DIY: Install of a Scangauge II using a Blendmount rear view mirror mount.

So a while back I purchased a Scangauge II and had thought I could put it in the little drop down compartment to the left of the steering wheel with a little modification. Well upon actually looking at the job it became obvious that it just wasn’t going to be possible there. So I began looking for other options. Velcroing it to the dash anywhere was just not an option for me. I am not throwing stones at anyone who has installed theirs this way, but for me it just didn’t look polished enough, and that bothers me.

So I came across this company called Blendmounts. They seem to make a mount for lots of things that sits right over top of your rear view mirror and looks pretty factory when it’s installed.

Here is the Blendmount website. http://www.mgtmotorsports.com/blendmount.html. Please take note that they sell the Blendmount for $49.95, and the Scangauge II for the typical price of $159.95, but if you buy both pieces through them then you get a package deal price of $179.95 for everything including shipping. (I think) That is a no-brainer.

Since I already had the Scangauge II, I just purchased the Blendmount kit (Make sure to follow the instructions on their site for ordering the correct kit for your mirror.)

Disclaimer Section:

1. Please note that while this install worked for me and I considered to be about a 1.5 on a difficulty scale of 5 it may not be for everyone, and if you are at all uncomfortable with anything that I have detailed in this write-up then perhaps this job is not for you and further note that if you choose to attempt this install I am not responsible for any damage that results to you or your vehicle.
   
2. Those of you in cold climates may want to wait until spring to attempt this as the plastic clips on the trim pieces that will need to be removed are far more likely to break in the cold.
   
3. In trucks with the side curtain air bag option, there may be a problem with following this install as I believe that the airbag lives in the A-pillar, and as such you may not be able to route the wire as described, and or you may risk setting of the airbag during the described install, so please check with Toyota about removing the A-pillar before doing so.

OK, on to tools required.

Ratchet with a 3-6” extension
10mm Socket
Small flat blade screwdriver
Two crescent wrenches
Wire cutters
Bicycle tire lever (I’ll explain this later)
The supplied Allen wrenches
And some additional zip ties (they never give you enough in the kit)

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Step 1: Un-pack everything, and with the supplied alcohol prep pad clean both the Scangauge and the Blendmount in the correct locations to install the dual lock strips.


Step 2: Install the Dual Lock (heavy duty plastic Velcro) strips.


Step 3: Mount the Scangauge II to the Blendmount.


Step 4: Go out to your truck and determine the correct spacer and number of washers (if any) to use as well as the correct mounting hole on the Blendmount to achieve your desired positioning. (I used the small spacer and one washer, and I used left most hole in the middle row) (Though depending on your mirror position or personal preference this may be different for you)


Step 5: Now lock everything down. The instructions are going to tell you that things should only be put together hand tight, but the last thing I wanted to deal with was to have this come loose later down the road, so I used some Locktite Blue, and VERY gently snugged everything up. (It is thin aluminum, so don’t Herc it down, just enough to snug it up and let the locktite do it’s job)


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Step 6: Now secure the mount to the post in the correct viewing angle. (This may take several attempts as you really need three hands to do it) (Again use locktite, but don’t Herc it down either)


Step 7: Now attach the Scangauge to the mount using the Dual Lock strips that you already installed and position it so that the face of the Scangauge is flush with the mirror from front to back, and get the bottom part of the mirror clamp and two bolts ready.

Step 8: Push the bolts through the bottom half of the mirror mount. Put some more locktite on the two mounting bolts, and thread them into the holes on the mirror mount that you have already assembled.


Step 9: Remember that as it begins to snug up to alternate bolts. If you crank one side all the way down first and have not tightened the other side at all you risk binding and cross threading the other bolt. So just do a couple of turns at a time on each bolt until you are tight. Again just go to a reasonable tightness don’t crank down on it so hard as to strip the threads.


