Is there anyone on the Wirral who has Forscan and would be willing to set my battery charge level to 95% please?

Many thanks!

Hello Paul, I would be happy to do it for you if you ever find yourself near Durham.

If you have a laptop then it is easy for you do to yourself.

44 minutes ago, unofix said:

Hello Paul, I would be happy to do it for you if you ever find yourself near Durham.

If you have a laptop then it is easy for you do to yourself.

A bit of a way to get to you, but many thanks for the offer.

I had been following a thread on here about Forscan, so based on what I had read, I got the Forscan app onto my android phone, and ordered the WiFi adapter so that I could do it myself. Unfortunately, after I had ordered it, if found out that the android app only let's you monitor settings and not make adjustments!

Could I still use the adapter with my laptop if I put Forscan on there?

1 hour ago, archie2000 said:

Could I still use the adapter with my laptop if I put Forscan on there?

No mate, not really.

You need, at least, a good quality wired ELM327 with a CAN switch to switch between networks. Tunnel Rat is raved about and not expensive

I just ordered the wireless ELM327 from them too.  Maybe I can send it back and exchange it for the correct one?

2 minutes ago, archie2000 said:

I just ordered the wireless ELM327 from them too.  Maybe I can send it back and exchange it for the correct one?

Yes pal, that will only talk to the one CAN network, most of the vehicle's modules won't show up

Hi Paul, as said above the Wifi version does not allow programming encase communication is lost at a critical moment.

You need the Modified ELM327 lead (£17.95) - This lead does the Medium Speed and High Speed Canbus

https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_with_switch_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

 

23 minutes ago, unofix said:

Hi Paul, as said above the Wifi version does not allow programming encase communication is lost at a critical moment.

You need the Modified ELM327 lead (£17.95) - This lead does the Medium Speed and High Speed Canbus

https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_with_switch_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

 

 

Yep. I have been in touch with Tunnel Rat, and I can return the wireless module and exchange it for the USB module.

Thanks for the advice.

1 hour ago, archie2000 said:

 

Yep. I have been in touch with Tunnel Rat, and I can return the wireless module and exchange it for the USB module.

Another alternative if you have already bought the phone App is to keep the wireless adaptor in the car, it will pay for itself the first time your car develops a fault when you are away from home and don't have your Laptop with you, that is what a lot of us do.

Incidentally the wireless ones that Tunnelrats sell can see all the Modules exactly the same as the wired ones.

You will need a wired one though. Theoretically you could use the wireless one with your Laptop but it will most probably be too slow to do programming and may brick your car. The wireless ones are safe for everything else except programming.

Thank you. Worth bareing in mind.

Is this a solution to all the Mk4 battery issues ? 

Well I can only say it's worked for me. Since I've changed mine to 95% everything works, everyday !!!!

It does have one negative effect, it does mean the Stop/Start system works 😟 but I have modified mine to turn the system off after the first time it operates each journey.

43 minutes ago, unofix said:

This guy has a very helpful YouTube video on how to change it. Yes I know it's in German but it has sub-titles and he makes it easy to understand.

The real information that you want starts at the 3:55 point in the video.

 

 

I changed mine from 80% to 90% and everything now works all the time.

Well I've made the change to the SOC and it is now 95%  I also fully charged the battery overnight, so all should be good from here on in.

It's just below freezing here this morning, so I'm going to leave it a few hours before I check things out. I don't want to clobber the battery with front and rear window heaters just yet.

On 11/25/2021 at 1:41 PM, unofix said:

Hi Paul, as said above the Wifi version does not allow programming encase communication is lost at a critical moment.

You need the Modified ELM327 lead (£17.95) - This lead does the Medium Speed and High Speed Canbus

https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_with_switch_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

 

Ordered one today 😲

Well blow me down!

I bought this car at the beginning of July, and today, for the first time since I have had it, the auto Stop/Start worked!

Although I did go for a run yesterday, it didn't work, but I think that was because it was such a cold day and the outside temp was about 4c and I understand that stop/start is disabled if the outside temperature is too low. Today it is 11c and it worked as soon as I stopped at a set of lights just round the corner, the car itself was barely warm.

I guess time will tell if I get frustrated with it, but for now I'm OK with it.  Plus as well, I'm not getting the message to switch off the ignition to save battery power as soon as I get in the car! And I can now lock/unlock the car from any of the doors, which again I haven't been able to do previously as I could only unlock the car from the drivers door.

Hopefully it will continue to operate these features now that the battery SOC will be higher.

Is there expected to be any impact on the longer term health or life expectancy of the battery by regularly charging it above 80%?  I know that historically lead acid batteries would have been charged to 100% before smart alternators came in, but has this changed with current generation batteries?

My car only seems to be affected by start-stop not always working until I do a long trip, and sometimes the message on accessories being switched off or having to start the engine when I have had the ignition or radio on for a while.  I might go a week or more without driving it, but when I do it is generally at least a half hour trip so guess that is enough to keep most things working, including heated windscreen, seats and steering wheel in the recent cold weather.

2 hours ago, archie2000 said:

Today it is 11c and it worked as soon as I stopped at a set of lights just round the corner, the car itself was barely warm.

Ahh, 11c, I wondered what the temperature needed to be for stop/start to work, now I know. 🙂 

17 hours ago, south_bound said:

but when I do it is generally at least a half hour trip so guess that is enough to keep most things working, including heated windscreen, seats and steering wheel in the recent cold weather.

The trouble is that you need the heated screen before the journey, not after. I have changed the SOC in my car from 80% to 90% and it is way better in that I can have things on when I want them rather than when the car decides.

3 hours ago, Paulius55 said:

The trouble is that you need the heated screen before the journey, not after. I have changed the SOC in my car from 80% to 90% and it is way better in that I can have things on when I want them rather than when the car decides.

Fair enough, I worded this badly.  What I meant is that all these things work when I start the car in the morning, even after a week of standing on the driveway.  Therefore I assume that a half an hour drive is enough to charge the battery so it can deliver all this next time I start it up.  I agree it would be a bit rubbish to have to drive half an hour looking through a frozen windscreen and freezing your balls off before being able to switch on the heated goodies!

I'm also in NW england , and would love to know if anyone can do this for me too 😀

I’m in North Yorkshire want my doing to 

Hopefully doing mine from Monday. 

Mechanics and computers are not my thing so will let you know if it goes ok or not 😮

Have been reading and  looking online  for "An idiots guide to FORScan "

Maybe I should start a mobile workshop and drive round the country setting the SOC on everyone's car ? 🤔