WomenWithWheels.com

DriveRight CarChip
Reading Your Car’s Mind

Susan Frissell

"What if you could read your car’s mind" ask the CarChip folks. Well, we took this continuous logging instrument for a test drive and found out. It’s rather cool. Able to monitor your car’s engine performance and driver performance, CarChip is one handy tool.

CarChip installs quickly and somewhat effortlessly in your vehicle’s OBD II connector. Generally located about three feet from the driver’s seat, to the right and below the steering wheel, the OBD connector plug in unit is fitted with the CarChip data logger. As soon as you begin driving, CarChip starts logging data.

Designed by California based manufacturer Davis Instruments, CarChip debuted at the 2002 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Although CarChip is not the first auto data-logger on the market, Davis Instrument’s vice-president Joan Peterson believes their product is the best. Of course she does. Why? CarChip is small, reasonably priced ($139), and provides more data than some. Davis Instruments is aiming CarChip at the average consumer, as well as fleet managers, business travelers, car enthusiasts and parents who want to monitor family driving habits.

CarChip is designed to give drivers access to all kinds of information they might otherwise have to rely on their mechanic for, such as failing components. For instance, if the car’s check engine light comes on, CarChip reads the diagnostic trouble code, getting "freeze-frame" sensor readings telling the status of various engine parameters. Helpful to your car’s mechanic, this information will tell him/her which specific components are failing. Not only does this save repair time, but money because the device pinpoints the exact problem.

Drivers can monitor complete trip details (time, date, distance, speed), and the number of times they brake hard or accelerate quickly. Also available is the ability to view all this information graphically on a computer screen. Parents can also see just how their teens are driving! Now when they tell you they’re just going to the library, you’ll have a more accurate idea of just how many miles have been driven.

The CarChip kit comes with data logger, AC adapter, download cable and software for Windows or above. Five MB hard disk space, CD-ROM drive and one free serial port are all that is required to hook up the logger to download data. The software translates not only the trouble code, but a complete description of it.

Some of the 23 parameters CarChip monitors include RPM, throttle position, engine load, coolant temperature, air flow rate, fuel pressure, fuel system status, short-and-long-term fuel trim, oxygen sensor output voltage, among others. The advanced model, CarChipE/X ($179), stores 300 hours of trip details and measures up to four engine parameters e very five to 60 seconds. This is a device we could have used on our 2000 Route 66 trip.

One of CarChipE/X’s amazing features is the ability to keep an accident log if the vehicle is involved in a accident. It will show the last twenty seconds of speed before the accident.

CarChip is designed to remain in the vehicle continuously, reading and logging data under the hood and behind the wheel. We tried it out for only one week, and expect that after several weeks, the data collected would be valuable to have.

Reading CarChip’s data was a challenge for this writer. Making sense of graphic charts isn’t a strong point. This device is a boon to fleet managers and/or anyone who is responsible to logging mileage, driver habits and distances traveled. Offering a wealth of information, CarChip is handy for anyone trying to diagnose a problem.

Available for both foreign and domestic vehicles from 1996 on, CarChip and CarChipE/X can be ordered through Davis at 800.678.3669, or from their website www.davisnet.com.