have any of you all heard of the "Car Chip" its 179.00 and it monitors all different engine sensors and then graphs them for you on your computer.

http://www.davisnet.com/drive/produc....asp?pnum=8220

Think it would be a good b-day present. or should i get somthing thats about the same price, and does more, if so what is it?

 

mmm...would it really be all that useful?

Personally, if i wanted something to record info about the car I'd get an apexi rsm such as this:

http://www.apexi-usa.com/meters_revspeedmeter.asp

Its got a read out display too.

 

 

My friend has a similar chip at work, we both use it on cars that just happen to trip a check engine light every once in a great while. So you need alot of data storage- 500 hours is good. Basically we leave the customer with it, and if the light comes back we look at all the parameters when and how it happened. Its usefull at times like that, cause alot of times when you shut the car off the light goes away and clears itself from its memory. Its usefull for mechanics like me.

 

Recently bought one on e-bay for $47.00 shipped. This model logs 75 hours of drive specs, gives OBD II error codes and definitions and also erases error codes or resets SES light. As a do-it-yourselfer I have found it a usefull toy, particularly at the price I paid. The model you are referring to at $179.00 logs 300 hours of drive data and has other functions including those listed above.

 

I bought one of these a few weeks back. I got the Carchip/EX at Autozone for $129.00. The device is a data logger and OBD2 code reader. After I got it my check engine came on so I was able to see what the code was. So going into the dealer I already knew what the problem was which is some piece of mind that they wont screw you. It can also be helpful for troubleshooting problems but it is limited to monitoring 4 things at a time plus your speed. Also the fastest it takes a reading is every 5 seconds. This is good enough for some things but way to slow for others. It is simple to use and know one knows its connected.