As far as places to stash gauges go, I’ve seen the steering column single mounts, dual/triple/quad center speaker mounts, some home-made stereo cubby slot mounts, and single/double/triple a-pillar mounts. Really, I don’t want to install any additional gauges in my interior, but I think having boost and water temp gauges is probably a smart move. I personally feel like the dual 52mm a-pillar applied with double-sided tape is the least intrusive to overall look & feel of the interior. However, it seems like a lot of people see a-pillar gauges as rice-y. And I know people will say “do whatever you like,” which is great advice, but at the same time I generally try (key word here) to avoid looking like a ****.

So how do you feel about a-pillar gauges?

 

They are pure rice.
The only thing i would consider is the tripe pod that replaces the centeral dash.
Options are to mod your cluster to fit new gauges in place of water and oil gauge, or to get a stereo with a screen for them.

 

I believe there'll be pros and cons on every option unfortunately, I too am looking for an option to keep an FD interior completely stock, but have the ability to monitor boost and water temp. So far I can only come up with using a SPA dual digital gauge on the column pod, it'll monitor boost and water temp in a single gauge, and at a location that is not too out of place.

 

when i bought my last FD it had a triple pod in it and i found myself actually hitting it with my hands while performance driving and very RARE while driving normally. it was in my line of sight and just plain in the way. its a nuisance. maybe other cars it works but in the fd, the pillar pods are just in the way. the cabin is so small though, you can get a pillar pod from a rhd car and use that.

 

That's a funny idea about putting a-pillar gauges on the right side! I could definitely see where a triple pod could get in the way. And indeed, 3 seems a little excessive...

Those SPA dual gauges really look the ticket to me! I would think the column pod would be very clean with one of those. You could also do a single on the a-pillar. I can't imagine that would get in the way, and it's a far cry from a triple.

 

I disagree. And feel the same way about a triple pod stuck in the middle of the dash.

I agree ZE' Power....there is no free lunch. You can't add two gauges and keep a completely stock appearance. I always winced at the multiple 'A' pillar gauges as much as the center speaker gauges. I'm only 5'8". Both left blind spots as well as looking like giant "growths" in the interior. I went with a single 'A' pillar trimmed to sit a little lower for temp...and a Pettit column mount for boost.
At least as important...for me anyway, was to find gauges that match the OEM gauges...including back-lighting at night.

 

It's almost impossible now you added gauge appearance and lighting to it

In another thread in the 3rd Gen section someone pointed out the PLX SM Pro, that might be a better option than the SPA gauge as it can monitor many inputs with 1 module except AFR which will require an additional module. I have to admit I'm a little outdated on these technology lol, I have not done anything to the FD other than fluid change for the last 5 years so I'm a little behind on these new tech. With the SM Pro you can view everything on a DM-6 gauge (up to 16 inputs I think, but it won't match the OEM gauge), or spend a little more to get the MultiGauge Link and output everything to a smartphone and eliminate a gauge altogether. You'll have to find a place to mount the smartphone and keep it charge of course, but the good thing is you can shut it off if you don't want to look at it.

 

I ended up with no gauges at all. I just could not find anything that looked proper and not rice. Not even the speaker mounted.
Then i am left with a screen, but good luck finding a period correct stereo with a screen on it. Gotta rip one out of a Cosmo or somesuch xD

This is for me a 100% requirement. So far i have only found anything matching at Speedhut iirc.

 

i have a dual A pillar mount and a Re amemiya center steering column gauge and like them a lot, i also hate center speaker mount gauges.... personal tastes vary.

 

I installed a single a-pillar with SPA dual boost/temp gauge. I am very happy with the location -- I think it's clean and non-obtrusive. As @Sgtblue suggested I trimmed the lower part of the mount down a bit and also plasti-coated it to match a the OE a-pillar a bit better. I was worried that the gauge did not have a lead for backlight brightness, but in practice it's actually really nice. In day light it's just a plain LED with good contrast and no backing color. The backlight slowly becomes visible as the ambient light dims. There is am "amber" setting that perfectly matches the OEM color, and you can set the brightness to fit in with the dash just right.



Originally I tried installing it on a steering column mounted pod form rx7.com, but I found that that mount angled the gauge up a bit and it caused the LED to look very washed out, even with the contrast cranked to max.

However, I may end up replacing this gauge. The problem is that the boost part is nearly useless. I think what's happening is that the sensor has an internal polling rate that does not match the display update rate. It measures spikes in boost very easily, and updates the display slowly. You can set the "average time" for the pressure measurement, but instead of using something like a rolling average and updating the display frequently, it literally just waits for that period of time to update the display. So if you have it set to .5 sec average time, foe example, the display only updates every .5 seconds! Stupid. It may not sound that bad but it really makes it nearly useless. When I was tuning my boost control I had to tape a mechanical gauge to the steering column to see what was going on and it was a HUGE improvement. In fact, I initially thought my MAC valves for boost control were not working correctly until I hooked up the mechanical gauge and it turned out they were working quite well.

 

Personally, I find the A pillar gauge pod to be intrusive when cornering to the left, but that's mpo. I opted for the center dash grill mounted triple pod from Prosport.