Hey Club!

I know that there are plenty of install guides on gauges and whatnot. However, I haven't found any threads specifically comparing different gauges (brands, benefits, etc). Another thing of note, is that there aren't any specific guides for members who are N/A or F/I, explaining the benefits of gauges.
This is a good thread, started by member "TheWulf", but it kind of got buried: Gauges: What do I want and why do I want it?

EDIT: It was O'dark stupid in the morning when I wrote this, and I was a little unclear.
Things to include in the review:
-Make/model of gauge (and type- afr/oil press/etc)
-On a scale of 1-10:
- Aesthetics (does it look good/matching color/etc)
- Install ease/difficulty
- Accuracy
- Convenience (settings/ease of use)

It seems for most N/A applications, members are favoring:
-Oil Temp
-Oil Pressure
-Water Temp

The main reason for these are because of the overheating issues and oil consumption that is inherent with the RENESIS. There are no real oem gauges that monitor these on the dash (Oil pressure is a dud, and coolant temp only lets you know if your engine is at normal operating temp, or fubar'd- no real warning )
Are there any other gauges that one could use to monitor, under N/A applications?

Whereas most F/I applications are geared more to monitoring:
-AFR
-Boost

These are critical, as your engine relies on these. What other areas should be monitored, and why?
Any benefit to monitor fuel, EGT, etc?


I'll post a few relevant threads, which may apply. Furthermore, they can also assist other members in their decisions on which gauges to purchase, why, and where to mount them.

REVIEWS/INSTALLATION

Prosport Gauges Review and install (paimon.soror)
EDIT: this is a thread made by StealthTL, which references how to change colors via headlights

Glowshift Digital Gauge Install with review (alz0rz)

RB Gauge Pod + Nordskog (Jedi54)

GOODbox (pieter3d)


GAUGES
Prosport

PLX

Defi

GlowShift

AEM

The GOODbox (This is the old link to the GB. Forum member dondo sells these now. Reach him here mike(at)goodboxmotorsports(dot)com now)


GAUGE PODS
Lotek

Racing Beat

Dual Vent

RSW


This is meant to be a review based thread. Let's hear what you have and how well/terrible it works. If you can, post links of the products used, and other relevant info, which could help other members decide what brand to go with, or what kind of gauge they're looking for. If you have a bad review, post that as well!

-RX8Soldier

 

Been using my prosport for a little more than a year now, no issues to speak of.

edit:

-Make/model of gauge : Prosport Water Temp, Oil Temp, Oil Press (Halo Series on all)
-On a scale of 1-10:
- Aesthetics (does it look good/matching color/etc) : 10, love the choice of colors, and they match the ambiance of the car well
- Install ease/difficulty, 8, Install on an S2 was a bit of a task since we cannot properly use an adapter, threads to the oil pressure sender had some gunk on them that made it hard to install on the S2 service port
- Accuracy : N/A , Cannot comment on this with any proof... I do however know that the water temp closely resembles the data on the OBD2 bus
- Convenience (settings/ease of use): 8, Uses an external dongle to see peak, set alarms, change color, etc. If you do not have the dongle installed the Peak warning light continuously blinks.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Paimon.
I realized that I forgot to add stuff into my OP. Would you mind answering the new BOLD RED part?

 

Good idea. Though you might get more responses in the general discussion or tech section. Maybe make the same thread in all 3 forums, then after a couple weeks, have a mod combine them all and sticky it somewhere? OR keep this here for a couple weeks, then have a mod move it to the tech garage for a couple weeks, then move it again to the general section? Just some ideas to get more responses. After all, a topic like this is worthless without a ton of user input.

 

^I was thinking that, but then realized that the most responsive users of this forum use either iSpy, or just refresh "new posts" anyways lol.
However, I guess we'll see in the coming weeks how many reviews we get

Thanks!

This thread could even be a link in the sticky you created, if it get's enough attention

 

this is a great thread, i was looking into prosport gauges with the 3pod dash panel. I kind of stopped my search for some reason and forgot about it till just now. I have a question though that maybe someone could respond to?

the 3 pod dash panel, it doesnt have a opening for the bose speaker, so would i get a muffled sound from that location?

Also to contribute to the thread, ive seen a few dissatisfied costumers with prosport with inaccurate gauges, but prosport eventually replaced them, they have great costumer service from what ive heard.

