Has anyone installed these? How long did the installation take? Do you like them? Any thoughts apprecaited..

 

Yup, had mine installed last Thursday. It is very high quality. I think it took 4-5 hours to install so it is not a cheap item to add to you MINI! But I really like it a lot; it is fun to watch the boost needle hit 11PSI

Plus, I like how it balances out the lonely tach.






_________________
Sleepless
02 MCS, H&R, SSR Comps, Yoko ES100, PROMINI Guage Console

 

That looks great nice install. What other mods do you have on your Mini?

 

Mods installed:
- H&R springs
- SSR Competion wheels (17x7.5)
- Yokohama ES100 tires (215/45x17)
- Blitzsafe AUX input box + Sony 707 MD player
- MOMO RaceAir shift **** (no more freezing shift **** :smile: )

Mod to be installed soon:
- MINI Madness rear sway bar
- MINI Madness cold air intake
- Ferodo 2500 brake pad

 

>>Mods installed:
>>- H&R springs
>>- SSR Competion wheels (17x7.5)
>>- Yokohama ES100 tires (215/45x17)
>>- Blitzsafe AUX input box + Sony 707 MD player
>>- MOMO RaceAir shift **** (no more freezing shift **** :smile: )
>>
>>Mod to be installed soon:
>>- MINI Madness rear sway bar
>>- MINI Madness cold air intake
>>- Ferodo 2500 brake pad
>>
>>

I really like the look of your gauges. Did you notice a big performance and handling difference with your SSR Comps and Yokohamas? That gave a sizeable weight reduction...

 

Looks great. Can you relate how the install went? Any problems or anything that was not straightforward?

 

>>Yup, had mine installed last Thursday. It is very high quality. I think it took 4-5 hours to install so it is not a cheap item to add to you MINI! But I really like it a lot; it is fun to watch the boost needle hit 11PSI
>>
>>Plus, I like how it balances out the lonely tach.

very, very nice......who did you purchase the gauges though?

 

I didn't do the installation myself but I read through the comprehensive instructions and it seems straightforward, but tedious. You have to remove the intercooler and tap the oil filter (or drain?) cap for the oil pressure sensor. It looked like it would take me more than a day so I paid to have it installed. There were no issues with the installation.

I got directly from PROMINI (er, BMP Design).

Yes, losing 13lbs per wheel made a significant difference; highly recommended. Plus, it will handle/stick better at the track with that much of a reduction in unsprung weight. As far as the tires go, on the street the Pirelli runflats where actually quite nice tires and not heavy like the other brand that MINI uses. They were actually .5 lbs lighter than the Yoko's! But, I think the Yoko's will better for the track, that is why I got them; good street/track tire.

 

Here's the problem with the BMP gauges. During the day, they match the stock tach damn well perfect. But at night, with the lights on, the tach background goes black, and the BMP gauges stay white (i.e., no fancy lighting). I have found this very distracting, minimized a bit when the lighting is turned to its lowest setting. I e-mailed BMP re: any way to defeat the lighting (who needs to read these gauges at night). I got back a curt "no can do" answer.
-Gary

 

how much were gauges?

how much was install?

u got it done at a dealer?

 

Gary,
Take the bulbs out.

--
Cheese

 

The gauge console is $475 and it cost about 4 hours of labor. I had a local motorsports shop do the work.

I agree that the lighting of the gauges is pretty lame; vdo guages are so much nicer at night; they match the standard orange lighting that BMW uses. Mine are much dimmer than the rest of my dash board lights and tack so it is not distracting.

I great use for the boost limit light is as a shift light; I set my to about 9.5PSI and start to shift when it lights up; that way I shift right at red line when being speedy

 

Please tell me more about the VDO gauges. Are they direct swaps? DO they match both day & night?
Thanks,
Gary

 

Sorry, you'll have to do the research yourself because the VDO gauges that I have are black faces and orange needles and match my M3's interior/gauges. The last time I looked at VDO they did not make a silver face but times may have changed that.

 

An update on the BMP gauges...

Soon after they were installed, I noticed that whenever I turned on the lights that the oil pressure gauge jumped and the boost gauge stopped working. We checked the wiring harness provided by BMP and sure enough it was poorly constructed such that the contacts could arc when I turned on the lights. The fix was easy but I wish we had not needed to do it.

I love the gauges and we're going to report the issue to BMP so hopefully this can be avoided in the future. Until then, I wanted to update anyone interested in this modification so that they'd know what to fix if happened to them.

 

To clarify a few points:

1) When you order the ProMini kit, I encourage that you buy the optional pre-tapped oil canister cap with the kit. BMPd has recently made an upgrade to the welding to this cap and has recessed the tap a bit more so it is easy to do any future oil changes.

2) The AutoMeter gauges you get in the kit, are back face lit - meaning that one bulb lights up the entire face and needle - very much unlike the OEM Mini gauges where each number is lit from behind. They are a pretty good match in terms of color hue (being amber in color).

3) We are a distributor for BMPd and the ProMini kit. I have installed this kit and it does take about 3-4 hours - most of it just running the wires from the cockpit then into the engine bay. The boost tap is super easy as well as the oil tap (see #1 above).

YOu can always swap out these gauges for VDO back lit gauges (like the
VDO Pro Cockpit Series or the Vision Series. Keep in mind that BMPd was very smart to match up the UltraLite Series Gauges with their kit as the gauge face matches the OEM gauge face...with the VDO gauges, you will have a black background - but will look raelly cool IMO

So what is next down the road for Mini gauges? See below for a teaser:



-Peter/Rspeed Mini

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