DneprDave,
Looks good. Did you fab the mount out of metal or plastic?

 

Wow, that's a very impressive gauge setup!

 

The mount is 1/8" aluminum and the gauge pods are 2" ABS drain pipe. I already had all the material laying around, so it just cost me my time to fabricate it.

I made the template for it out of cardboard, it took me four tries to get it so I could see all four gauges through the steering wheel, then I just traced the template onto the sheet of aluminum and cut it out with a scroll saw.

Dave

 

The SG can only read stuff out of the OBD2 port. It can calculate some things (like MPG) from what it reads, but I bet that oil temperature is not something that can be calculated reasonably well.

If the SG is showing oil temp, there is likely a sender for it that is feeding data into the OBD2 system. It may not be present in all MINIs, but if it gets a reading it probably is reading the temperature.

 

No I get how the SG works, which is the reason I posed the question in the first place. As far as I understood, the MINI does not have a sender for either oil temperature or pressure that reports to the OBDII system. Obviously it has to have some sort of pressure sender or else the idiot light for low oil wouldn't exist, but the OBDII port can't read anything oil related from what I've read.

 

my all4 has a pressure SWITCH to turn on the idiot light

there is no pressure transducer to read the actual pressure

same with oil temp, no probe to read oil temp

scott

 

Wells that's kinda what I meant lol

 

DneprDave - Interesting. I was thinking along the same lines but didn't consider PVC for the gauge pods.

Regarding the oil pressure/temp monitoring discussion, this confirms that OBD only based gauges will not monitor oil parameters except out-of-range conditions for the idiot lights. Perhaps OBD gauges are estimating oil temp from coolant temp... I've had high oil temp conditions on other vehicles when coolant temp is normal so is not adequate IMO.

It seems arrogant of the manufacturer to assume oil parameters are unimportant. More likely from the manufacturer's point of it views it assures service and parts revenue.

 

I'm simple. I want boost and oil temp or pressure. I like gauges so I think that I will go with a couple in Alta pods (gods forbid!).

 

I actually find it very arrogant of MINI to not include an oil pressure gauge especially considering how many timing chain failures have happened on these cars. And it's an oil-fed system!

 

Are we saying that no gauges will report oil pressure or temp?

 

Not unless you physically install the sender into the engine.

 

Oh... easy enough. Thanks....

 

What puzzles me is why MINI went through the trouble of creating an accessory gauge kit with up to 3 gauges to choose from, and decided that oil temp and pressure were not important enough to include as options.

 

Exactly! So dumb in my opinion.

 

I used ABS, rather than PVC plastic, because it is already colored black, I polished the printing off of the pipe pods and waxed them, they came out real nice and there's no paint that could eventually peel off.

I installed the oil temperature gauge because of discussions I read on these forums. Manufacturers don't install oil temperature gauges, at least I've never seen one in any production car, so I've had no experience tracking oil temperature, I was disappointed that it gave me no useful information.

I don't track my car, maybe if I did, I'd see a difference in temperature between the oil and the water. Even with spirited street driving, my oil and water temperature gages read about the same. For me, the oil temperature gauge is unnecessary. I'll keep it for a balanced look until I get the water/meth injection system.

Dave

 

Does the pre-programmed ScanGauge read oil temp without a sender?

 

My BETA version ScanGauge II shows oil temperature. My Bentley manual does not show a oil temperature sensor. I don't know if my 2011 MC has a oil temperature sensor that is not shown in the manual or the ScanGuage calculates the temperature. However it is done, it appears to be working. The oil temperature takes a while to get up to the coolant temperature. The colder the amient temperature, the longer it takes. The Bentley manual does shown a pressure sensor for the R16 and R18 models. I asked if Scangauge planned on adding oil pressure for those models that have the oil pressure sensor and have not received any response.

Morris, 2011 MC, PW/B

 

did you buy yours from Way Motor Works?

 

it is not a pressure sensor, but a pressure activated switch to turn on the idiot light

scott

 

I bought mine from Amazon. They had the lowest price at the time.

Morris, 2011 MC, PW/B

 

wonder what re-programming Way Motor Works was talking about on page1 to display oil temperature?!?!?!

btw, price is same from Way Motor and Amazon.

 

Way Motor Works is talking about getting the BETA software loaded. I sent my ScanGauge II back and had them load the BETA software. Only the Beta Software can read the oil temperature now. ScanGauge is loading this software free for MINI owners with models current enough to use BETA software. They do this so MINI owners can help them with the BETA testing.

Morris, 2011 MC, PW/B

 

But how can it do this in a car with no oil temperature sensor?

 

It sounds like newer MINIs have an oil temperature sensor, because the ScanGauge wouldn't read oil temperature without a temperature sensor.

Dave