As much as I love my R56, I have to admit the lack of a temp gauge on a turbo charged car worries me. Ive been looking around at gauge's to solve the problem but that also creates another problem of where to put one. The available area is well...mini. Flipping through my recent issue of MC2, I found a solution. CravenSpeed has something called the FlexPod that attaches behind your tach (picture below). Im hoping someone may already have one, Id like to find out what they think of it before I jump in.

 

I actually like it a lot!

 

What gauges have you found for the R56, and how do they connect to the engine?

It seems like both water and oil temp would be useful as well as oil pressure and boost. On a non-turbo engine I've always liked having a vacuum gauge. I'm not sure how things work with turbos. Does a boost gauge replace it, or would it be useful to have both vacuum and boost?

 

I think a boost guage is much more useful than vac. It'll let you know if you're in dangerous overboost. Plus, when Dinan or others come up with a chip/manual boost enhancer you'll know what trouble you're getting into! Water temp is probably more important to me than oil temp, but oil pressure would be great also. Then you have all the truly important parameters of your engine. 3 guages? Fussy, but great info. If I could only have 1 it'd be water temp. Then boost, and finally oil press.

All 4 of out turbos have boost guages, 2 have water press., 2 have oil press, and 1 has oil temp.

Hope someone comes up with a cool solution.

Mark

 

I like those, too. Seen them with pairs of gauges on both sides (so four total), but it seemed a little busy. I was hoping for somthing like that with another pair somewhere else (center console, down low, maybe). I've been curious to see if they will mount up the the new MINI's column. I'd be interested to know what you find out.

As far as vacuum goes, don't most boost gauges show negative numbers as well? Vacuum, right? I could be totally wrong about this as I'm learning myself.

 

2 of my turbos show negative off boost, but I honestly don't know what to make of the numbers. If I started seeing 0 as opposed to negative on my guage, I'd think I had a leak to atmosphere somewhere.

Any of the smart people have any answers?

 

I'm not sure what you mean. The R56 has no gage like I have on my Honda and all the cars I have owned that shows if the engine is hot or over heating. That is like a mark in how the engine is doing especially on long drives. Are we talking about the same thing.

 

I'm not one of the smart people, and completely new to turbos. Not sure when they boost and when not. So, I'm not sure what vacuum means in a turbo engine.

In a normally aspirated engine, I find vacuum info quite useful. The lower the vacuum, the harder the engine is struggling. Pair it with RPM and you can see whether you are in the best gear for a given situation. Say you are cruising down 101 in 6th gear. You might not have noticed, but you are climbing a very slight slope and there is a strong head-wind. Cruise control has kept the revs up, so that looks good. However, vacuum has plummeted. Time to shift into 5th.

Another scenario, you are barrelling along and come to a long grade. Your revs are high, you are going fast (high speed limit zone) and are not sure whether you need to drop down a gear for the grade. Check vacuum. It is still fairly high, you are good as you are.

Generally, it help you keep the car in a zone where it is getting the best gas mileage.

 

The vacuum/boost gauge is essentially the same thing. They just operate over a different range. Both measure air pressure in the intake manifold. When a turbo charger is not boosting, then engine should show a negative pressure (vacuum) in the intake.

 

OK, so does anyone know of specific gauges compatible with the R56?

I asked my MA about a boost gauge and he was not encouraging. He made a comment saying there might be warranty issues with 3rd party gauges, depending on how they tied into the engine. Where do you connect a boost gauge to an R56? How about water temp?

 

The car already has all these "gauges" built into it; in the form of a diagnostics protocol called OBDII. Most of the time you do not need to see the information; it's more to figure out how the car is running and then put it back off to the side. You can pick up an OBDII scan-tool from several sources; I use the Auterra scan-tool, which also has a fantastic built-in math-based dynamometer.

If you feel the need for a 'normal' gauge, like one of Auto-Meter's vac/boost, or cooland temp, feel free to tap into the engine as you see fit...just don't do it if you're not sure what you're doing!

 

^ That's correct, for those wanting to know.

