car sit for weeks between uses, they give you a separate wire you can attach and connect to the ignition so that it only runs when the car is running. What they do not tell you is that your fuel economy drops to almost nothing if you do not shut it off between uses. I had to figure this out on my own. I attached the wire and it is working fine.
I am still calibrating this unit. The economy reading differs from my calculations. After a few more tanks of gas I hope to have it dialed in. It is not a plug and play item.
Most of the data that they say you can access, you can’t. Like trans temp, oil pressure, exhaust temp etc are not available on my car. The only items that I can access that are worth monitoring are battery voltage and coolant temp.
In my opinion this is way over priced and not worth the money.
I contacted the company to see if they could reprogram the unit to display the average fuel economy in the larger area of the screen so I could actually read it. They never responded. Typical of a fly by night company to give you support before the sale and none after. Now I am stuck with this gauge and not happy with it. Do not waste your money on this monitor.
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|Go Ahead, Torture Yourself,
My mechanic has a BD for his diesel and says it helps his gas mileage. He told me not to buy this since for gas engines, really does not help your mileage. I like all the dials and has a driving coach, and only $200 so I went against his advice and bought one. It came sealed in original container from Amazon, however, was missing two parts needed to update it. You have to plug into your computer to update it before installing in vehicle. Short story, it has taken me 6 weeks to get the parts from BD needed to update it. They originally told me to go buy the parts myself at Radio Shack. How is that for customer service? I needed a UBS to mini USB cable and then, later learned I also needed a USB to SD card reader. Just F***ng shoot me! I have owned this thing for 6 weeks and just now turning over to my mechanic to install. Previous readers are right about small screen. I am going to need a magnifying glass to read this thing while I am driving. BD, good idea, but crappy execution
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|Junk,
Ordered this hoping to be able to read some temperature readings, mpg and others. NOTHING i wanted showed up the only option it gave me for the gauges was boost, rpm, and speed. So basically i spent 250$ on a boost gauge i could have spent 20$ at the local auto parts store. Will not show my MPG all it does is chirp when i pin the gas or hit the breaks and tell me how fast I’m going. I’m very disappointed in this product did not do 10% of what it says. I’m hoping to get a full refund
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