Step 10: Ok here comes the fun. Get ready to start taking your truck apart. Take your very small flat blade screwdriver and pry out the two little covers on the grab handle on your A-pillar.


Step 11: Remove the two 10mm bolts that you just found under those little covers and remove the grab handle.


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Step 12: Grab the A-pillar near the head liner and pull straight away from the pillar. You’ll feel the clip at the top release, and then pull up as it is just held in by pressure between the dash and the bottom corner. You’ll take notice of the mounting clip on the A-pillar cover and the white insert that the clip goes into. This was hard to get a picture of as it really requires two hands to get the A-pillar off.


(This is the part where those of you who have side curtain airbags may need to exercise caution as I don’t know where the airbags are located or how they deploy, so if you have side curtain airbags I REALLY accept no responsibility for anything that happens from this point on.)

Step 13: Remove the dead pedal by pulling straight out.


Step 14: Un-screw the weird looking little black screw thing that you found when you removed the dead pedal. (It should only be finger tight, but if there’s a problem I suspect you could get a set of pliers on it.)


Step 15: Remove the door sill molding by working along one edge from the front to the back to gently un-do the clips.


Step 16: Remove the kick panel by pulling straight back toward the rear of the truck.



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Step 17: Ok, now you are done taking your truck apart and we can run our wiring, and start putting things back together. OK, at the beginning of this I talked about a “bicycle tire lever.” This is what it looks like.


They are available from your local bike shop for about $4.00 for a set of 3. You could use a screwdriver or some other tool here, but the tire lever is plastic, and curved, so it makes the job easy as well as does not risk marring the headliner or scratching the metal.

Step 18: Here is what you are going to do with the tire lever. Starting at the mirror you are going to slip the tire lever under the headliner and begin inserting the extension cat-5 cable that comes with the mounting kit from the mirror over to the A-pillar.


Step 19: Plug one end of the Cat-5 cable into the back of the Scangauge, and mount the Scangauge to the Blendmount using the Dual Lock strips, and set the cable in a natural curve (not a sharp bend) into the headliner.

Step 20: Now carefully route the cable along the existing wiring in the A-Pillar and secure with zip ties.


Step 21: Now comes the part that can’t be photographed. You’re going to need to get your head and one arm under the dash, and look up, for a clear path, while you try to feed the cable down toward the fuse block. I got it started from the top, and then reached up and met the cable half way and pulled it the rest of the way down. Make sure not to jostle or loosen any of the other connections, and secure your cable as you see fit.

Step 22: Plug the end of the cat-5 extension cable into the connector box that came with the kit. And then plug the cat-5 end of the OBDII cable into the other side of the connector box.

Step 23: Coil up the factory Scangauge cable and secure it as you see fit, and plug the other end into the OBDII port. The appeal to me for this install was that it looks factory and clean, and if I should need the code reader function of the Scangauge in another vehicle I can just take the head-unit and the factory cable out of my truck without having to un-do anything, and putting it back in is just as simple.


Step 24: Start your truck and make sure that the Scangauge II starts up, shut off the truck and start putting the pieces back together in the reverse order. Then re-start your truck and follow the programming instructions in the manual for the Scangauge and start inputting your x-gauge codes, and enjoy.

Note: None of the Scangauge factory color presets match the dash exactly, but you can custom adjust the display color and I am close to matching the truck dash colors, I'll post the color values once I get it to match perfectly.

Enjoy, and have a wonderful and safe holiday season.

Maverick491

 

Nice install. I have a scangauge II but i just keep it on top of the steering column. Easier to see it that way. But now I know how to get those A-pillars off. I might install a pair of tweeters there when I get a set of component speakers.

 

Excellent work Mav. You the Man

 

I should be installing the blendmount this weekend. Thanks for the guide! Any results on that custom color setting yet?

 

Still close, but not exact, though truth be told I have not messed with it recently, either. I'll try to finish the custom color match this weekend though, and post the values on Monday.

