This is a placeholder for a short FAQ to answer various questions about torque, the faq is a work in progress and will continue to evolve as torque gains new features and more people use it – check back often! Please note I do not frequently look at sticky posts. If you have a question, create a topic in the forum and I’ll do my best to answer!
Error 403 from the Android Market when trying to download the app
This usually an issue with the google account the market app is using – it can randomly change accounts if you have multiple google accounts – To fix this go into the market/google play, press menu, and choose the ‘accounts’ button. Double check you are using the google account that purchased Torque. Once you have selected the correct account then google will let you download the app from their servers
Specific note about cheap clone OBD adapters and some older Fords
If you unable to connect and are using a Ford and a cheap clone adapter, then this is *highly* likely to be due to the adapter being faulty. Please see the warnings on http://torque-bhp.com/wiki/Bluetooth_Adapters about the cheap clone adapters commonly found on ebay/amazon. Generally the clone adapters are fine, but there are a significant number of them that exhibit problems.
How do I make the displays update faster?
This is mainly down to the speed at which the ECU operates and provides data to Torque, but there are a couple of things you can do that will improve the speed of the readings:
- Try to use the ‘Faster communication’ setting – Some adapters can use the ‘faster communication’ setting to reduce timeouts and retrieve data slightly faster from the ECU. Not all adapters support this option but it will improve things if yours does.
- Have fewer displays on screen – Torque will only ask the ECU for the information that it needs, so if you want the fastest update possible for a particular display then only have that display on the screen
- Only use logging when required – Web uploads and file based logging ask the ECU for PIDs, only use logging when required.
Will torque work with my vehicle?
Torque will work with all OBD2 compliant vehicles, but that doesn’t mean much to most people. Basically, if your vehicle (most cars) was built after the year 2000, then there is a very good chance that Torque will work for you. The vehicle identification plate / sticker may also show if the vehicle is OBD2 compliant.
Will Torque work on my diesel car/van/truck
Again, this is down to whether or not you have an OBD2 compliant ECU, most diesels after about the year 2006 should be compliant, but if in doubt check with an auto professional.
Why are there so many updates?
The reason there are lots of updates is due to slightly different implementations of the OBD standard, and special ‘nuances’ between vehicle manufacturers. Because of this there are some ‘special cases’ for the protocols that I may not have been aware of when coding part of Torque that handles communications.
Now, it would be brilliant if I had access to every car every manufacturer ever made with all the OBD documentation for their models, but unfortunately cars cost money (so I only have 1!) and their documentation also costs a fair amount.
So there are people out there that have vehicles that torque does not work with. They let me know about this and are kind enough to send me a debug file, I look at the debug file, try to fix something, and the only way I can test is to update the app on the market for them to test and report back.
This is a very long winded and unfortunate way to improve the program, but it does result in support for a wider range of vehicles.
You don’t have to update every time an update is posted on the android market 
It doesn’t work for me, what do I do!
This is a difficult one as there are a lot of things that might cause an issue, I will try to jot down some of the more common ones:
- Make sure your ignition is turned ‘ON’ – Most ECUs for security purposes disable the diagnostic connector when the ignition is off. Sometimes they are also disabled if the engine is not running
- Make sure you have an OBD2 compliant vehicle – Some vehicles have what looks like an OBD connector, but aren’t OBD2 compliant – a user with a Fiat van was unfortunate to find this out.
- Check you have paired your Bluetooth adapter – Go into your Bluetooth settings and check that you have paired with your Bluetooth OBD adapter. It may say ‘paired but not connected’ which is perfectly normal and correct. Most devices have a pin code of ‘1234’ that is asked for when pairing for the first time.
Further notes
There appear to be some problems with the android 2.1 roms on some verizon devices resulting in a ‘lagged’ bluetooth interface. There is some workaround code in Torque to try to counter this problem, however as it is a firmware bug with the phone ROM it makes it extremely difficult to work around. You really need to complain to your vendor and get them to fix the bluetooth stack in their ROMs.
This appears to be mostly on builds with an id containing ERD79 and is present on the following build ids:
google/passion/passion/mahimahi:2.1/ERD79/22607:user/release-keys
verizon/htc_desirec/desirec/desirec:2.1/ERD79/165907:user/release-keys
htc_wwe/htc_legend/legend/legend:2.1/ERD79/139791:user/release-keys
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