 

The 3 pod is usually the lotek pod, (some people chose other routes).
The Lotek pod does not cover the center speaker


EDIT: My computer is working slow right now. Waiting for a picture to upload. Will edit again when it's ready...

EDIT 2: Pic added. Here is how the lotek pod looks from above, allowing the Bose speaker to remain exposed.

 

I went a little different route as I wanted to have digital gauges, I can read them faster and analog gauges annoy me for some reason.

The things that I really liked about these gauges are that they are auto dimming, so they adjust accordingly. I can still see them very clearly even when the faces are in direct sunlight, and at night they're not blinding you. They also come with different gauge faces and different bezels. White and black gauge faces and silver and piano black bezels, so you can do up to four different combinations, I ended up going with black on black because it blended the best with the rest of the interior.

So here's the required info:
Gauges: AEM Oil Pressure, Water Temp, Oil Temp.

Links:
http://www.aemelectronics.com/water-...e-100-300f-763
http://www.aemelectronics.com/oil-te...e-100-300f-762
http://www.aemelectronics.com/oil-pr...to-100-psi-760

Gauge Pod: Lotek Three Pod Dash

-On a scale of 1-10:
- Aesthetics: 10. The reason I gave it a 10 is because you can customize them to match just about any light or dark interior. They look sharp and the LED's match inside the car great since everything is red already.
- Install ease/difficulty: 9. The gauges were easy to install and came with a lot of fittings and adapters for the senders to fit almost everyone's needs. The only problem I ran into was that I had to dremel out the edge of two of the gauge pod holes because the edge of the bezel bumped into them, the bezels are rather large.
- Accuracy 10. I'm not sure as to actual accuracy but water temp is dead on with my Accessport and all the gauges respond to changes very quickly.
- Convenience (settings/ease of use) 10. Can't get any more convenient then install them and let them sit. There's nothing extra to toy with.

My only complaint is that for the price they don't do peak/warn and stuff like that but oh well.

Also here's a picture:

 

I use the Good Box (usually Boost and AFR, but you can switch between 6 options), and Prosport premium 52mm gauges in the dual vent pod and the Lotek center stack.

Fuel pressure and Oil temp are the two most important IMO and then a good water temp gauge thru the Good Box or Scangauge II, etc. I love my Good Box. Oil pressure doesn't tell you much and if you do have a problem with oil pressure it will probably be too late to do anything about it by the time you realize it. Fuel pressure can tell you a few things and potentially warn you about a problem before it becomes catastrophic. And of course you want gauges with warnings.

For now I am running fuel pressure and oil pressure in the dual, Boost and AFR on the goodbox (plus four other reading I can switch too), and oil pressure, AFR, and EGT's on the Lotek. I still need to install the AFR (plx) and EGT gauge in the Lotek , but that will be a bit as I am awaiting on my turbo to come back from Turblown to finish up.

My Prosport gauges have held up fine and seem to be pretty accurate when compared to other gauges I tried (auber oil temp and autometer oil temp). If you want to spend the money then DEFi link is the way to go. My only suggestion is to think ahead. I actually do not like a lot of gauges but with forced induction you want to keep and eye on everything.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/4896788462/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5485877970/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/6489928831/
Oh, and I use the Pro Clip mount for my Cobb and my old 60mm single pod.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5495790850/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5481062188/

 

^Thanks arca and 9k. OP updated with info

 

Absolutely.

 

I've just bought 3 Depo Racing gauges. Oil temp and pressure and also water temp.

Here is a video of them in a friends car. As soon as i install mine i'll write up a review.

 

They look exactly like Prosport gauges...............

 

I did the drivers side vent dual gauge pod and Racing Beat Ashtray 3 way pod.

I'm FI and have Wideband O2 and Fuel pressure on the dual pod and I have Boost, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temperature on the racing beat pod.

I went with Auto Meter Cobalt gauges. Will post some pictures and a little more commentary later tonight once I'm home and settled.

I also recently converted my Windows 7 carpc to a carlet (Android tablet). You can read about here: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/my-new-carpc-project-honeycomb-here-i-come-225539/

Here are some daylight shots of the vent pod:





While not necessarily a gauge, I wired up a USB plug into the aux power panel in the center console. For a while this was how i was connecting my Access Port to the carpc. I've since converted the plug to deliver 5v power (usb charging) only. You can also get an idea for how old this picture is... that's a Motorola Razor V3 sitting next to the AP.



