When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I'm about to get my silver R2 back on the road and it's going to be a completely different car. I'm very excited to get it back and I'm wanting to make sure I take care of one essential thing I surprisingly overlooked during my heavily planned build.....water temp monitoring. For this build, I'm forgoing the Apexi PFC for a newer Link ECU. That being said, I will not have a commander giving me a digital readout of my water temps anymore; sad day.
Thus, I need a clever solution to perform the following functions...
Display accurate water temps digitally.
Mounting must not destroy the look of the interior. OEM look is a must.
Working via direct integration with the Link ECU is a huge plus but not a requirement.
Extra: If it could somehow be programmed to change color when I exceed a certain temp threshold that would be splendid.
So what solutions have y'all seen or implemented that meet that criteria? I'm curious what people are using these days.
I have a boost gauge and water temp gauge in a dual pod where the center speaker goes. It's really clean looking and works great.
You could also modify the stock water temp gauge to de-linearize it, there's some write-ups on how to do it. It won't give you exact numbers but it will give you a visual if the car is running hot or not. It's also as OEM looking as it gets.
That said I can't think of anything that would show a digital number and look "OEM". You'll have to compromise to some extent.
I have a boost gauge and water temp gauge in a dual pod where the center speaker goes. It's really clean looking and works great.
You could also modify the stock water temp gauge to de-linearize it, there's some write-ups on how to do it. It won't give you exact numbers but it will give you a visual if the car is running hot or not. It's also as OEM looking as it gets.
That said I can't think of anything that would show a digital number and look "OEM". You'll have to compromise to some extent.
Dale
Dale, thanks for the response. I agree that digital and OEM are on two opposite sides of the spectrum in a sense. When I said OEM I was meaning the mounting location needs to look integrated. I don't want anything on the A-pillar or drilled into the dash where the AC controls are located.
Which center speaker gauge hood do you have? The few I've seen look like periscopes and didn't seem that appealing. I had a steering column mounted boost gauge in my last FD and I may go back to that type of setup if I can't find something worthy.
Also, I'm aware of the de-linearization ideas. When that's completed successfully, how accurate is it? Worth doing? Kinda have the life of my FD riding on that gauge and wasn't sure how good those mods turned out. I like digital for the sole reason that I know within a tenth of a degree exactly how hot the engine is (at that sensor's particular location).
I also have gauges in a center speaker pod, I don't mind the look but my car is pretty heavily modified. All of those pods really look the same. Hard to mount any gauges in view that wont look out of place or involve cutting, unless you go custom cluster.
I agree with your aesthetics taste, it's hard to change the OEM dash without making it look ugly. About 10 years ago I built a digital temperature display for an instrumentation class, it sits just in front of the warning lights, with a tinted plastic lens so it blends in reasonably well. It uses the sensor from the OEM gauge, the one located in the rear iron. I've thought about improving the code, but the original has worked well enough for my purposes that I left it alone. What's ironic is that rear iron temperature sensor responds very quickly, it will detect changes before the one in the thermostat housing. It's visible in this video, starting temperature was 45 degrees.
I have a Defi 'D' Series gauge in a single 'A' Pillar pod (I'm short(er) and prefer not to have the speaker pod). It sits low and doesn't obstruct. Those old 'D' Series gauges are accurate and match the OEM dash gauges in both font, color and even back-lighting at night really well. No alarm though.
For sensor location I eliminated the AWS years ago but still use the throttle-body coolant line...just looped it from the rear iron under the UIM with some quality hose. Readings as soon as the engine begins to warm-up (no waiting for the t-stat to open), always corresponded to my PFC and were actually a slightly more responsive. Been there over 10 years.
I agree with your aesthetics taste, it's hard to change the OEM dash without making it look ugly. About 10 years ago I built a digital temperature display for an instrumentation class, it sits just in front of the warning lights, with a tinted plastic lens so it blends in reasonably well. It uses the sensor from the OEM gauge, the one located in the rear iron. I've thought about improving the code, but the original has worked well enough for my purposes that I left it alone. What's ironic is that rear iron temperature sensor responds very quickly, it will detect changes before the one in the thermostat housing. It's visible in this video, starting temperature was 45 degrees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87QohAUwQgQ
It would take months, but I can probably build another if you'd like to try it.
Very slick. I like that a lot. Your vid also makes me consider just pulling the water temp gauge entirely (since it's worthless) and replacing it with newer gauge that functions.
What size AEM gauge is that?
Last edited by ItalynStylion; Nov 6, 2019 at 07:40 AM.
I have my AFR500 gauge in the R1 din pocket. It’s nice because if I don’t want to see it I can just flip up the door. I’m sure you could do the same with a water temp gauge.
I have my AFR500 gauge in the R1 din pocket. It’s nice because if I don’t want to see it I can just flip up the door. I’m sure you could do the same with a water temp gauge.
take a page from the current Mazda playbook, the newer Mazda's do not have a gauge anymore, they have a blue light when the car is cold, and then it goes out when the car is warm, and when it gets hot, the light turns red
it works great, and instead of watching a gauge all the time, you can actually drive the car. plus it takes up less room
I’m looking for something similar for my low mile R1, I’m leaning towards a SPA dual display gauge in the steering column pod, so I can see boost and water temp in one gauge.
