Pod gauges!

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Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

Hi all,

So I am looking into pod gauges as I think it'll be good to have some more accurate data when driving. My question is, what is the best combo for 2 gauges? As well as what do you need to wire them into the car? I've had a quick look on the forum bit have probably missed loads of info, so any help would be appreciated! I am looking at getting a vent holder which holds 2 gauges btw.

Cheers,

Joe

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by goodeggbob »

hello Joe, in my opinion ,oil pressure is a must,followed by coolant temp if you only want 2 gauges. There are a number of ways to pick up oil pressure readings, i went for a sandwich plate under the oil filter which can either be electrically or mechanically sent,but i am sure others will be along with more knowledge shortly. For my own use,i am just happy to see oil pressure in some form,and am not to bothered about the accuracy of the readings,your needs may differ however,good luck,rob.
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Jeags (Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:34 pm)
Rob :thumright:
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Ryan Rotary Performance »

Just gone into production; will be finished in Gloss Black and priced at £99.99 plus P&P

Will fit into the Ashtray:
Gauge-Pod_V3 v7.png
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

They do look ace, however I have a parrot system installed in the ash tray

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by warpc0il »

I'm going to be really controversial here...

Let's pretend that you've now fitted your gauges and the needles are moving around in the appropriate manner.

What are you going to do with the information?

Let's also assume that you're not going to post yet another "Is this normal?" thread, as you already have some idea what normal looks like, and go back to the original question.

99.999% of the time the gauges are going to do something that appears to be correct.

On a rare occasion they might show something different, higher or lower than you might have expected.
Unless the gauges have alarms, it's unlikely they you will notice the difference, unless there's already some other symptom that causes you to look at the gauges.

Let's say you do notice that the oil pressure gauge is reading lower than usual.
It's still reading something, otherwise the oem oil pressure warning light would be on.
What do you do about it?

It's different if the car is highly modified, particularly with FI, or you're in the habit of pushing for that extra lap in open pitlane trackday sessions, as that information could make the difference between it just costing £££s rather than ££££s to put right.

This is no criticism of you or your mechanical sympathy, just a question that I ask myself, every time I think about fitting supplementary gauges to my car; and the honest answer is why I never bothered.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by New Duke »

I'd say oil temp is a must. Then you actually know when the oil is up to temp and you can safely start revving high. Otherwise you're just guessing as the engine temp dial on the dashboard is just coolant heat.

That's an example of a gauge that can actually be useful every time you drive.

I really wish I could have an oil temp gauge in the R3. If I could only have two it would be oil temp and battery voltage.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by goodeggbob »

Even if you had the cheapest gauges out there as i have,any sudden difference in what the pressure gauge in particular says would make me want to at least pull over and check. i will admit however that to much info can also be bad,as on the way to a meet recently,my cheap gauge did plummet to zero even though the oem gauge was normal,of course i pulled over,only to find the electrical connection under the bonnet had come adrift which was easily sorted, what did surprise me was how vulnerable i felt without it,especially as all my previous 70's 80's cars had proper mechanical gauges,which were always a good indicator of big end condition.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by qwakers »

warpc0il wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:55 pm
I'm going to be really controversial here...

Let's pretend that you've now fitted your gauges and the needles are moving around in the appropriate manner.

What are you going to do with the information?

Let's also assume that you're not going to post yet another "Is this normal?" thread, as you already have some idea what normal looks like, and go back to the original question.

99.999% of the time the gauges are going to do something that appears to be correct.

On a rare occasion they might show something different, higher or lower than you might have expected.
Unless the gauges have alarms, it's unlikely they you will notice the difference, unless there's already some other symptom that causes you to look at the gauges.

Let's say you do notice that the oil pressure gauge is reading lower than usual.
It's still reading something, otherwise the oem oil pressure warning light would be on.
What do you do about it?

It's different if the car is highly modified, particularly with FI, or you're in the habit of pushing for that extra lap in open pitlane trackday sessions, as that information could make the difference between it just costing £££s rather than ££££s to put right.

This is no criticism of you or your mechanical sympathy, just a question that I ask myself, every time I think about fitting supplementary gauges to my car; and the honest answer is why I never bothered.
gauges would have saved my 1000 mile old engine..
specifically, a oil temperature gauge would have, as all the cars oem gauges where reading normal (including water temp) when the oil was hot enough to warp the housings and melt the sump...

nuff said.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by warpc0il »

[Devil's Advocate Mode]

So, in the absence of any other symptoms, if you'd had an oil temp gauge and the reading had climbed, you would have pulled over, shut down the engine and had the car recovered?

I'm not sure that I would.

[/DAM]
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by qwakers »

yeah. id have pulled over and investigated, found the damaged coolant hose and lack of coolant in the header tank, and called for a tow. doing otherwise would be foolish.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

warpc0il wrote:I'm going to be really controversial here...

Let's pretend that you've now fitted your gauges and the needles are moving around in the appropriate manner.

What are you going to do with the information?

Let's also assume that you're not going to post yet another "Is this normal?" thread, as you already have some idea what normal looks like, and go back to the original question.

99.999% of the time the gauges are going to do something that appears to be correct.

On a rare occasion they might show something different, higher or lower than you might have expected.
Unless the gauges have alarms, it's unlikely they you will notice the difference, unless there's already some other symptom that causes you to look at the gauges.

Let's say you do notice that the oil pressure gauge is reading lower than usual.
It's still reading something, otherwise the oem oil pressure warning light would be on.
What do you do about it?

