Customer Reviews

Bully Dog 40402 Watch Dog Black Economy Monitor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My main purpose in purchasing this product was to monitor my fuel economy. This Watch Dog disappoints me with its ability to give fuel economy data. First off, this unit is small. I knew about the size because I contacted the company before I purchased it. They were kind enough to give me the specs. I could not find it listed in the sales literature. The data displayed on the left side is big and easy to read. The problem is that you cannot get average fuel economy to display in one of those boxes. You can get instant economy to display, but that is worthless. The only way you can get average economy is to turn on the "driving coach" This is a program that monitors acceleration and braking and is meant to help you achieve maximum economy. On the bottom of the main screen under the "driving coach" you can see your average economy in 2 digits with no decimal point. The font is about a size 5. I have perfect 20/20 eyesight and can barely see it.

When you install this unit, it says to just plug it in to the OBD 2 port. If you turn off the key, it stays running. The literature says it will not suck much juice and will not be a problem unless you leave it sit for a long time. If you leave your car sit for weeks between uses, they give you a separate wire you can attach and connect to the ignition so that it only runs when the car is running. What they do not tell you is that your fuel economy drops to almost nothing if you do not shut it off between uses. I had to figure this out on my own. I attached the wire and it is working fine.

I am still calibrating this unit. The economy reading differs from my calculations. After a few more tanks of gas I hope to have it dialed in. It is not a plug and play item.

Most of the data that they say you can access, you can't. Like trans temp, oil pressure, exhaust temp etc are not available on my car. The only items that I can access that are worth monitoring are battery voltage and coolant temp.

In my opinion this is way over priced and not worth the money.

I contacted the company to see if they could reprogram the unit to display the average fuel economy in the larger area of the screen so I could actually read it. They never responded. Typical of a fly by night company to give you support before the sale and none after. Now I am stuck with this gauge and not happy with it. Do not waste your money on this monitor.

My mechanic has a BD for his diesel and says it helps his gas mileage. He told me not to buy this since for gas engines, really does not help your mileage. I like all the dials and has a driving coach, and only $200 so I went against his advice and bought one. It came sealed in original container from Amazon, however, was missing two parts needed to update it. You have to plug into your computer to update it before installing in vehicle. Short story, it has taken me 6 weeks to get the parts from BD needed to update it. They originally told me to go buy the parts myself at Radio Shack. How is that for customer service? I needed a UBS to mini USB cable and then, later learned I also needed a USB to SD card reader. Just F***ng shoot me! I have owned this thing for 6 weeks and just now turning over to my mechanic to install. Previous readers are right about small screen. I am going to need a magnifying glass to read this thing while I am driving. BD, good idea, but crappy execution

Ordered this hoping to be able to read some temperature readings, mpg and others. NOTHING i wanted showed up the only option it gave me for the gauges was boost, rpm, and speed. So basically i spent 250$ on a boost gauge i could have spent 20$ at the local auto parts store. Will not show my MPG all it does is chirp when i pin the gas or hit the breaks and tell me how fast I'm going. I'm very disappointed in this product did not do 10% of what it says. I'm hoping to get a full refund

Other reviews are helpful, but I don't rely on them. I always like to give a company a chance. One review said it wouldn't shut off when you turn the engine off. That's because you hooked it up to a continuous circuit. In my case, however, I installed it on a 2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500. Used a fuse tap on the wrong circuit, so changed it to another. Pulling the fuse tap spread the fuse socket apart, redering my vehicle inoperable. Had to take the fuse block completely out of the steering column and apart to squeeze the socket back so the fuse would stay in. Don't make the same the mistake I did! After all that, got it working properly, but it would not connect. I checked all connections again, and even plugged my OBD reader into the OBD port to make sure. The next day, Tech Support simply suggested sending me a new OBD module. Tried the replacement module, and still "unable to connect". Tech Support again, this time, with Travis, who was alot more helpful. He walked me through some diognostics, but still no-go. He checked with his "engineer" and told me that this has a habit of working on only some of the Dodge Sprinters, but not all. He called me back a short time later and suggested I removed the BD fuel module I had installed and try it again. I did and still "unable to connect". I called Travis back to advise. I suggested the 2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 be taken off the list, but was willing to test their product once they figured out the problem.

Returns to Amazon are a snap, and I hope the refund is prompt, because this has been quite a hassle. As far as not getting all the information I would want on the guage, I probably would not want it at all if I couldn't get temperature, pressure, and voltage readings on multiple components. I think BD could ascertain what the guage would actually provide for a particular vehicle instead of selling it as something that provides all the information they say it does.

Travis, you were great, but BD's presentation and product need work.

This unit is awesome. I was hung up on whether to buy the scangauge, which all of my friends had or this. Im glad I made the choice I did. There is no need to have to connect this to the computer to change what gauges you want shown. You can also have alot of gauges shown at once which I think the scangauge had only 4 max. So far Ive had this for a year and been extremely happy with it and it was totally worth the cost. I am able to get most or all of the gauge choices from a 2006 Jeep Liberty except of course boost haha. But some cars may not be able to get all of the gauges like if your car doesnt have CAN bus which you can find out by looking at the pins on the obd2 port to see if your car has it but all newer cars have it. Even if it does not you can still get alot of readings from this unit

This was a great product and just as described. I received this item right own , time and it was used just as they described..

I have a 2002 F250 7.3 Powerstroke. Even though this unit has boost, speed, tach, and many other functions, the main thrust of the advertising is that it monitors your fuel economy in real time. Hence the name "Economy Watcher." They claim it works on any OBD II vehicle from 1997 on up. They do inform you that they can capture much more data from newer vehicles, but they don't ever define what "newer" means or what data you can't capture on "older" vehicles. I thought since my 1986 Isuzu Impulse could manage a mileage computer, surely BullyDog could do it on a 2002 F250.

Nope. And I got that straight from their tech support. The second time I called. After sitting at the computer for a half an hour waiting for a "tech chat." The first phone call to tech support I got some kid who didn't know his rear end from a hole in the ground. They let him answer the phone because everyone was at lunch. They should have taken Skippy to lunch with them.

If you own a 7.3 powerstroke, the only thing this crap box will measure is boost, speed, and tach. For $700 I could buy the one that wires directly to the ECM and then I could have a real time fuel mileage computer. Maybe. He wasn't sure.

I guess it would put a dent in sales if they put on the box "This Economy Monitor actually doesn't measure fuel economy in many of the trucks we say it works on. We call it an Economy Monitor because every time we sell one to a sucker like you, our little patch of the economy improves markedly."

This is a waste of time and money unless you have a vehicle that's 5-6 years old or less. I know it works fine on my friend's 2005 Duramax, but at this point, even if I had a truck it would work on, I wouldn't buy one because of the deceptive advertising and piss-poor customer service.

The Watch Dog does exactly what Bully Dog claims it to do. It showed me how to get 19 mpg out my 08 F250 with a 6.4L, I really got it for the gauge monitoring which it does wonderfully. The suction cup mount that comes with it is kind of annoying, I bought a 2 1/16" adapter and stuck in a pillar pod.