Newbie question on Wideband - why would you want/need one?

onyx1121 · Oct 27, 2009, 09:37 AM

I did some reading, but it wasn't clear to me why I might want or need one. For example, if oyu are having your car tuned by someone else, and don't plan to do any tuning yourself, is it really only beneficial for monitoring purposes?

I assume any decent tuner uses a wideband to tune?

Sorry for the basic questions - I never used/investigated using one even on my previous car.

R33E8 · Oct 27, 2009, 09:43 AM

Yeah, you really don't need one if you don't plan on tuning your car yourself.. But you can use it kinda like a diagnostics tool if something goes wrong and your car is bucking or something..

onyx1121 · Oct 27, 2009, 09:44 AM

That's what I kind of figured. I have the AMS downpipe which can take a wideband I think, so maybe I could easily do it at some point. Logging would be nice if something goes wrong so I could pull the data after the fact to see what happened.

buchnerj · Oct 27, 2009, 09:47 AM

You can also use it as a tool to see if something is going to go wrong. Like if you have a problem with an injector or part of the fuel system it will show the car leaning out, and you can realize this and fix it before it becomes a big problem.

onyx1121 · Oct 27, 2009, 12:56 PM

So let me ask another dumb question - if I wanted to basically log all of the data from a wideband real-time, such as from the LC-1 or something similar, and analyze it at any point later what would I need.

Would I be able to have some device onboard that records the data continuously that I could at any time download and analyze on my laptop?

rafa341 · Oct 27, 2009, 01:11 PM

quick question how would a tuner log afrs if you have a HF cat, he cant use a sniffer because it would be inaccurate.

onyx1121 · Oct 27, 2009, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rafa341

quick question how would a tuner log afrs if you have a HF cat, he cant use a sniffer because it would be inaccurate.

Don't thread jack

Whitewind · Oct 27, 2009, 01:28 PM

Ouch.....lol

rafa341 · Oct 27, 2009, 01:58 PM

i tough his question was already answered or not...

stokEd · Oct 27, 2009, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onyx1121

Would I be able to have some device onboard that records the data continuously that I could at any time download and analyze on my laptop?

There may be a way to do this but it's very unnecessary.

In general, you only log when you need to; e.g. while tuning, or maybe diagnosing a problem that's skewing your AFRs. Your AFR gauge is the most practical way of monitoring for anomalies while your not tuning.

I use the AEM UEGO and EvoScan (and sometimes PCMScan) for logging. The bare minimum needed to get started (besides the AFR sensor itself) is a laptop, a Tactrix cable ($169) and Evoscan ($25.) There are other details I'm leaving out here, but a quick search can net you most of what you need to know if you're interested in doing more than just basic monitoring. If you're interested I can point to a few good threads to get you started. HTH.

youlost · Oct 28, 2009, 10:39 PM

if you are running a non oem turbo and all supporting goodies it is a VERY good idea to see if you have a problem before your motor blows.. with out it the only way to know if you are running lean is to melt your pistions

lex08gsr · Oct 28, 2009, 11:08 PM

I think its a must. Though I still can't figure out which one I want....