The gauge is 52mm , AEM part number 30-5130. I removed the bezel and lens so the height would line up. I also needed to trim the side of the gauge cup for clearance. I think I got the idea of putting aftermarket gauges inside the stock dash from MaxCooper or one of the other OG's from this forum and/or the old mailing lists.
I think I agree with the sentiment from j9fd3s, now that I have a newer ECU with lean protection I hardly look at the wideband gauge anymore. I just trust that the ECU is keeping track and will cut fuel if it's too lean for more than 0.5 seconds or whatever I set the timeout value. I like to see coolant temperature to double-check if the fans are bringing the engine temperature down when they run, but I'm certainly not paying that much attention when doing laps at the track. It might be enough to just have a 'blue=cold / red=hot' dummy light, you could do tricks like set the light to be solid when temps are 'slightly too hot' and flashing to get your attention when the temperature is dangerously hot. Similarly, the ECU can trigger a rev limiter when the coolant temperature gets hot. I think Link ECU should have similar capabilities, I've heard good things about them.
Last edited by scotty305; Nov 7, 2019 at 12:22 AM.
That's kinda what I'm after really. Something that's accurate but fades into the background unless **** gets real and needs attention. Then I want an alarm of some sort.
To be honest, the more I look at it, the SpeedHut gauge retrofit seems like a big winner here. It would certainly be a lot of work but it would solve two problems for me water temp + alarm. I'd always thought about doing the retrofit for ALL the gauges since my odometer only works on occasion but maybe I'll just get that part fixed, add the water temp gauge, and call it a day. My suspicion though, is that once I get the cluster out I'll want to do it once and do it right.
If you really want the OEM look, you're going to have to rely on the stock gauge in there. Linearizing it is an option, but even if you don't, it still moves when it's warming up and when it's getting too hot. It's not that bad, and is functionally the same as an idiot light on new Mazda's and German cars. You can still read actual exact coolant temperature by hooking up a laptop.
Since you already have a Link ECU, there are at least a few CAN bus gauge options out there that will work. Making it look OEM is the hard part, but I think Dale's suggestion of the center speaker gauge hood is a decent one - I've seen those on a few FDs, and it looks OEM enough for my tastes when done right.
I've got one of these BTI gauges in my FC build, which is running on an AEM Infinity. BTI also supports Link ECU integration, but I don't know all the details...
After purchasing my BTI gauge, I found these GaugeArt gauges, which have a better feature set and more more user-programmable features than the BTI gauges:
They also offer Link integration. Besides the gauge product, GaugeArt also produces a CAN bus to video display box - From what I read, the gist of it is you can display your virtual gauges on a VGA or HDMI video display, such as a high end double-DIN head unit. If you already have a double-DIN head unit that has video inputs, you might want to look into the details on that one.
BTW, both of these gauges have set point warnings that can flash a bright light or otherwise make the display get your attention if one of your programmed set points is breached.
Since you already have a Link ECU, there are at least a few CAN bus gauge options out there that will work. Making it look OEM is the hard part, but I think Dale's suggestion of the center speaker gauge hood is a decent one - I've seen those on a few FDs, and it looks OEM enough for my tastes when done right.
I've got one of these BTI gauges in my FC build, which is running on an AEM Infinity. BTI also supports Link ECU integration, but I don't know all the details...
After purchasing my BTI gauge, I found these GaugeArt gauges, which have a better feature set and more more user-programmable features than the BTI gauges:
They also offer Link integration. Besides the gauge product, GaugeArt also produces a CAN bus to video display box - From what I read, the gist of it is you can display your virtual gauges on a VGA or HDMI video display, such as a high end double-DIN head unit. If you already have a double-DIN head unit that has video inputs, you might want to look into the details on that one.
BTW, both of these gauges have set point warnings that can flash a bright light or otherwise make the display get your attention if one of your programmed set points is breached.
Very cool. I like how gaugeart even offers the bare board so you could integrate it into a panel. Maybe some options with that could be cool.
PLX multi link adaptor. you can get the SM pro. check PLX details but in short you get a sensor box that hooks up to a bluetooth adaptor. you can then use the
pix app on your phone to see all the sensors. I will shoot a pick later of how mine is
I agree with your aesthetics taste, it's hard to change the OEM dash without making it look ugly. About 10 years ago I built a digital temperature display for an instrumentation class, it sits just in front of the warning lights, with a tinted plastic lens so it blends in reasonably well. It uses the sensor from the OEM gauge, the one located in the rear iron. I've thought about improving the code, but the original has worked well enough for my purposes that I left it alone. What's ironic is that rear iron temperature sensor responds very quickly, it will detect changes before the one in the thermostat housing. It's visible in this video, starting temperature was 45 degrees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87QohAUwQgQ
It would take months, but I can probably build another if you'd like to try it.
How much would you charge to build one? I’m very interested. Its such a clean look!👏👏
PLX multi link adaptor. you can get the SM pro. check PLX details but in short you get a sensor box that hooks up to a bluetooth adaptor. you can then use the
pix app on your phone to see all the sensors. I will shoot a pick later of how mine is
The phone app is nice, only down side on PLX is each input require a little control box, which you also need to find room to mount.
Water Temp Monitoring: Need a smart solution
