jversluis

Hey all those with a Range device. Just got mine and looking forward to trying it out soon. Any input from the gallery or hints would be great!
Hoping for a smoother A8! As my tranny is okay except when going in and out of V4. Very annoying!

Happy New Year all vette fillies

Dcasole

Just plug it in and enjoy ..

Dave

TXSteveF

Mr. Bear

Just ordered one for my 16 Ray. Anxiously awaiting its arrival.

bjones7131

YEA just plug and play. Had mine about 6 months, never take it out but I use tender all the time. U will like it.

Kevin A Jones

Same here, installed it 6-8 months ago and been in ever since with no issues.

Walt White Coupe

So people say it doesn't drain the battery. But they have the battery on a tender. Duh. I blamed mine for battery drain, removed and sold it. This is what "Range" has to say about battery drain.

Directly from the Range website (link at bottom):

Testing has shown that the Range Device has a very small battery draw when the vehicle is off and in "sleep" mode. This is because it needs a monitor running to catch when the vehicle is started. This small draw is not enough to adversely affect battery life or drain the battery unless left in place for an extended period of time (i.e. more than a week or two).

Our testing has shown that in the normal vehicle, it shouldn't affect vehicle starting for several weeks HOWEVER very cold or very hot weather can drastically reduce battery capacity, as well as any other accessories or modules in the vehicle that stay "awake" with the key off. Many security systems, aftermarket radios, plug in phone chargers and so on may also have a slight drain when not in use, so best practice is to unplug the MDS Manager when you know the vehicle is going to be sitting without starting or driving for several days.

To add some more detail:

https://rangetechnology.zendesk.com/...5-Battery-Draw

mountainears

I've had mine for a long time. Always leave it plugged in. I don't drive my car a ton and it has sat for a month plugged in and I have not seen any battery drain issue (without the trickle charger). If you are not driving your car for more than a month you should have the charger plugged in anyway. So in my book totally a non-issue on the battery drain.

bbjohn

No battery drain with version 8.6.

Walt White Coupe

So you know more about the device than the manufacturer????

Dcasole

Walt , I know u sold yours for fear of having a dead battery but the problem with the original Range units was with the way the Range pinged the CAMBUS to find out if the car was running.

Range has changed this and the battery draw is much less than other factory equipment that constantly pings the cambus ....

There are many of us who leave our cars unattended for long periods of time and do not have any issues.

With all that said , Range Device or not if you leave your car for an extended period of time without a trickle charger you will return to a dead battery

Dave

MikeERWNC

If it starts throwing Check Engine lights. Remove while driving and pull the codes then contact Range.
By default Range clears all codes at restart. But if you get codes while driving, there might be a problem with your unit.

How does he know this?

Walt White Coupe

Just one more time, what I quoted from the Range Website is on the site right now. Apparently, they reduced the problem with their latest update but did not eliminate it, according to them.

Walt White Coupe

If you are talking to me, I saw no Check Engine Lights or codes in the month that I used the device.

Pic below is a pic of the box that the Range device came in. Note the bottom IMPORTANT warning.

Spice red Ed

I have been using my unit for at least six months, car battery is three years old, never on a charger and I have had no problems with the unit running the battery down even if the car sits for a week.

bbjohn

"So you know more about the device than the manufacturer???? "

I had a previous version that would drain the battery in a few days. Had it updated by Range (8.6) and now can leave the car for several weeks and it starts right up.

And no, I don't know more about the device than the manufacturer.

Since it probably uses some power I will change my statement to: No SIGNIFICANT battery drain with version 8.6.

Dcasole

Same here , I also have never got a CEL , I think that was addressed at the same time they changed how it pings the CAMBUS
As far as the warnings on the box and the web site , I am sure they are leftover from the older versions and also a CYA
There are thousands of the new devices out there as it works for every V8 GM that has AFM/DOD and with this many out there are am sure there would be some scathing reviews which there are not...

just look at how many reported on here no problems with the latest release
Dave

javenius

I have a 2019 Grand Sport A8 with just over 1000 miles now. No shudder issues or RPM surges to date but I plan to purchase the Range device soon. Does anyone know if the Range device will positively impact the hard 1-2 shift on the first shift of the day?

Thanks
Jim

Dcasole

Jim the Range just prevents the motor from going into 4 cylinder mode and has nothing to do with the way it shifts other than the torque converter no longer goes in and out of lock up mode when AFM kicks in and out

Dave

NSC5

Jim,

To avoid the first hard 1 to 2 shift, after you start the car with it still stationary paddle up to second and then back to first. This takes care of slow initial fill of the engaging clutch pack used for engaging second gear. Not sure why GM hasn't done this in software to do a partial pre-fill of this clutch pack at startup since the transmission is now in its fourth model year and showing the same issue now as it did in initial production. My 2001 GMC pickup with Allison transmission was the first clutch to clutch automatic I owned and it had an issue with slow fill of one of its much larger clutch pack actuators, Allison (which was still part of GM back then) quickly updated the software to cure the issue by doing a partial prefill after cold start.