For a boost gauge, tapping into the intake tract after the turbo and before the intake can work on some cars, and you can sometimes tap into the intake as well. I'd like for a member with an R56 MCS to take a peek around, it really wouldn't surprise me if there isn't already a tapped-off bung somewhere to hook a guage to. There's already going to be either an electric or mechanical sensor for boost somewhere that's wired into the car's ECU.

 

I have the Auterra for my Treo 680, just haven't bought the new serial cable. Are you saying there is a boost pressure guage in the auterra software now? I need to get the Treo 680 cable, and find a good way to connect the Treo, a power cable and the data cable and neatly wire stuff into the MINI.

 

You might consider these:

DashHawk

http://new.minimania.com/web/Item/NM.../InvDetail.cfm

or



http://www.scangauge.com/

Both just plug into your OBDII port.

 

I assume that the aftermarket gauges are all electronic since they tap into the OBDII system, correct? I have an interesting idea for our Minis that could make someone a lot of money. If any of you have a connection to a gauge manufacturer, please PM me.

 

There has been a MAP readout ever since I've had the software, which has been for a few years now. If you mean a 'traditional' round analog-style gauge however, I haven't seen this display option on my Palm software. The only display styles I've seen are line graph, digital readout, and bar graph.

 

Let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly, are you saying that one could plug a Palm with Auterra software into the OBDII and it could be set to function as a boost gauge or oil pressure gauge?

 

I was looking into that actually!

The Cravenspeed are a good deal ($120) Vs. the MINI Cooper Gauge Kit (for $389.95).

 

Aren't those for 2006 and earlier?

 

The more I read about that, the more I like it. I'm usually quite frugal, but once I get a MINI, I may have to save up for that. I'd like to see one in person to get an idea on scale, and how clear the screen is, but all of the things that are listed is pretty impressive. Thanks for the info

 

Yes but they also work on the '07's. A quote from the website "Do you get enough information from your Cooper? MINI left out a few important gauges when they simplified the cabin. Want to know what kind of boost you are getting out of your turbo or supercharger? Maybe you've added a few parts to increase performance, like exhaust, manifold, headers. Now you need to monitor the conditions of your engine to make sure it is operating in optimal conditions. Craven Speed offers you the best way to mount some additional gauges, so you can flexitize the info you get from your MINI."

http://www.cravenspeed.com/index.php?productID=69

Yesterday I stopped in and talked with the GM at my dealership about the warranty and tapping in for the gauges. He said that they have to be able to prove that whatever modification you have made to the car has caused whatever the problem is. JCW has something in the works but isnt available yet and will cost a fortune. Im thinking about having the dealership do the taps for the 2 gauges I want just to cover my butt as far as the warranty goes.

Amy

 

Thanks for the info. What gauges are you getting? I see that there is a dual gauge holder that would allow two gauges on a side. Boost, water temp, oil pressure, and maybe oil temp... Hmm.

 

I caused the confusion so I better fix it.

Even though I mentioned Turbos in the description, the bracket for the R56 FlexPod is not ready. It will be similar to the bracket x, but the spacing and size/thread on the bolts has changed. It will not take too long (whatever that means) to rework the design on our patent pending FlexPod to fit the R56.

Before that is done we will have an addition to the lineup that may solve the issue you were discussing...tapping the oil sending unit. We have an oil sending adapter that will be ready to ship next week. This little piece will save you stress and money by avoiding the need to tap the sending unit to get the pressure.

I will post pics and details soon.

 

I had an Audi S4 and installed a VDO electronic boost gauge. IMHO it was a must. Kind of like a tach for the turbo.

 

Kellen thanks for clarifying that for us. Ill be keeping my eye out for it, hopefully you will be running the same intro special then too!

Robin - Im looking at getting the 2 pod FlexPod. Ill be putting a boost and water temp gauge in. I can see the use for others but I worry that it would be too cluttered in the space for my taste. I like the OBDII options too but Im opting for gauges because Id like to be able to look down and see my readouts, no buttons, etc.