biggrim 0 Posted June 18, 2003 At the moment I have 4 gauges in my G60: boost, voltage, oil temp, and pressure. I'm thinking that somrthing is wrong with the oil temp one as it is reading quite high (130ish) while water temps are normal (80ish). Thinking of getting rid of some gauges that i don't really need to tidy up the interior. Boost gauge and oil temp are in the dash where the central heating vents used to live (one of them is held in using some sort of cowboyed gaffa tape and card device) and the other two are in a gauge mount at the bottom of the centre console. My point is (finally) what gauges do I really need? I know I need the boost gauge as the charger is * cough * modified, but what others are useful? Just wondered what you guys have inside and where you have them and if I have gauges that are not really important. Thanks in advance Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henny 0 Posted June 18, 2003 I'm trying to get hold of 2 gauges at the moment... I'm after a dual oil pressure/temp gauge (has to be electric, not capillary driven) and a boost gauge. Other than that, the only gauge you possibly need to add is an air/fuel (or lambda) gauge/meter to warn you if you're running lean... It's looking like I may be getting Smiths to make me some custom gauges as I can't find any that are what I want... :roll: There's some nice ones that Smiths do, as do Racetech, but they're all Capillary driven and I don't like the thought of capillary tubes running around my car... :? Oh, and their boost gauges all say TURBO on them... :roll: I've made up a nice plate that allows me to fit 2 gauges into the hole for the ashtray without damaging the mountings for it too much, so I can re-fit the ashtray if I ever want to and leave very few signs... All it needs is a hole at the back for the cables, and a little bit of filing at the bottom of the hole... Once I get some dials, I'll put some photos up and may even make a few more up if people are interested... 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biggrim 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Unfortunately my boost gauge says TURBO on it! Wanna get a new one but not sure what to go for. Whats the difference between electric and capillary? Was hoping to get it down to 2 gauges so I can fit an a-pillar pod mount. I had thought of the ashtray but had no clue how to begin. How'd you do it? I'm curious and it sounds like a great idea as I don't use my ashtray. Plus it will look great when I finally get around to fitting my Honda S2000 starter button in the ciggarette lighter socket. 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henny 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Most of the boost gauges I've seen say TURBO... Ugh... Not in my G60! :lol: A capillary gauge uses a thin tube to run into the engine from the gauge, this has a TINY amount of oil/water/whatever you're sensing in it and that's how the gauge picks up the pressure/temp. (most boost gauges work like this) An electric gauge has a sender attached to the engine somewhere and a wire between that sender and the gauge... (think fuel gauge) Electric are much easier to fit, much neater, as accurate but slightly more expensive... BUT, if you break the wire electric stop working, and that's it... If you break a capillary, you get a leak of whatever it is you're sensing... Think hot, high pressure oil sprayed into your interior... Not good... :shock: The fitting the gauges into the ashtray was a shed load of experimentation using 2 old gauges from my MKI golf and a load of polycarbonate that I got from work... I'm talking to a mate to see if he can make up a mold based on my template so that we can make up some ABS plastic ones that would match the dash perfectly and fit spot on... It may cost a bit though, so I don't know if it'll happen... :? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biggrim 0 Posted June 18, 2003 All my gauges are VDO ones except from my crappy TIM boost gauge which says turbo on it. Are the VDO ones electric or capillary to your knowledge? Must buy new boost gauge soon. Think my oil temp one is buggered. Either that or I have a very serious overheating problem. Any thoughts? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henny 0 Posted June 18, 2003 VDO do both Capillary and Electric gauges... Do I remember you having overheating problems before and mentioning that your MFA oil temp doesn't work 'cos of your extra gauge? If that was you, then it' deffo an electric one as they've used the original sender for the VDO oil temp gauge! Boost will be capillary driven, I've not yet found one that isn't. The TIM gauge isn't a bad one to be fair to it, they are a bit cheap and cheerful though... :? Pressure could be either, look behind the gauge and see if there's a thin plastic or copper/brass tube attached to the rear... That's the capillary tube... If there isn't then it's electric... :D (same applies to temp if my memory is as bad as normal! :roll: ) Your voltage one has to be electric! :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biggrim 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Twas me who had the temp probs before :x Was thinking of ditching the oil temp gauge for now and seeing what the mfa reading is although I have no idea how to do it. Could it possibly be the sender for the temp that is knackered causing faulty readings? Car was fine till radiator cooling fan switch gave up and since it got replaces I've had high readings. Only had it since feb and loving it :twisted: want to get to the bottom of this temperature thing though. it's not so bad now (the warning light has not beeped or flashed in a while) but the temps still read pretty high compared to the water temps. Starting to really get me :mad: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