And last but not least are some more recent night shots of the two pods and carlet.

 

^Sounds good!

Once I get settled into my new place, I'm going to clean up the OP and have a link to all diy's and other related threads.

If anyone has any ISSUES with a brand or specific gauge, feel free to post it, as well! It would be good to have a list of "DO's" and "DO NOT's" for selecting the appropriate gauges

 

IFIRC, the vent pod is the defrost vent, ive always been curious how well defrosting works after the vent gauge pod.

anyone care to chime in?

 

I live in San Antonio, Texas I wouldn't know

 

I've noticed no change in window defrost performance... and that's with the 1/2" hole I drilled in the bottom of the vent to stealth route my wires.

 

when i first got my 8 i did something really retarded. On my previous jeep the defrost automatically turned on the power to the unit.

So my windshield started fogging up and i turned on defrost but it got worse and worse, i drove 3 blocks to go home and had to drive with my head out my window.

right before i shut it off, i cursed at it and then realized i had to power it on i can be massively retarded at times.

taking into account what 9k said, is it better to have water temp, oil temp and oil pressure? or to replace one of them with fuel pressure? (for a NA setup)

 

I updated my original post with a bunch of goodies:

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...7&postcount=14

 

I didn't see this!

@ 9k, I agree that the fuel pressure and oil temp are very important. I've been tossing between oil pressure and water temp. Water temp being added to the list.
Thanks for the review and tip!

@ ShellDude, how are those Cobalt gauges, as far as accuracy goes? Are they simple to use?
In the OP, I have added a few questions that would help with the review of the product. If you could answer those, it would be appreciated

 

I love my cobalt gauges. All are electric/digital with the exception of the boost gauge.

-Make/model of gauge (and type- afr/oil press/etc)

Autometer Cobalt series

Mechanical Boost
Digital Oil Temp
Digital Oil Press
Digital Fuel Press
Digital Wideband O2

Dell Streak 7 4G

Honeycomb 3.2
Grom USB/BT module for wireless audio and steering controls integration
Parmer Dashcommand for Android
Generic ELM Bluetooth OBD2 adapter

Cobra iRadar (not shown)

Bluetooth integration to Streak for Radar detection
At some point I'll stealth mount it near one of my fog lights


-On a scale of 1-10:
- Aesthetics (does it look good/matching color/etc)

Cobalt gauges have a natural light color that matches the dash gauges fairly well during the day. At night their blue glow does contrast the stock red glow but I wouldn't call it unattractive.

The Streak is mounted with the JDM retractable NAV tray and a custom mold attachment I picked up off of ebay before the Streak product line met its demise within the Dell product line. It looks beyond sexy and folds up nicely for storage with the JDM tray.

- Install ease/difficulty

Racing Beat ashtray pod (when ordered without gauges) requires some finesse. I had to fashion my bracket for mounting the gauges. RB did not offer their bracket stand-alone when I got mine but after talking with them they indicated this was something they'd look into -- it's been a couple years, not sure if it ever materialized.

Blockhead's Drivers Side Dual Vent pod required some plumbing and basic drilling for stealth install. Fishing the wires down through the vent proved to not be too challenging.

Fuel Pressure setup is a biatch -- I insisted on a plug and play setup and had to procure T adapter and quick connect/disconnects.

- Accuracy

Yes - not sure how else to answer this. The gauges either report accurately or they don't.

Oil Pressure -- runs the whole spectrum on our car. I will idle as low as 12-13 psi and under heavy load push well in excess of 60 psi. This is the most active gauge I have.

One callout regarding my Wideband, mine is currently fouled due to some excessive fuel and oil dumping due to blowing out the main seal on my turbo and some rich fuel mixtures. I've yet to pull it to see if I can unfoul it with something like sea foam. The alternative is a replacement sensor which is gonna run me probably $150-$200

- Convenience (settings/ease of use)

None of my gauges have alarms but this hasn't presented a problem necessarily for me. I watch them periodically.

You can imagine the convenience of having a (integrated) 3G enabled tablet at your fingertips.

 

Question on an Auto Meter Oil Pressure Gauge Sender and the OEM 8's Sender thread on the housing, are they the same ?

 

subbed ... awesome set-ups ... will post mine soon

 

Is there not a company that makes a gauge that goes from white to red when u turn on the lights?