Car Scanner ELM OBD2 is the Android app I use. I got it for my Audi back in the day, but it can read at least some MX5 data. The adaptor I wound up with was an earlier version of this one
Adaptor choice is a bit of a lottery. You have to spend £££ to get official ones. Many mid price ones seem to be ok for most purposes and of course there’s always Amazon returns policy if you get issues
Thanks, yeah I see prices vary a lot from a tenner to well over £100. Difficult to choose. So you’re not able to clear the i-Stop/Battery malfunction warnings via your ODB2 scanner, you had to disconnect battery to reset?
I had my MXS10 fitted five years + to both terminals without any problem to the socket in the front bumper then New grill just plug in and leave dont even raise the bonnet …
BTW, My i-Stop and battery malfunction warnings on my dash finally cleared themselves today after not touching anything. It took several days on and off driving, maybe a couple of hours total alternator charging for it to finally clear itself. Be interesting to see what the standing voltage is once the battery settles later today.
On the forum, over years, there’s lots of threads in a round about which discuss the ND2/3 charging. There seems to be no definite answer. Lots of technical stuff, but:
Q: If I had an ND2/3 on the drive and in my hand I have a ctek MXS5 (or similar). Can I ‘just do’ what I do with my ND1- red croc on the positive terminal, black croc on a nut, then plug in a hunky dory, with the ctek on ‘normal’ mode? Then it charges fine and I take it off and get on with my life. No warnings, no things not working afterwards? Is this the same?
So much I read don’t answer that question. It;s often mired in what battery is it, stuff not working afterwards, disconnecting to get going again etc etc
I didn’t have to disconnect anything for the battery warnings to finally clear. Based on my experience it seems my 2024 ND with i-Stop cleared all the errors itself once the battery got back over 75% SOC from what I can tell. Not sure if an ODB2 scanner would still show the warnings though if I had the tool to connect up. I’m guessing the same result if you charged with a CTEK directly on battery posts. It might take 3-4 engine restarts for the BMS to finally clear the warnings though based on what I’ve read.
To be honest, I still haven’t a clue what’s all that: soc: i stop errors, clearing, scanners, bms, odb2 etc.
On the ND1 I just put the ctek on, it charges, and I take it off. They are absolutely nothing else, nor does it do anything which requires me to do anything else.
Probably understand how in 4 years, no one’s been really able to answer it lol
Can I use a ctek in exactly the same way as you can on an ND1 with NO adverse effects/warnings, thing not working properly afterwards.
It seems not.
To be honest were it not for monitoring the SOC via the odb2 port I would have noticed nothing adrift were it not for the fact I leave stop/start on and it wasn’t working…
I beg to differ and think it does. It’s actually not that complicated. The i-Stop simply needs a decent health check pass before it allows it to enable. If the voltage before starting is too low it can’t rely on the battery to stop/start frequently at traffic lights so it diasbles it and flashes the i-Stop amber light plus detailed warnings in the LCD pod for low battery and i-Stop malfunction. Once the battery is charged enough, either by driving (or a good external charger I assume) then the warnings will finally clear by themselves. The problem I think is owners get all worried and want to clear the warnings immediatelely and so faff about disconnecting and reconnecting the battery and maybe following the long winded process of pressing and holding the i-Stop button with ignition on but no start etc etc. If they just had some patience, drive and enjoy then the issue will fix itself within a few days. Based on my experience at least.
If there was no dash warnings and ‘i-Stop’ light was green on starting then it was probably working. It’s just not guaranteed to perform the i-Stop function unless the capacitor is charged enough and that’s what I actually experience. It needs about 10 seconds of recent coasting or braking IN GEAR so the engine rpms are still above idle just before stopping at any traffic lights in neutral. The ICU lets the alternator charge the capacitor up to 25-30 volts when coasting/braking via a separate output on the alternator. The i-Stop won’t work unless the capacitor is charged very recently. It doesn’t store much energy so the accessorys will quickly eat up any stored capacitor energy after a minute or so since coasting/braking. That’s the theory from the Mazda tech guru from the dealer.
(EDIT: ND2 without i-Eloop in some countries has subtle differences regards restart for i-Stop dependencies, the ND3 needs i-Eloop super capacitor charged enough to keep the accessories going while stopped in traffic so it won’t stop unless charged sufficiently…)
Not in my experience, during the first year the system did not work for at least 9 months. The dealer could not fix it at the 1st service and this is when the battery disconnect was tried and it worked. On the very few occasions since then that it has failed the battery disconnect has recovered the situation.
Maybe an update on later models fixed the issue now? Seems self fixing on my ND3 with 3-4 days of normal driving after I let the battery sit parked for 3 weeks too long without starting and only driving about once a week just before that.
I hypothetically have an ND2/3, having given up my ND1 for the glorious i eloop and i stop.
There is currently NOTHING WRONG with my hypothetical ND2/3’s i stop and i eloop.
For the fun of it, after a drive (as said, with all working fine), I use my ctek mxs5 on said hypothetical ND2/3.
Q: When I start my car up, after it charged on a car working with no issues, is it all still fine, all still working as it should?
Well my CTEK charger finally arrived today. So I’ll hook it up over the weekend to fully charge my ND3 battery directly on the battery posts and we’ll see if it causes
any confusion and unwanted warnings or malfunctions. Maybe that will help answer your question?
Yes, good one. If poss, charge it when the car is all working fine, no warnings, everything working like showroom. Hopefully, when the ctek hits green for fully charged and you unplug it, all will be the same as it was- working fine with no having to drive around for 90 days or disconnecting everything including the seats and wheels lol
(P.S I don’t use both battery ports, I use the positive red one, and a nearby nut for the black one)
Yes, will do. I’ll connect on the clamp nuts so effectively by-passing the current sensor correct? Yes, right now my ND3 2024 is running perfectly with all previous i-Stop and Battery malfunction warnings completely cleared by itself, as of today. The battery might not be fully 90-100% charged compared to showroom, I’m guessing it’s close to 80% SOC. I’ll monitor the charging to see how long it stays in the ‘BULK’ charging stage, I’m assuming not too long and it should enter the ‘FLOAT’ stage after the final 20% charge pretty quickly. We’ll see. I’ll then switch ignition on, check for any errors, start and drive. Fingers crossed!
(P.S. I’ll post pics to show it charging and the dash all clear after ignition hopefully)
(Note: ND2 doesn’t have i-Eloop from what I’ve read, only ND3 has both i-Stop and i-Eloop)
Just in case you ctek is like mine: Weird, but if it seems to be going on a bit longer than I expected, don’t ask me why, but opening and closing the odd door or boot as it’s charging seems to give it a kick up the ■■■■ and it then finishes. How many times I’ve though, ‘hang on, this has been on for 2 hours now, when I only did it last week’, then opened the boot and closed it or something, and bingo, within a minute or so it goes from ‘4’ on the cteck to ‘5’ and then within a few mins to green. Some bug in it I guess as it does the same on other cars I’ve used it on.
