I just purchased the black face gauge pod from wrxtra.com and will be putting an EGT, boost, and Oil Pressure gauge in the car. I will probably go with Autometer Sport Comps like the ones pictured. I got to thinking. I have nothing inside my car that would provoke someone to break in now. I have the stock radio etc. If I add gauges, should I be worried? I plan to get an accessport w/ catless up and downpipes at some point and I think these gauges would be nice to have but I love how I can park my car anywhere now. Opinions?
Is where you located and where you parked at night. I suggest a autopage alarm system with hight sensortive movement module.
the Geo (see posts RE: Project Speedy Geo) had a cheap 5" tach and shift light in it. a couple punk kids broke into it to steal teh tach and shift light (and broke a headlight and smashed the roof). some poeple are just ****ing stupid, mean and should be shot. but if they want something they will try to take it. imo you are fine w/ gauges. enough wrxs have them and ppl almost think they are stock. plus they are big and flashy like hose huge tachs that let you read the other guys rpms 2 lanes over.
That's a pretty stock looking setup i think if you park in a good place you shouldn't have to worry about it. Plus The Newer cars are more complex then Geo's and usually look like they have alarms even when they don't. Where's Your Air to Fuel gauge i think that just as important as those other one's.
I would't drive a car that doesn't have an alarm on it. Just personal preference. I come from DC. Once when I was growing up someone broke into out car because we left a newspaper in there, and they wanted to move the newspaper to check to see if we were hiding something under it.
If you're really worried about them you can make them removable. I used pop-rivets to hold the pod to the metal frame and then connected all the wires through weather-pak connectors so they were easy to remove. I didn't really do that for ease of removal though, mostly just because I liked having that one connector under the gauge pod. However all the gauges in the center pod I was building were electrical. If your boost is mechanical I don't know any sound way of disconnecting the vac line every time without fouling it over time. IIRC the same goes for the EGT, sometimes the sender wire doesn't allow for breaks in it.
I've had a stock gauge pod modified to fit 52mm gauges for nearly 3 years. The prospect of having them stolen has never once occurred to me. I guess it's possible but exceedingly unlikely.
I would figure that most of the time they wouldn't get stolen because the person stealing them most likely would have no clue what to do with them. They are gonna go for your stereo first then any other easy grabs. It would take a lot of work to pull out some gauges and still have them in functioning order.
Sounds like a pretty good "field test" to me. Thats good to hear. What gauges do you have? Are you using the wrxtra pod? I got mine for $70 so I couldn't pass it up. I also think its the only suitable option as the other pods out there get pretty tacky.
I got the pod pre-modified with accompanying CNC machined faceplate from a guy on NASIOC named Derres Catalano. I have no idea if he still offers them. The gauges are Greddy 52mm. If I were to speculate I would think gauges would be a PITA to steal. You have to pull the pod out (takes some yanking), disconnect (I guess cut in this scenario ) all wiring, etc. Decidedly substandard pics here:
If they rip your deck, then can just get a harness to plug it into their car. With gauges they would need the senders. Lets look at the average gauge cluster Boost Guage: If it is mechanical, well, then no big deal, rip it and go. All you need is the airline tube. If it is like mine, you will need the electronic sender in the engine compartment. Oil Pressure/Temp gauge: Either one of these things is going to be tough to find the sender. I believe the Oil temp sender goes in the drain plug, so you would have to pull the oil drain plug from under the car. Have fun stealing that. EGT Gauge: From what I have seen, all egt gauges come with their own proprietary probe. This is usualy tapped into the exhaust manifold...also located under the car. This gauge is USELESS without the probe. If you check Greddy's website, I believe the new probe is 80 bucks. That doesn't include the threaded mount, and the crush washer or the wire leading to the probe. You are looking at paying 100 dollars just to use the damn gauge. Stealing gauges is pointless. I doubt anyone would even bother. Even if they did, have insurance cover it and be done with it. You will get hte pleasure of knowing that some dumbass punk kid is sitting in his bedroom wondering what he is going to do with 3 gauges with no senders. Aside from ricerize his car by sticking them in an a-pillar pod but not wiring them up.
But yeah few of dumb pple don't know it, they come by and " WHOA that look cool, let's jack it" Rip it off and here we go. I GOT COOL GAUGES!!!
That's why they'd steal it without the senders. Come on, the gauges don't have to work if they're going into some punk kid's car who jacked them. The guy probably has two good "dubz" on his likely-Honda "project" which also happens to contain unpainted body kit parts. Maybe even a "shark fin" spoiler?
Gauge senders are available for cheap at www.egauges.com THE site for gauges btw. I am just a little gun shy since thieves ripped off my ****ty aiwa CD player out of my 325i. Smashing a window and tearing up a dash for $50 doesn't seem worth it to me. I think I am going to risk it though. I think the Autometer Sport Comps from my first post look pretty stockish for the WRX. I am intriqued by the GReddy gauges too. They look pretty good. Whats a good source for those? I just finished this cluster for my XR4Ti (which is garaged or carefully parked.) I am using an LC1 Wideband that outputs to the A/F gauge and a data logger.
Chux, we see a lot of that at the shop in Duluth now... they destroy entire dashboards AND the CD decks they are trying to steal. Then they just get mad break some other **** and leave the car in a total mess. Anyways your best bet is to get a nice 2-way alarm or atleast invest in a cheap old blinking LED mod to throw thieves off.
