just bought an idot light triple gauge pod from ian99rt.

Now its time to reopen the age old discussion of gauges.

I want amber gauges to match the stock lighting. I've researched and have come up with either Prosport or STRI DSD Gauges. Any other gauges i should look into that are affordable? if not, which brand should i get Prosport or STRI DSD?

-Sean

 

old HKS on ebay is perfect.

 

make sure you get senders or adapters with used gauges, I got some blitz ones and gave up trying to get them to work

I run autometer oil and water, and blitz boost, I bought all of them new

 

Greddy v2 match, they are recently discontinued and a few of them are pretty cheap. On Greddy's site you can get the oil pressure gauge for $80. The other gauges aren't nearly as cheap. I've got the boost gauge and the lighting is about identical.

I've also got some Prosports that I don't like as much.

I've got enough gauge pods and din adapters to run 6 aftermarket gauges. I've got one single A-pillar pod, one double A-pillar pod and then a 3 gauge din adapter.

I've got a greddy boost, and prosport water and oil temp gauges. Once the rebuild is done I was going to add an oil pressure gauge. Now I'm leaning towards loosing the oil temp gauge and only have an oil pressure gauge. Using the 3 A-pillar pods only and loosing the din adapter. I don't like the din location cause it takes too much effort to read the gauges. They sit low enough that the angle of line of sight doesn't allow you to see the full sweep of the gauge. I've also considered making an adapter for the din slots and moving the headunit to the bottom and the gauges to the top. But my car is mostly stock and 6 gauges is really overkill.

 

I have a couple prosport gauges including boost. They're pretty good for the price, but they are still cheap gauges. I keep them white during the day so I can see them they they turn amber with the running lights and match very nicely.

While prosport is not the fanciest, most expensive, or the most accurate (though good), their customer service is really good, which is really hard to say about a lot of companies nowadays.

 

^^Completely agreed. I have a electric prosport water temp gauge and for the price it works pretty damn good. 15k miles of usage and no problems yet.

 

I had some old school HKS they matched great, but now I have all Autometer gauges.

 

I run prosports as well. Boost/oil press/water temp/volt. They all work perfect and match very well. I get compliments on them all the time. I also have them in ian99 pod.

 

I have a defi blue racer boost gauge, and plx wideband, in a pillar gauge pod. Greddy profec under the stereo. Soon to get defi temp, oil pressure, and egt, in a gauge pod at the warning cluster.

The defi racer gauges are awesome.

 

im leaning towards prosport because i just cant justify spending $400 on a stock car. I just need something better than stock gauges. I will be buying oil pressure, boost, and water temp. it looks like the only difference between the "premium" and base model gauges are an added warning light. so i will order base model, boost and oil pressure. The water temp will be "premium". I will also be wiring in an apexi safc (freebee i have lying around), and apexi auto turbo timer (need to order)

for future reference what temperature is the start of overheating? that way i can set that warning light.

 

prosport here in my last three cars...never had any problems!!

 

i use an old HKS meter for boost and the NTK wideband. what other gauges do you need?

 

ditch the turbo timer, not needed.

 

note taken, i didnt want to buy more crap anyways. haha but just to be sure, why not?

also does the safc require a wideband o2 sensor? if so how will that affect the stock computer? i dont know what the difference between wideband and narrowband...

 

might recommend getting the premium boost gauge. I did and set it to warn me if my boost creeps too close to fuel cut, and I also like to use the peak feature a bunch with boost. IMO, premium is not needed for water temp, you'll notice your temps going up (or you should) before it's warn feature goes off.

 

I like the Autometer Cobalt series of gauges (see attached images). They give off a soft glow light that I like. (The night-time image is the of the same gauges in my RX-8.)

 

if someone wants these gauges for $75.
If you drill and tap or find adaptors they will work great.
They are mechanical but you can see they have nice hard tubing for the oil pressure and coolant does not flow through the temp , just heat.

 

I have a STRI DSD-SLM boost gauge which I really like. The amber color matches the dash really well and the black out feature when it is off is really cool. In the future I'll be adding the same series of water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure. The only complaint I have is that in bright sun, it's kinda hard to read the gauge at certain angles.

I'd suggest adding a wideband A/F as well. Along with my boost gauge I have an AEM UEGO. Your car might be stockish now, but as soon as you start changing things you'll really want to know what your fuel situation looks like. I ran my car with bolt-ons but no tuning for a while and the UEGO probably saved the engine a number of times.

One last thought. Regardless of the brand, get a quality gauge with all the features you want the first time. The last thing you want is to get a lesser gauge now because it's cheap and only have to buy a replacement down the road because the cheaper gauges can't keep up with your modifications. Do it right the first time and be done with it.

 

Old School HKS for reference: top gauge