Innovate Vs Aem - Wideband Kits?

[Dan_J]

so on my daily stagea i've got a innovate motorsports MTX-L wideband kit and i'm currently on my 2nd wideband sensor.

first one i bolted up to the o2 factory bung so after a few months readings were out due to heat, so welded a bung at the end of the front pipe just before the cat and bought a new sensor. after re-calibrating the sensor out of front pipe in open air started working ok for maybe a couple days then started to get bad readings from 8 - 22. obviously such readings are too rich and lean for a car to actually run and i even get readings stuck on 14.7 and all over the place, on the rare occasion the dam thing may work properly for a few minutes.

i've recently read up on the problems of innovate wideband kit and its meant to have a few problems as i've stated so i'm wondering if i should just get an AEM kit and does the AEM kit do laptop data logging? which aem kit should i go with ?

would also like to hear from others that have experienced the innovate motorsports wideband kits and have negative comments to add

thanks

Edited November 24, 2015 by Dan_J

[GTRPSI]

I just fitted a AEM wideband with failsafe to my sons just Supercharged Honda S2000 and hooked it into his Haltech ECU.

The AEM Failsafe gauge setup has 2 hours of logging onboard, i just pull the USB cable out from under the dash and plug it into the lappy for reading a few hours of boost and air/fuel logs VS RPM.

It has a wire you can hook into a RPM signal to give you the Revs logged against boost and Air fuel.

You can also setup high low limits in the gauge to set off alarms, it has a wire (output) you can hook into a aftermarket ECU to pull timing or boost in a emergency.

[Ryno]

I've used an Australian Tech Edge wideband kit for the last 18 months. It's permanently wired in with the sensor just in front of the cat. Very accurate and it hasn't missed a beat. Highly recommended!

[zebra]

I ve had a tech edge for 5 years or more, its been on 4 different cars and has never missed a beat.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

AEM is good, no need to free air calibrate and the kit doesn't cook sensors like the Innovate kits.

I've had two gauges fail on me already, first one couldn't display text properly next one died in 3 months and kept showing E9 then I've cooked 1x sensor luckily this was all within a year so was covered by warranty.

With the AEM units, I installed an AEM UEGO into my mates s15 and it's still going strong 3 years on and readings were inline (a little richer as pre cat) to what was showing on the dyno

[zoomzoom]

Im using an innovate MTX-L wideband, connected via serial data to my ECU. Its been in for 9 months & 10k kms, and still is running fine.

Placement on the stagea was tricky, getting the sensor 1m from the turbo, but also as vertical as possible. I welded the bung just before the cat flange. Did you get the sensor tip pointing downwards enough?

[Hadouken]

Weird. I've had a innovate afr gauge since 2012. Still kicking goals. *touch wood*

[iruvyouskyrine]

I had an innovative and it killed my sensor in about 6 months. It's less than a year old am I still covered by warranty jonny? I purchased through adaptronic.

Also it was mounted correctly about 1.5m back from turbo.

Edited November 24, 2015 by iruvyouskyrine

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I had an innovative and it killed my sensor in about 6 months. It's less than a year old am I still covered by warranty jonny? I purchased through adaptronic.

Also it was mounted correctly about 1.5m back from turbo.

of course it is!

It's not adaptronic's fault, it's just Innovate kits like to eat up sensors.

[iruvyouskyrine]

Yeah not blaming the adaptronic at all just stating I didn't purchase it through them directly. Will drop them an email and see what they have to say.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I still like Innovate because it provides narrow band simulation but at the same time provides 0-5V output, just hate how it chew through sensors.

[Hadouken]

why do some chew sensors?

are they getting over heated?

Mine is just before the cat and seems to be surviving

[iruvyouskyrine]

No idea why but it's pretty well documented that the innovative is pretty reliable at killing sensors. Unfortunate because apart from that it's a pretty sweet bit of kit.

[scotty nm35]

My LC1 failed after 4 years, now I am using the LC2 in the Stagea it seems fine.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

why do some chew sensors?

are they getting over heated?

Mine is just before the cat and seems to be surviving

I've been told the heater control logic of the Innovate kit isn't too thought out, so the sensors cook themselves.

[scotty nm35]

I've been told the heater control logic of the Innovate kit isn't too thought out, so the sensors cook themselves.

I am under the impression the LC1 had a voltage regulator problem, especially when the control unit was mounted in the engine compartment due to heat. Mine is mounted in cabin and I don't have any issues.

[Leroy Peterson]

I just fitted a AEM wideband with failsafe to my sons just Supercharged Honda S2000 and hooked it into his Haltech ECU.

thats a cool little item.

it doesnt seem to be able to display 2 things at once though. would be nice to have AFR dots on the outside and boost reading number in the middle (with alarms active for both).

If you have to run a vacuum line to it to get good logging, you might as well use it to replace your boost gauge... but then you cant read your AFRs without hooking it up to a laptop and changing it.

[Trex]

My LC1 failed after 4 years, now I am using the LC2 in the Stagea it seems fine.

Good to hear. I currently have the lc2

[admS15]

I've been running the innovate mtxl for the last 4 months. Not really long enough to claim any sort of reliability but no issues so far. Its mounted just in front of the single cell cat and has been very accurate in its readings when compared on the dyno. In saying all that, its due for its first free air calibration which I'll do this weekend.

[admS15]

so on my daily stagea i've got a innovate motorsports MTX-L wideband kit and i'm currently on my 2nd wideband sensor.

first one i bolted up to the o2 factory bung so after a few months readings were out due to heat, so welded a bung at the end of the front pipe just before the cat and bought a new sensor. after re-calibrating the sensor out of front pipe in open air started working ok for maybe a couple days then started to get bad readings from 8 - 22. obviously such readings are too rich and lean for a car to actually run and i even get readings stuck on 14.7 and all over the place, on the rare occasion the dam thing may work properly for a few minutes.

i've recently read up on the problems of innovate wideband kit and its meant to have a few problems as i've stated so i'm wondering if i should just get an AEM kit and does the AEM kit do laptop data logging? which aem kit should i go with ?

would also like to hear from others that have experienced the innovate motorsports wideband kits and have negative comments to add

thanks

Sounds like your unit is faulty. I would be asking innovate for a replacement unit.