Dash - Adding gages....

lip277

lip277

Well-Known Member
Site Donor $$
Messages
940
Reaction score
781
Location
Seattle
Have a question....

I'm driving the CS much more now that the weather is reasonable.
I've been thinking about the 'lack of info' regarding engine operation...

One thing I added to my 2002 years and years ago were additional gages.
I added volts and oil pressure.
I made a custom console face plate and placed them where the ash tray would have been (kept the hazard switch ).
I also added custom switches for stereo power and driving lights.
(Kinda slick if I do say so myself, but I digress)

I am thinking...
I see there are many folks that have placed gages in the center speaker position on the dash. That is functional but I have another idea....

The clock (the right of the 4 positions)
Has anyone come up with a 'multi-use' gage similar to the fuel/temp one of the left?
I was thinking of adapting something that would fit the space where the clock is but look stock.

Anyone have anything they've run across that way?

Just grasping at straws here.....
And taking notes for future projects.

Thanks
 
Cool - Thanks...
I did a forum search - Funny how that thread didn't come up.

If there are any other examples, that would be good too-

Thanks again....
 
Going by memory, Mark (?) sells instrument consoles for 2002 and E9s that around or below the radio location. I got a radio adapter from him and worked well. I can search the name and URL.

I also recall Orangener I think doing a custom instrument Alpina style feature. I may be wrong but I recall very nice execution, and I think from Austria, and Orangener is the guy with the CNC machine in Austria, but I may be off.
 
Gage suggestions

For those that have added a gage package, could I ask for your mounting suggestions?

I would like to add, at a minimum, Oil Pressure, Volts ( I don't want to carry a shunt wire through the firewall for Amps ) and Water Temp.

In the future, real estate for 1 or two more Gage's. air/fuel later.

My Coupe does not currently have AC, so the center console is a likely spot.

Open to suggestions.
 
I have considered all the mounting positions you have mentioned. Even have a second Fuel gauge that I was thinking of converting , then De Quincey made his point about elegance. I have a three hole gauge holder that could take the place of my speaker Grill, but I think that detracts from what an E9 is. The current appoach I am kicking around is to put three gauges (A/F, oil pressure, volts or water temp) under the radio on a sliding shelf that can be tucked into the cavity. the A/F gauge I have from another car is not something I want to look at all the time as it is digital.
Here is a thread that has some basic info on your options.
http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10269
 
I'd choose an oil temp gauge instead of water temp since that one is already present in the standard cluster.

I'll go for oil temp, oil pressure and an A/F meter in my current project car (hopefully ready til 2014)
 
+1. I have a/c so I put mine in the speaker grill but kept it all reversible. I went with oil pressure, volts, and A/FR. The under dash kits come up on ebay Germany sometimes. Also try Parker performance:

http://www.parkerperformance.com/

I have an analog AFR gauge that I repainted and re-bezeled to blend with the VDO ones:

IMG-20130523-00440.jpg





DerSchwede said:
I'd choose an oil temp gauge instead of water temp since that one is already present in the standard cluster.

I'll go for oil temp, oil pressure and an A/F meter in my current project car (hopefully ready til 2014)
Click to expand...
 
At the risk of being shunned by this entire forum, are there any digital options? For example, I see lots of apps for iphones and ipads for modern cars. Is it conceivable to have sensory information sent via a Bluetooth connection to inside the car? Everything would be reversible and easily hidden when you don't really care and want the feel of classic analog driving. You would also get the benefit of the GPS displaying on the ipad mini.

OK. I will go hide my head in shame now.
 
bwalvoord said:
At the risk of being shunned by this entire forum, are there any digital options? For example, I see lots of apps for iphones and ipads for modern cars. Is it conceivable to have sensory information sent via a Bluetooth connection to inside the car? Everything would be reversible and easily hidden when you don't really care and want the feel of classic analog driving. You would also get the benefit of the GPS displaying on the ipad mini.

OK. I will go hide my head in shame now.
Click to expand...

The issue with those systems is they rely on the existing sensors sending their information over the chassis wiring harness via the CAN, or Car Area Network. This is a crucial system on modern cars as it allows the multitude of individual ECUs (Electronic Control Units in this context) to run off a single sensor set with a single wiring set, rather than having redundant sensor and wiring sets for each ECU.

In order to do what you are describing, we would have to create a CAN. Most CANs are run by the timing systems in the PCU (Powertrain Control Unit) because they have to be the most accurate in the car to keep the engine running correctly. The E9's normal ECU options (and even the aftermarket ones I can think of) do not provide this capability because it is typically tied into the chassis as a whole.