It's different if the car is highly modified, particularly with FI, or you're in the habit of pushing for that extra lap in open pitlane trackday sessions, as that information could make the difference between it just costing £££s rather than ££££s to put right.

This is no criticism of you or your mechanical sympathy, just a question that I ask myself, every time I think about fitting supplementary gauges to my car; and the honest answer is why I never bothered.
I get what you mean. Just a bit cautious after my previous engine failure in the other car. Was thinking if I saw a spike in pressure or temp, I could have acted quicker?

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by New Duke »

qwakers wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:22 pm
yeah. id have pulled over and investigated, found the damaged coolant hose and lack of coolant in the header tank, and called for a tow. doing otherwise would be foolish.
That sucks. I remember you posting about that. How come the coolant warning light on the dash didn't come on? Mine has the couple of times that it's dropped just below the Low level in the header tank.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by qwakers »

like most of them, it didn't work, which i knew, and the general advice being just check it every time you drive it. which is fine, unless it decides to dump it.....

it works now.....
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by New Duke »

Ahhh. Must have been a massive pain. That's the result I fear whenever folks advise people with the busted sensor to just ignore it. Fills me with dread for the inevitable.

Glad you're all sorted :thumleft:
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Pod gauges!

Post by GreySilver Beast »

My gauges have got Alarms on them, so plenty of warning if there is anything untoward to worry about =D> =D> =D> =D>

JDM Stepper Motor Warning Series Gauges

Triple Gauge Panel -1.jpg
Triple Gauge Panel -2.jpg
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Triple Gauge Pod -2.jpg
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

Jesus, plenty of Info there!

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

So, if I lean towards oil pressure and temperature, will I just need an oil filter sandwich plate? If that's the case, then will any do or is there any advantage of having a more expensive one? Cheers.

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by qwakers »

i like the prosport gauges mostly becuase they have settable alarms. yes with those two gauges you just need to add a sandwich plate, and they all seem to be pretty similar. the prosport gauges also come with a mounting solution, that i didnt like. but its there if you want to use just two (most gauge pods come as multiples of 3)
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by New Duke »

I've missed sitting in your car while you manhandle the steering wheel Nigel! :crybaby:

XOXO
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by geofftl1000r »

Until I get around to putting a display in the oem satnav cowl it is being used as a temporary gauge pod. Only the oil temp. And pressure are currently working.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Shagrington »

I have oil temp and oil pressure in my pod gauges. The sensor on my oil pressure gauge has been broken for a long time (must get that fixed) but the oil temp was always the more useful one for me for the exact reason New Duke gave. I do have a coolant temp gauge included in my HKS Camp2 system, so didn't need a separate gauge for that, if I didn't have that I would really want a separate gauge. It is very interesting to see just how much longer the oil takes to get up to temperature than the coolant takes.

If I was limited to just 2 gauges the coolant and oil temp gauges would be my choice.
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by 350matt »

I can can see Warpcoil's point as this is the reason you don't find accurate gauges in a modern car and a friend of mine calls them 'worry gauges'
however I like accurate information about my engine so I can make informed decisions
so I've fitted oil pressure and oil temp to mine plus an OBD gauge so I can see coolant temp, IAT, batt voltage etc etc

when my thermostat failed, knowing the exact coolant temp was invaluable to getting the car home

as to where to tap into the oil system, I modified an oil cooler banjo bolt so I could read oil exit temp and then for oil pressure tapped into the oil gallery to replace the oil pressure switch and moved this switch to a slightly remote location via a braided hose ( inner wing) along with the gauge sender unit
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by Jeags »

Right, providing there isn't much difference in the accuracy of the gauges, I was looking at something like this for a gauge:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203063227100

As well as this sandwich plate:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383689805357

My only confusion revolves around fitting the censor. I understand that the censor threads into the plate on the oil filter adapter, but on the gauge above, you don't seem to get any way to link the gauge to the oil pressure sender?

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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by warpc0il »

qwakers wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:38 pm
like most of them, it didn't work, which i knew, and the general advice being just check it every time you drive it. which is fine, unless it decides to dump it.....

it works now.....
Okay, when I asked the question I was assuming that all the oem monitoring systems were working, so that would have been your first indication that something was wrong.

This reminds me that I really do need to get my replacement header tank fitted, as my :coolant: has become a "We've been driving a bit hard for a while now" indicator which comes on down some of my favourite roads (but never with Pauline in the car :? ) and goes off again when I get to the boring bits. [-X
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Re: Pod gauges!

Post by warpc0il »

Jeags wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:50 am
Right, providing there isn't much difference in the accuracy of the gauges, I was looking at something like this for a gauge:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203063227100

As well as this sandwich plate:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383689805357

My only confusion revolves around fitting the censor. I understand that the censor threads into the plate on the oil filter adapter, but on the gauge above, you don't seem to get any way to link the gauge to the oil pressure sender?
That gauge works by running an oil line to the gauge, which it the old school method but requires the line to run through the bunkhead, potentially creating a higher risk of failure that you're trying to prevent and making it tricky to fit.

Modern gauges use a remote sensor (pressure transducer) that's fitted closer to the engine and the gauge is just the indicator.

I'm not a great lover of sandwich plates* and prefer 350matt's method of T'ing into the original oil pressure switch port to fit the sensor, either directly or via a short hose.
Spoiler:
*Strange choice of words there, as I do love sandwiches, on a plate :D
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