yeaa, its kinda cool in a wierd, gimmicky sort of way. but its also pretty useless, and bothers me even more that i have an 'openometer' and not a temperature gauge readily visible.

i haven't been able to find any quick aftermarket replacement, so i'm ripping it apart today (among other things).
going to start working on replacing this with a temperature gauge (at least).

i'm wondering...

are there any mini cabrio owners out there, with electrical savvy, that may want to collaborate on this. even if it is just online on this board, a second set of eyes (and opinions) never hurts.

 

definately a cool spot for a more useful gauge.. even a boost gauge would be awesome there

im sure some of us coupe guys will be trying to retrofit the bezel someday soon lol

 

You can get an OEM temp gauge now. They call them JCW gauges. No boost though.

 

not really...

the gauges are all one piece. the tach, and the openometer, one single plastic housing.
i guess mini REALLLLLLLY wants me to know how long i've been driving with the top down.

the only way i can see to get this done is to cut the internal plastic housing in half, toss the openometer and stuff another gauge in the pod. either that, or dig out the openometer's guts piece by piece, and hope theres enough room in that plastic housing to get another gauge in. wiring may be a bit of a problem too.

 

it should come apart in halves right? you'd pretty much be disassembling the tach though

 

The openometer is stupid.
Whoever thought of that should be canned.

 

you'd think so... and that what i thought.

but no... on the inside, its one solid, single, figure 8 shaped, plastic housing that holds the circuitry and parts for both gauges.

i really wanna take a golf club to the head of the guy who came up with this. At first it was pointless, but now its getting distracting. every hour when it has to go back to zero to count the minutes the top was open, the needle spins all the way back around nearly 360 degrees. and i always notice it out of the corner of my eye, and my first reaction is looking down wondering... holy crap, is the car ok, what the hell was that. only lasts for like a second, but still annoys the bee-jeesus out of me.

 

You are spot on sir! That's the kind of **it that tends to turn me off about mini culture. The dumb quick jokes are rampant in this company.

 

There should be a way to take the front part of the bezel off jsut as you do the tach on the coop and clubman. With that you should be able to at least disable it by disconnecting a wire or two.

EDIT: BTW they put it together so it has to come apart somehow.

 

If I understand correctly, they did not put it together by using the regular tach and adding an openometer. Instead, inside is a single figure-8 shaped board that integrates the circuits for both gauges. This actually makes some sense from a cost and manufacturing standpoint.

 

ohhhh ..that suuuuucks..

so theres a good chance of screwin the tach if you try to remove that side... i would assume they share power and such

 

It would be nice if someone could figure out a way to open the tach up and remove the trim ring in the front. I did the chrome line retrofit and thats a part I still need to get...

 

Many peopel change the gauge face color of the coop and clubman tach so there has to be a way of taking it apart and i doubt (although it is possible) that MINI change the way the tach actually comes apart.

Check with Vinyl Styles http://www.lylesvinylstyles.net/

they make the gauge overlays in many different colors for people so that has to be a way to get the gauge apart.

 

funny you should say that... the reason i was pulling all that stuff apart was to put on some custom gauges that i had lyle whip up for me.

its not hard getting to the gauge face. its just that you can't remove the gauge all together. because they are connected as one piece.

the white part on the outside edge is the plastic housing that is all one piece. thats whats the problem.

 

At least it's not a single circuit board spanning both gauges as I thought it might be. You may have to do some irreversible hacking away, but it looks more like a matter of how far you are willing to go rather than technical impediments.

 

thats exactly it... and voiding any part of the warranty is the last thing i want to do.

 

^Goon your new gauges are rad!

 

I found this thread because I find the openometer annoying as well. Just got my 2010 JCW Convertible. I was thinking of purchasing the stock tach that is in the coupes and then adding whatever more useful guages I wanted.

 

Second!

I'm watching this thread, seems like we shall have an openometer revolt soon enough. Ironically, I rode with a buddy in Italy last fall - his R57 didn't have one!

 

The openometer is a $200 option in Europe. Can you imagine someone paying extra to get it? We're supposed to feel lucky that it's standard in the US!

 

LOL. $200. OMG. Yea, I'd like that please, no - wait, maybe I'll buy 1/2 of a JCW steering wheel instead... no, can't drive with a half wheel, so yea, throw in that openometer.

 

I agree and I will be following this thread. I just got the car and without fail, every single person I've shown it to has asked me what that gauge is and when I tell them what it is, the reaction is always the same.... "WTF is the point of that?? Couldn't they have put something there that's actually useful??"

So.... here's to hoping someone comes up with something!!

 

I feel the same and will also be following this thread. Seems like it has been going awhile and with no real fix. The only one that seems to be a fix would be to add the tack form the coupe and then you can do what you want. I don't think they would make the coupe tack any different as it would not make sense to do so. I should be a plug an play except for the expense of the new tack. If someone knows more, please let me know..

 

I have a 09 JCW Coupe, my wife has a 2010 JCW Cab. I bit the bullet and just bought a "normal" tach off eBay and it should be here before the weekend. I'll see if it just plugs in and operates (hopefully) without posting errors and/or having to do any reprogramming. In hindsight I guess I could have just plugged in my tach. I'll post my results.

 

We need a list of part numbers for tach's for model years so that people who want to replace the tach/openometer know what to look for.