What PID’s Are Most Important When You Drive Your Diesel?

Knowledge is power and with the right amount of information and some knowledge you can help diagnose, prevent, or maintain your high-dollar diesel engine.  These days the only resemblance your diesel has to your grandpa’s 1989 12-valve Cummins pickup is the fuel you use. With technology constantly evolving, your truck knows a staggering amount of information about how its engine is running which can all be accessed with the tap of a button.

The EZ LYNK Auto Agent allows for cloud-based diagnostics and connects directly to the device via wifi.

EZ LYNK’s Auto Agent 2.0 can be a critical part of keeping your diesel engine running for hundreds of thousands of miles. The Auto Agent connects to your vehicle’s diagnostic port and is capable of displaying multiple gauge configurations for everyday driving.  The unit is also capable of displaying and clearing diagnostics trouble codes which can be easily accessed via the mobile app.  The EZ LYNK app is wifi-based so it seamlessly streams data from the Auto Agent to your Android or iOS phone or tablet.

PID’s (Parameter Identifications) are the roadmap to diagnostics and troubleshooting. If you own a diesel truck for long enough you will eventually encounter an issue. These issues can oftentimes spring up at the most inconvenient time, but with the Auto Agent, you can access your PID data and also check on what trouble codes your truck might have set.  These data points can also be sent off to a registered technician for even more in-depth interpretation as well as up to 30 minutes of data log. The technician can be your favorite guy at the local repair shop or even the dealership of your choosing. The choice is yours as the system is designed to give the end-user complete and total access to how and when their truck is worked on.

The Auto Agent works off of a cloud so information can easily be sent and received through it once linked with a mechanic.  You can perform updates through the unit if there are any important changes that are required by the technician.  This helps to save the end-user time and can be done at their own convenience rather than scheduling a time to take the vehicle to a physical storefront.

Here we see a screenshot of the user interface showing a few PIDs you might find useful.

Fully customizable data screens are easy to program and help keep an eye on parameters that are most important to you. Boost pressure and exhaust gas temperature are two very common data points that can be a sneak peek into how your engine is running.  Lower than normal boost can indicate a turbocharger problem related to an actuator or even a boost leak.

While higher than normal EGTs can hint at fueling issues or an overwork condition. For most stock trucks boost values in the 30-35-PSI range are considered normal with modified trucks seeing significantly higher in many cases.  Similarly, EGTs are typically monitored up to 1200-degrees, and excess of this number for extended periods of time should be avoided.

Other data points such as transmission temperature, engine coolant temp, and engine oil temp can be easily accessed as well. These parameters can be vital for those who tow frequently or heavy with their trucks. Keeping transmission temperatures in normal operating ranges can be vital for transmission life. Engine coolant temperature is fairly obvious, but oftentimes people forget about their engine’s oil temperature. The coolant helps to keep oil temp in check via the oil cooler, but if the oil temperature gets overly hot it can indicate that the engine is being overworked. Adjustments to driving style can help alleviate these issues or if further insight is needed a data log can be sent off to verify proper operation.

Customizable gauge displays can be easily programmed to the end-users preference.

Another common gauge layout is a simple digital display where we can see our information in plain numbers. This particular display shows us fuel rail pressure which is a very common PID to keep tabs on. Lower rail pressure than normal is a sign of a weak high-pressure pump or injectors that are experiencing high return rates. Throttle position is also displayed here which is good for understanding how hard you are pushing the engine, or help you keep your foot off the throttle for better fuel economy.

All of these parameters can be programmed by the end-users for high and low warnings.  For instance, if you tow frequently and want to know when coolant temp or oil temp gets too hot you could program the Auto Agent to display a warning when coolant or oil temp reaches 220-degrees.  Maybe you have a heavy foot and many times you will see your transmission temperatures creeping up to an unsafe level.

In that case, you would also be able to program a warning when a predetermined set point is reached.  The programmability features are endless; Many users find the high warnings to be helpful, but you can also program the unit to let you know when the truck has reached operating temperature. All of the high and low warnings can be completely customized for what the end-user deems fit so no matter how your truck is set up you can determine how and when you have sensor warnings.

We think the Auto Agent units from EZ LYNK are the future of diesel engine monitoring and continue to look forward to what new features they continue to unveil! Clearly, this cloud-based technology is far superior to the old way of extracting data logs from the hardware via computer software then emailing logs to a technician. For further coverage of new tech in the diesel industry and news surrounding it stay tuned to Diesel Army.

Article Sources

About the author

Keaton Samples

Keaton grew up messing with diesel trucks, in fact, his dad owns a diesel shop, which is where Keaton is currently employed since the age of 14. I fell in love with midsized diesel trucks around the age of 15-16 and eventually bought my own.
Read My Articles