ECU Question

[stu28stu 1]

Morning,

 

please forgive what may seem silly question,

 

When using a after market digital dashboard 

the unit requires to be connected to all the cars sensors / oil pressure /water  etc etc 

 

this particular model comes with its own neat cable loom and sensors to plug in as direct replacements for original ones. it does not link into existing wiring or fuse board and goes directly back to the 

head unit for the digital dash,  it also states it does not need to be connected to the ECU either . 

 

However 

Does the cars ECU also need to be be connected to all the sensors in order for the car to run correctly ?

As the loom has no additional points to connect original wires to send info back to the ECU , 

 

any help greatly appreciated 

[petert 549]

A good question. Some dashes allow connection either by traditional analogue methods, digital connectors such as VNET or CAN bus to an ECU. The later picks up the data from the ECU and its sensors. Thus there are many options and a complete standalone solution is certainly viable. In which case you'd be doubling up on some sensors. So yes, you'd need two water temp temp sensors for example.

 

What make/model?

 

[stu28stu 1]

306 gti6 ECU 

 

so I would have to join the looms so the ECU had a signal also 

[stu28stu 1]

And the digi dash is

race dash 2 

[petert 549]

Ring Race Technology and ask if they do an optional interface to the GTi6 ecu. That will be the easiest solution. Otherwise you'll need to tap into the various sensors. For example, it's possible that the ecu and dash2 can share the water temp sensor. However, adding the dash2 to the sensor may effect the value being sent to the ecu. All good questions to ask over the phone.

[stu28stu 1]

Cheers think it’s a good plan 

will give them a quick ring 

[Andy 105 1 Cars]

My two pen’orth. In general, the sensors provide a voltage drop across a varying resistance ( impedance) .If the receiver ( dash, Ecu) has infinite input impedance, then one sensor could supply both. In general, that is not the case, so my guess will be that your digital dash will need its own separate sensors. I have a Stack digital dash that came  with its own water and oil  sensors  ( but used the rpm trigger from the ecu) . The instruction manual advised against any kind of ‘piggy back’ arrangement, probably for the above reason. 

[stu28stu 1]

yes same on my instructions ,

 

rather stupidly its very simple as i just use the old wires from the old dash to feed into the new digital dash - 

obviously had not had my coffee !!

 

that and trying to solve the other 100 things to do on my list of car jobs ,