 

I did the install this afternoon and your directions are great but I found a shortcut. The whole project took about 30 minutes.

After a bit of measuring I ran the scangauge's cable without using the extension. I removed the A piller panel. Then starting at the mirror I worked the cable under the headliner to the A pillar and loosely followed down the factory wiring to the dashboard. There is a large opening there where the A piller panel sits. There's plenty of room to feed the cable down to right next to the ODBII port. There was about 8" of excess cable which I pushed back up and hid under the headliner. Once the cable was happy I ziptied it in place and reassembled the A piller.

This let me avoid removing the dead pedal, door sill and pick panel and I didn't have to find a way to support all that extra cable under the dashboard.

 

Thanks for the install tip.

I just received my ScanGauge with the Blendmount on Thursday. The install was about 30 minutes.

For those with Side Curtain Airbags -- there is no problem with the install as described above. The side curtain airbags come underneath the seats and then up the driver/pax door pillars. If you want to verify this -- check the owners manual to see the diagram.

I initially installed the ScanGauge using their cable -- and after I had it all put together I decided to utilize the Blendmount cable instead. The Blendmount cable was ran from the mirror to the port. I then used the ScanGauge cable to connect to the OBDP and then the Blendmount cable. All of the cabling and connector tucked away inside the panel.

I chose this manner so that I could easily unplug the Scangauge cable and disconnect the Scangauge for portibility. I had told a friend (Tacoma Owner)about the Scangauge -- and now I can easily unplug it and let him see if he desires to purchase one. In addition, when my G/F takes her VW Passat in for servicing -- they charge her $75 to 'perform engine diagnostics'. Her bill is always about $175 every 5K miles (my 5K service this week was only $60).

Heck with all of the money I will save her -- maybe I should have her pay for it.

Have a great weekend.

Very Respectfully,

VIPER131

 

Several thoughts now that I'm using it.

I bought an extra cable when I bought the scangauge/blendmount bundle. May or may not have been a waste of 20 bucks. I hadn't even thought of removing the cable to use on other cars after installing it.

The preset red color looks darn close to the red display on the stereo so I'm not going to bother tweaking it.

I'm still on the first tank since the installation so I havn't calibrated it yet but based on the gas gauge at 330 miles I'm definately getting better MPG now that I have realtime feedback on my driving.

My wife has more proof that I'm addicted to gadgets.

 

I got the Scangauge II with only one cable and NO blendmount. I used the velcro that came with it and affix it to the top of the Scangauge II and I put it against the cab ceiling, almost a week from installation and still in place. Everything else on your installation is the same.

Thanks.
Anyone can save some money by not ordering the extra cable and the blendmount.

Extra cable: can be used to temporarily install the Scangauge II in a different capable vehicle.

 

Got a Scangauge II and Blendmount (unfortunately before the group buy) and just finished the install. I followed Mav's directions except used the same shortcut as Roland, so I did not use the extra Cat 5 cable. I did consider the gauge portability issued but decided in the end it was not critical. May buy an extra cable at a later date if I need one.

I would like to say thanks for an excellent post and very easy to follow directions. The gauge location is great and easy to read. Mav thanks for the heads up on the Blountmount site.

 

Any update on the custom color value settings?

 

One quick question.. I am thinking of getting this to help with my realtime MPG... What exactly does the module connect to? How? Is there something under the dash that needs to be unplugged then plugged into this unit?

Thanks..

 

It plugs into the OBDII port which is only used for diagnostics. It's under the dash not far from the hood release lever. You just remove the cover and plug in the scangauge's cable.

 

Best I have found:
Red=3
Green=1
Blue=0

Anybody have a better suggestion?

 

I"ll try those settings the day I buy one.

 

Hey Mav, thanks for the sweet how-to ! I just put in a Scangage II yesterday. Took about an hour. The instant MPG function is super-cool, it really makes you think about how you are driving.