[Neothin87]

I'm looking to purchase a kiwi Bluetooth soon to sync with my tablet and torque app. I went under the dash this morning to scope it out though, and it doesn't look like there's any place to really hide the cord or transmitter :-( has anyone hidden one of these in there cars? Is a 2009 e90 335.

[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by Neothin87

I'm looking to purchase a kiwi Bluetooth soon to sync with my tablet and torque app. I went under the dash this morning to scope it out though, and it doesn't look like there's any place to really hide the cord or transmitter :-( has anyone hidden one of these in there cars? Is a 2009 e90 335.

The cover is too close to have anything plugged in with it on, but if you're hell-bent on making it happen, you could pretty easily simply unscrew the OBD-II socket and tuck it back farther, with the dongle tucked up in your pedal trim (make sure you tape it down well, or you could have it fall out into the pedal area creating a hazard).

Other options might be an OBD-II splitter (unscrew the OEM plug, tuck it back, plug the dongle into one branch of the splitter, leave the other exposed behind the door) or second plug spliced into the first (with the same kind of taps some use for audio installations).

You MIGHT even be able to find a splitter where one branch screws in in place of the original, but I couldn't tell you. And a spliced in second connector will avoid all the OEM plug placement problems, but obviously is a much bigger pain to wire in correctly.

[techwhiz]

I plan on using a 90 degree cable and just live with it. Then just tuck the OBD reader under the knee panel.

[Neothin87]

I don't really want to splice anything in, i'll probably just end up unscrewing it letting it hang back there. Not like it'll get in the way with it being behind plastic pieces!


the 90 degree extension sounds pretty good though.... i wonder if the cover will fit back on with the extension fitted

[DavidZ]

Or go for the Torque-recommended OBDLink MX Scan Tool. It's totally unobtrusive and looks pretty cool plugged into the OBDII port. Price is down to $150 (from $200) now.

[Neothin87]

I just read up on that one... it looks pretty small. were you able to put the ODBII cover on with that installed?

Edit: stopped being lazy and just pulled the cover off. the plug is barely a half an inch behind haha. I guess running coverless isnt a bad thing. thanks for the suggestion on this, i like how it can provide more data points!

[DavidZ]

Yeah, no room to cover it. I don't mind it showing, I'm just worried I might kick it when entering or exiting the car. The Torque app is one if the biggest reasons not to get an iPhone.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by DavidZ

Or go for the Torque-recommended OBDLink MX Scan Tool. It's totally unobtrusive and looks pretty cool plugged into the OBDII port. Price is down to $150 (from $200) now.

Compared to the $35 I paid?
The tool isn't rocket science and there is nothing in there to justify that price.
Industry standard Bluetooth and CAN chips.

[DavidZ]

If your $35 adapter works, good for you.

[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Compared to the $35 I paid?
The tool isn't rocket science and there is nothing in there to justify that price.
Industry standard Bluetooth and CAN chips.

To be fair, the damn ELM327 is expensive AS HELL in singles. Like $23. I think most of the cheap ($35 to $50) units actually use counterfeit chips - it's just a pre-programmed PIC part, and one revision of the part ELM forgot to blow the firmware dump fuses.

[ctuna]

The 12 volt at the OBD is constant on.
So it may drain your battery unless you have a way
around this.

[Neothin87]

the obdlink mx linked above has a power off feature after 10 minutes of inactivity

[ctuna]

torque app works with android to.

[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by ctuna

torque app works with android to.

Torque ONLY works on Android.