OBD-II

OBD-II - On-Board Diagnostic 2 is a diagnostic bus on all modern cars used by technicians to diagnose any errors and interface with the computer in  your vehicle.   It provides an interface to your cars computer to see what is going on and read the diagnostic logs that are kept.   All of the measurements that are on your dashboard and many more are available to see by interrogating the cars computer.

Your Winnebago Fuse has a OBD-II interface located below the steering wheel on the left.  It is accessed by opening a panel that exposes the interface.

I purchased a diagnostics adapter so I could see what was going on.  If the check engine light ever comes on I thought it would be nice to be able to see the error as opposed to just taking it on faith what the repair people told me.  

The adapter I purchased was a KOBRA Wireless OBD2 Car Code Reader Scan Tool OBD Scanner.  This one works with IOS and Android devices.   In the past, these devices were expensive pieces of test equipment.  They are now, very inexpensive.   Some cost as little at $10.00.

To do anything with the device you need some software as well.  I purchased "Dash Command". another $10.00 purchase.    There is free software, but after trying several, I decided to buy this app since it got high reviews.   It was the right decision.

How do you get it started?  With an iPhone/IOS device you connect to the Kobra scanner using WiFi.  Open your wifi settings and connect to the WIFI_ODBII SSID.

Then you start the software on the iPhone.   I had to input some settings for the Transit 350HD the first time.   Every other time, you just pressed go.  You start to app and then tell it to connect to the scanner.   There are a huge number of screens to get information from and they are customizable.   You can even download templates others have created.  I have stuck with the default screens.

I was very interested in several things.   For example, I can now get an idea on the Fuses current fuel utilization.  I really wanted to know how many gallons/hour the Fuse uses when at idle.  I now know.  0.3 gph.

Another question I wanted to know was if I had any diagnostic logs.  The important ones cause a check engine light.  I have not had this happen, but some of the minor ones are recorded so the Ford techs can see if anything out of the ordinary has happened since they were last cleared.  I looked and there were none.  Oh, and if you need to, you can clear the codes as well.

I purchased this for the Fuse, but I can use it on any car built since 1996.  For a total investment $10.00-$30.00 it is a great investment for those who are interested in some of the details of the automotive portion of the Fuse.