After having cars that have gauges displaying all of the critical information such as coolant temperature, I can't stand not knowing what's going on with my mini.

I'm trying to weigh between a scangauge II, and getting the alta gauges.

Quite honestly, all I want/need to see is boost, and water temp. Boost, because I've never owned a turbo car and I want to see what it's doing and when, and water temp because I want to know when the car is warmed up/okay to romp on.

As far as I see it, Scangauge is great because it can display much more then just these two items. Then again, getting alta gauges give a gauge, not just a digital reading, which I find easier to understand. All you have to do is glance at a gauge and understand what's happening; with digitial you have to process the reading first, before you can understand what's happening. Not only that, but I think the gauges look much cleaner, and look like they belong.

The scanguage is also significanlty easier and less invasive to install.

I'm torn, any opinions?

 

I went with ScanGauge. I don't mind the readings coming from the sensors used by the ECU. I guess the water temp bothers me a little, and a true oil pressure reading from a mechanical gauge would be nice. My car is supercharged, not turboed. But I'd have to guess neither one develops enough boost to be concerned about it. But the ScanGauge has the advantage of the ability to display OBD codes and clear them. That's what sold me. It's really all about what you feel is important.

 

I like the scangauage personally. I have one, just waiting to install it (will be a little more invasive, but will look a lot cleaner). I ran a few days with it and I can see that it will definitely increase the mod bug I could see the intake temp and I was thinking "now if only I can lower that a few degrees I wonder how much power I could gain"

 

I've got a Scangauge also. I haven't seen anyone with a 2nd gen post about getting the boost displayed on it. There is a thread about it, but it's a 1st gen thread. Pics of my install are in my gallery.

 

2nd gen will display boost just like the 1st gen... BUT you have to also display MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure - which is boost + atmospheric and is what the sensor actually reads) at the same time... no one knows why.... makes no sense.

 

I mounted mine to left of the steering wheel on a home made bracket, perfect fit. Easy to read at a glance without looking down and I don't loose my cubby hole. Would prefer the gauges, but to fit all the gauges i want it would be pretty busy looking for my taste.

 

do you have any pics of that bracket?

 

side question...
what does the homemade braket look like
im lookin to do somethin similar for my garmin
and any example/model as guides would help alot...

 

^look into a kuda mount for your garmin, they're awesome.

anyone weigh in on the real gauge side of the world?

I might get the scangauge and a boost gauge, just because that whole MAP thing having to be shown would be a pain

 

Cool. I put mine up on the dash right next to the tweeter and have it held with some velcro. Not as noninvasive, but it does the job and was damn easy.

For me, I had the SGII before I bought my MINI. I've only been using the MAP readout, as well as water temp and a few others. I've been toying with the idea of getting a real boost gauge, mostly just because it looks cool and I've not had a turbo'd car before. I'm thinking it'll probably be too much work for me, though.

Blimey - thanks for the tip. I'll go try displaying MAP and see what happens.

 

You could what I did and use OBDII gauges like the attached pictures and get all the output of a scan gauge into what looks like traditional gauges.

I used the Alta mounts (but going to replace it with the Cravenspeed flex mount instead, much better) and slipped in two 60MM plx devices gauges and slaved one to the other.

I have them setup for two traditional looking gauges, but a push of joystick, I get a 4 up display showing me up to 8 gauges in two pods. I do not have new pics of the setup but works sweet and looks OEM.

 

I use the prosport gauges from Alta. Currently looking at MAP and coolant temp. I agree that the analog is very easy to mentally process while driving. Looking for a small digital readout doesn't do much for me. The other issue is that one needs to subtract, by algorithm or mentally atmosphere from the reading on scangauge. The scan tool is a nice toy but I am not a fan of using it to asses the engine quickly while driving.

 

Those are DOPE.

 

That looks pretty sweet. How fast do they update? Do you have a link to the gauges? Do you use them in conjunction with a ScanGauge or just plug em into the OBD-II port?

 

www.plxdevices.com makes them. The on the left ties into the one on the right and the right one goes to the OBDII port. I modified the controls in the center console in the same spot as the mini with navs, there is a joystick that looks OEM and that controls everything. The updating is setup for as close to realtime as possible (think its in milli-seconds ...).

I have water temp, boost, fuel, exhuast gas temp, timing, and vacum as my main gauges for now.

Cheers.

 

$400 each!?!?!?

:e ek2:

Wow, that is expensive. Looks like that's a no-go for me. :(

 

Wouldn't an oil temperature gauge give you a better indication as to when the engine is warmed up?

 

They are not 400.00 each, the second gauge is a non-obdii so its 1/2 the price. Also, if you shop around you will find it for a lot less.

 

no

 

Well, I'd only be interested in one. I'll see if I can find any elsewhere.....

EDIT: Eh, cheapest I can find is $355 for the OBD-II one. Seems like a great item but that's too much for me.

 

Thanks for the clarification on that. I'll give it a shot some time.

 

ive looked into that, and actually, i dont like the location of it....i want something a little more close together near my tach....the kuda puts the device too,,,up there....plus....the install looks like a pita...

 

Wow, those look good!

Are you having any problems with them whatsoever? I was thinking of waiting for the JCW gauges MINI just released, but your setup looks a lot better, as far as useful information is concerned.

Also, do you have any shots of the "joystick" in the centre console? I'm curious to see how you mounted the gauge controller.

 

So I need a list....

What all did you have to purchase in order to have that SICK setup in your car?

 

Can these gauges, show codes thrown and reset them? They are pretty sweet. if pretty expensive.