So back in February I entered an update on here about full height instrument cluster displays, I was going to follow it with an update about one of the more interesting uses for the display - using it to display engine temps, voltages, boost pressure etc with a "FIS-Control" module, I fitted this in 2014.
Back when I first had a full FIS screen on my old front wheel drive 1.8T I always thought they've had the space to display some useful information, but the MK4 doesn't do it natively. How about stuff like Oil temperature (so you know when the engine is up to temperature so you can push it a a bit more?), coolant temperature, EGT, boost pressure etc? There are a few different ways of getting that information to display on a MK4 FIS, but I went with the FIS-Control module as I can adapt it to play nicely with the Sat Nav in my Bora so they both can output to the FIS without trouble. Bora aside, the "R18" also is a nice place to install a FIS-Control.
I've seen a couple of posts on forums about this unit before, but they didn't really have much detail on them and seem to be more impressed than anything about the FIS-Control having the ability to display the old Nokia phone game "SNAKE" on the cluster, what a waste! FIS-Control has a lot more uses than that. I probably went over the top with this write up, but at least you can see a bit more detail about the unit for a change.
Basically the device plugs inline with the instrument cluster (obviously has to be a full height cluster display) and it reads measuring blocks from the various modules/sensors in the car, the same way that VCDS or a blue tooth "dongle" does.
Here is what I've chosen to do with mine. One of the main things was to program the "PRESETS" so that it will display useful information at the top of the centre LCD in place of the radio information (though you can revert back to Radio / CD /Track info if you want to anytime). With current firmware it's possible to configure 9 different presets, I've changed them a few times but currently have:
Oil temp: I like the idea of being able to see the oil temperature, so that when I first start off I don't thrash a cold engine. What I noticed here is that though the water temperature can get up torwards 90c, the oil temperature is slower to get near that level, so it's good to keep an eye on the oil temp and know its warmed up before pushing the loud pedal harder.
Coolant temp is interesting, shows how the VW cluster gauge is "averaged" and always sits at 90c even if the water temp is really nearer to 100c, as its within acceptable limits so VW calibrated the gauge not to move above 90 unless the water is over their accepted normal operating temp, saves people being panicked and calling VW I guess. Some people like to recode their instrument cluster to a 'true' temp display, so it rarely sits at 90C but I prefer the VW "averaged" default display that basically warms up to 90C and sits there and only moves if there is a fault or issue. Pretty nice to have the FIS-Control display the 'real' temp if I want to see it. The car hadn't moved all day on the photo below, so the coolant is about the same temp as the outside temp.
Fuel level: Can display in Litres or Gallons, I hoped it would display 60-62 litres when the car is totally full (R32 / 4-motions have larger fuel capacity), but it never does, even if I "vent" the fuel cap and brim it right up, most I've seen it display is 53 litres. I believe this is because the fuel reserve is approximately 8 litres or a little over, so that means 53 "ish" litres is about right as presumably the fuel level sensor doesn't measure the reserve to discourage people from pushing the car until it totally runs out.
Battery Voltage: This was really useful earlier in the year when I was sorting out some electrical problems with the Bora and found that even with the engine running I was sometimes only seeing 11.9v when it should be upper 13v or over 14v.
RPM: I don't have this view now as a preset as I combined it with the coolant temp on another view.
MPH: On my car with the standard wheels and correct tyres, the speed is pretty accurate compared to GPS, not sure if this is the case when up to higher speeds on the "private road", still not tried that yet. I have switched to this a few times when I'm driving through average speed camera zones so I can set the car on the cruise control and just get a easy view of the speed I need to stick to.
BOOST: don't leave home without a turbo. Great to see if you are still making decent boost in PSI / Bar (selectable).
EGT: can read temps from the lambdas, nice to see if the map on the car is going to melt something or not
MAF: can use this to make a fair estimate of the car's BHP (though doesn't work on R32 Turbo engines as the readings top out at approximately 220 mg/s which is way short of their true max, pity)
Intake temp: Nice to know if the intercooler(s) are keeping inlet temps down to make more BOOST
I think on this photo the car had been stood running for a while as that temp is quite high compared to the outside temp.
It's possible to choose how the information is displayed, the information I showed above is on "Preset / Board computer" view, which puts it at the top of the FIS in place of the radio / CD. FIS control can also display it as measurements / graphs and even set thresholds and timers against the measurements.
So with a bit of setup, MPH can be displayed as a measurement / timer view, setting the timer to trigger / start at 0.01 mph and stop at 60 mph, this gives a fair stab at a 0-60 timer! Same again for 30-70 mph or 0-100 mph. Very cool. Probably not as accurate as a Vbox but a good general indicator and very easy to operate, no user error as it stops and starts based on measured speed. The "66" displayed below is the max speed reached on that session, but the timer would have started when it measured the car moving at 0.01 mph and would have stopped at 60 mph, so this attempt did 0-60 in 5.86 seconds.
Another go at it made 5.73 seconds.
Another useful thing on the measuring screen is to view the MAF reading, if viewing the MAF, it will show the highest / lowest reading until you reset it or exit that view, so if you do a "Wide Open Throttle" run in 2nd or 3rd gear, you can get a maximum MAF reading for calculating a fair estimate of the car's BHP.
Measurement view showing peak MAF reading for that session: 217.64 G/S this equates to approximately 272 BHP.
Different views - the measurements of a measuring block can be displayed in different ways -
Boost as a graph:
Bit of an action shot so camera fail!
Boost as a gauge:
Boost as a measurement (will show max values for that session until reset, so the max boost on that session was 21.77 PSI):
Boost as a single measurement
One of the other things FIS-Control is useful for is displaying any errors (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) and their meanings and it even has the ability to clear them, so if you have a Malfunction Indicator Lamp illuminated you can instantly check the error and attempt to clear it, without needing VCDS.
A sequence for viewing a DTC code and then clearing it. I did have a persistant error a while ago on the Bora, which I could clear with FIS-Control.
Finally for those that aren't interested in any of the above measurements, the FIS control can display a startup logo and can store up to 9 for you to choose from. There are some available online, but since it's a personal thing about what to display on the car, I designed my own, here are some of them:
I know, I know, there's no such thing as an R18, but this is the closest you're likely to see right?
More updates to come..