If you wanted to make a CAN, you would need a duplicate wiring harness for all your sensors that feed into a central ECU, which would convert the signals (and you would have to calibrate them individually, since each sensor's output profile is different) to a CAN-style digital format. Then the normal CAN-based systems could deal with the car. So really, unless MegaSquirt (or something like it) has added CAN support, I don't know of a good way to do this short of re-engineering the electronics/chassis interface from scratch.

I deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis at work, which is how I know this sort of thing on modern cars.
 
I have never found voltage gauges to be all that useful:

#1, Spend your money instead on a modern, internally-regulated alternator, and your charging system will become 99.9999% reliable. Perhaps voltage gauges made sense back in the days of generators with brushes and mechanical regulators, but watching a voltage gauge in a modern car is pretty boring.

#2, if an electrical problem does occur, it's usually over in milliseconds. You'll smell the burning insulation well before you notice the needle on the gauge move.

Oil pressure gauges, on the other hand, are essential. I always wondered how BMW could call a car the "Coupe Sport" and not include an OP gauge.
 
Last edited:
digital options

Some options with the megasquirt efi (MS). It currently supports a dash on the Droid phone. Hopefully they will eventually port over to the ipad. And finally, less practical, is the laptop on the passenger seat (see display photo).

MS does support CAN communications. I am using it for the 6 EGT sensors, as there were not enough ports on the MS ecu. The MS harness is mostly independent of the base CS chassis harness. They interface at a two points (power with key on and signal back to tach).

http://tunerstudio.com/index.php/shadowdashmsmenu
 

Attachments

  • MS Dashboard.jpg
    MS Dashboard.jpg
    97.9 KB · Views: 117
Sven said:
Some options with the megasquirt efi (MS). It currently supports a dash on the Droid phone. Hopefully they will eventually port over to the ipad. And finally, less practical, is the laptop on the passenger seat (see display photo).

MS does support CAN communications. I am using it for the 6 EGT sensors, as there were not enough ports on the MS ecu. The MS harness is mostly independent of the base CS chassis harness. They interface at a two points (power with key on and signal back to tach).

http://tunerstudio.com/index.php/shadowdashmsmenu
Click to expand...

Good to know! I haven't looked at MS in a long time, so it is good to hear it is maturing well.
 
jmackro said:
I have never found voltage gauges to be all that useful:

#1, Spend your money instead on a modern, internally-regulated alternator, and your charging system will become 99.9999% reliable. Perhaps voltage gauges made sense back in the days of generators with brushes and mechanical regulators, but watching a voltage gauge in a modern car is pretty boring.

#2, if an electrical problem does occur, it's usually over in milliseconds. You'll smell the burning insulation well before you notice the needle on the gauge move.

Oil pressure gauges, on the other hand, are essential. I always wondered how BMW could call a car the "Coupe Sport" and not include an OP gauge.
Click to expand...

I've found my voltmeter to be quite useful, revealing a bad regulator that was slowly cooking the battery with too much voltage. No great flash or clouds of smoke, just a slow agonizing death for my battery. It also gives me an ongoing indication of my battery health, showing the drop in battery voltage when I crank the starter.
 
jmackro said:
I have never found voltage gauges to be all that useful:

#1, Spend your money instead on a modern, internally-regulated alternator, and your charging system will become 99.9999% reliable. Perhaps voltage gauges made sense back in the days of generators with brushes and mechanical regulators, but watching a voltage gauge in a modern car is pretty boring.

#2, if an electrical problem does occur, it's usually over in milliseconds. You'll smell the burning insulation well before you notice the needle on the gauge move.

Oil pressure gauges, on the other hand, are essential. I always wondered how BMW could call a car the "Coupe Sport" and not include an OP gauge.
Click to expand...


+1

and to be honest I don't really look at many of the gauges when I drive (too busy looking out for all the idiots trying to drive into me!), I tend to change gears by the sound of the engine (a habit i must try and stop, because I'm forever hitting the rev limiter in the wife's JCW mini, (man that thing can pull!))
The most important gauge for me is the water Temperature which I look at a lot, and I'm even considering a warning buzzer with a 100-105 deg switch when i do the new engine.
 
deQ, that is a nice look. but i'm like stevehose - a/c ... so it wouldn't work for me. and i'm not a huge fan of the plate in place of the speaker panel. maybe i'll put them behind the speaker panel. i became a big believer in oil temp gauge w/ my e30 m3 ... long term belief of oil pressure. will probably also go for an accurate water temp.

deQuincey said:
thread on the topic (thanks bob)
http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9513&page=4


150220072586-1.jpg


Volts, second water temp (cross check), oil temp, oil pressure
160820073374.jpg
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top