I'm looking at buying a boost, egt and oil pressure gauge set and since I just bought the car I can't spend mucho $$$ on these. I'm looking at prosports but they are a bit too ricey/bright as hell. The maddadds v1's look ok but they don't have any warning lights. Any others out there that give the best bang for the buck? I tried bidding on a set of omari gauges on ebay but was outbid:roll: I'll be putting these in an ati type pod so if there are any replicas of those I would like to know who makes them.
I'd take a set of Autometer gauges over MadDad gauges any day. You can easily get a set of three Autometer gauges for under 250.
^^ Yeah that. I've heard of people having nothing but problems with the maddad gauges. My buddy Chris went through two sets, I believe Greg at MTKA is on his 3rd set. No thanks.
yeah hot vs. accurate... I'll take accurate. Autometers are pretty dang indestructible, very accurate and cheap. they just don't look good in most japanese cars. But they cost a fraction of what other gauges do that are still overall less accurate.
Another thing to keep in mind, if you have nothing else done to your car, you could probably stand to wait on those gauges for now. There isn't much to monitor in the way of boost or EGT on a car that is Stage-2 and below. Especially in an STi, the Defi gauges look really nice and pretty much match the rest of your lightshow. They cost a bit more, but are very accurate. I know Autometer makes a gauge similar to the Defi with the lightshow and blackout and all that too, both are pretty spendy though. Your call, but I'd wait till you have the money to do it right rather than cheap out on it. And I'd wait till you actually need the gauges before even worrying about it. I found out later that I really had no use for the EGT or the Boost gauge till I actually had a setup beyond the Stage 2 mods.
I find a boost gauge very helpful for maximizing MPG on my stock TR. I also love the Maddad gauge series, I used the Subiegal dash pod, and it blends in like its factory. The perfectly matching green at night is awesome as well. Not sure if I'd drop the cash on 3 of them, but since I only planned on running a boost gauge it was a great fit.
Another good way of maximizing MPG is not putting the pedal down all the way. 50% throttle gets you where you gotta go, shifting at around 3500 also helps.
I love my autometer cobalts. Mechanical versions are around $60 a pop. Just don't trust a nylon line to carry fluids under your dash. I did and ended up with oil in areas I'd rather not discuss:ugh:
I thought putting the pedal to the floor every time just brought more air in, and saved fuel!! OMGz I was so wrong. I started trying to save fuel by driving low in the RPMs (2700-3000) like I'm used to with all my previous V8 cars. Then I got the boost gauge and was very surprised at how much boost was coming on because of all that load. I definitely learned how to drive more efficiently by keeping that needle buried in the vacuum and the RPMs up in the 3500 range for the shift.
If you are going to buy autometer's, go through summit or jegs. When they sell 200 oil pressure gauges a day, you are going to get a good price. if you are doing any kinda of openecu tuning, you will definitly want a egt and boost. It is almost to the point that a egt is more important than the boost gauge (since you can monitor boost off of the map sensor). I have been running my autometers since I got my car, and haven't had 1 problem (6 years now). Russ
I did the autometer carbons at first, they look decent but definetly modified. Too ricy for me, most defi's/prosport/maddad look way more oemish. I just got Defi Genome's and I friggin' love them. however, they are hard to find and if you have an sti get the Defi ambers. I ended up selling the autometers and lost a few bucks but in the end I wish I would have waited and just got the ultimo Defi's.
Yeah well, Defi's are about $1k when all is said and done. Too rich for me. I like the OEM look the Daddy's have, but it sucks they aren't as reliable. I would like something that flows with the rest of my interior. The autometer's don't look like they would match at all. Guess I'll just stay gauge less.
Im thinking the whole "maddad gauges are unreliable" think is bc they were rushed out the door (lots of pre-orders on nasioc and so on). I had a first run batch of the v2's and the boost gauge was borked. Rich took care of me right away (had a new gauge in 2 days then sent him the old one back... stepper motor was bad, not the gauge). Haven't had a problem with them since and the boost gauge reads what my accessport and ecuexplorer reads. Defi and omori were my other choices...
You should have bought the omoris on ebay, I was watching them and probably would have got them if i didn't have the genomes
i just put in an order for a full set of prosports last week, $290 for 5 gauges with senders and 2 cups for around $290 EGT, Electric A/F (To attach to my LC-1), Oil pres, Oil Temp and Water Temp. I'll give you guys a heads up on how they work when i get them.... i figure a basic idea on how the motor is running is better than blind faith.
I've got oil pressure, volts, and boost from Glow Shift (ebay). Cheap, look good, no problems so far.
Well I guess I'm looking for just a boost gauge now, until I pay my car off (haven't even made the first payment yet, heheh). So Whats the best bang for my buck (under$150) for a mechanical or electrical boost gauge with a warning light. I don't wanna over boost and make the motor go boom.
