What gauges do you have (stock or aftermarket) and what parameters are you monitoring? Interested in all gauge installations including OBD-II types.

IMO; oil pressure and coolant temp are critical. Oil temp, boost or voltage would are nice to have. My new Cooper S R56 just has idiot lights and that must change.

i bought prosport 45mm (1.75") gauges

http://prosportgauges.com/45mm-gauges.aspx

i got
oil pressure
oil temperature
boost
water temperature
volts

they come with senders but not the adapters

you would have to make your own mount

i am still playing with cardboard ...

option 1
have the oil temp/press and water temp over the tach at 10,12,2 o'clock and volts and boost at about 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock on the tack

option 2
"A" pillar custom mount

option 3

combo of 1 and 2

scott

Prosport Boost gauge, Howerton water meth gauge, and Torque App gauges on my Droid Razr(which is pretty much everything you can think of).

Running PLX Kiwi2 OBD and the Dashcommand app on my iphone. Highly recommended.

Usually I'm monitoring intake and engine temp, boost, and AFR.

I agree LBM, but after searching for a few weeks and weighing the pros and cons I've decided to go with the JCW 2 gauge setup. The water temp is absolutely necessary for me and although there are ways to add the oil temp with aftermarket hardware, I'm loathe to run non-oem wiring and making connections with scotchlocks. Unfortunately, none of the OBD 2 (aka can-bus) gauges looked right to me, so I compromised with some of the functions I wanted and all of the oem neatness of installation. No wires to run through the firewall, either!

I chose the relative torque meter as my second gauge.

I'm running a ScanGauge 2, and I monitor LOD (load), MPG (instantaneous MPG), AVG (trip average MPG), and either VLT (system voltage) or fWT (coolant temp in deg F).

I installed the Craven/Marshall boost and water temp on my 2012 R56S. I'm very pleased with the look and function. Also have the Bluetooth-OBD gizmo and Torque app on the Android phone, $27 total makes it a bargain.

Installing the adapter for oil pressure and temp are difficult on the N18 engine but possible, there is a thread somewhere by a guy who got it done. See the How To section for very detailed DIYs on the Craven kit.

I have a ScanGauge II with the BETA software. I read the coolant temperature, the oil temperature, the voltage, and the instantaneous fuel consumption. I am hoping they will add a X gauge for the oil pressure for the models that have a oil pressure sensor.

Morris, 2011 MC, PW/B

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

BMWR606 & Porthos - Good input on the Prosport gauges. They look like a quality product and a good color match with the OEM instruments. That just leaves the many choices of mounting options. If I go this route I'm leaning towards a 3X gauge pod with gauges at 10, 12 & 2 o'clock.

rhygin - I've been looking at the PLX products and this is my first choice to get something running quick. Regular gauges can also be added later. Which Kiwi2 interface are you running? (BT, Ethernet or the 30pin Apple connector) Can Dashcommand monitor oil pressure? Have you found a good spot to mount your iPhone? (Sorry for so many questions.)

Komet155 - So the JWC gauges are plug and play? No wiring mods so reprogramming?

I'm with you on the scotch locks and this is why I'll never let anyone else do aftermarket wiring to my cars. I'm not opposed to adding wiring or tapping into connectors. I will minimally cut or spice OEM wiring only as a last resort. Even then it's a solder and heat shrink and documentation of the mod so it can be reversed at a later.

Of the available choices for the JCW gauge options I would have selected the same as you. However, oil pressure is more of an immediate concern. The JCW gauges could be a fun option to add later.

Slave to felines - The Scan Gauge looks like a simple install and the functions are configurable. I'm not thrilled about the LCD matrix display. How is the visibility? Does it take awhile to focus from the road the gauge and back?

SqawSkiBum - How was the install on the Craven/Marshall gauges? I've read that the wiring they provide is thin single strand wire which is not recommended for automotive applications. The Craven mount looks good but I think I would fab my own before paying that much. The wiring coupled with the price of this product makes it about my last choice but, it may work great for your situation.

Byron - Thanks for pointing out the lack of oil pressure on the Scan Gauge.

I think so far my preference is Prosport Gauges and/or PLX with Dashcommand.

LittleBlackMini:
Yes, they are plug and play. I had searched long and hard and weighed the pros and cons as well as cost before finally choosing the JCW accessory gauges. Although Im disappointed I do not have an oil pressure gauge, that exact data does not seem to be available through can-bus anyway (I'd read the stock switch only reads "high & low") which means it would be necessary to add a sending unit. Such an install would not be neat enough for my tastes.....very expensive Y adapters and/or the use of capillary tubes for remote mounting do not sit well with me, nor does running extra wires through the firewall and using scotch-locks and non-oem connectors. I have a neat connection fetish since all of the mods I'd previously done on my MK IV GTi were reverse-engineered with OEM parts and wiring.
There's a pdf showing the installation details for JCW gauges on NAM somewhere. I had found them using search and hope to install mine within the next couple of months....I have alot of mods ahead of me!
PS. The best appearance for aftermarket gauges seems to be from Marshall Instruments but I was less than pleased with how they needed to be wired up and installed. Those instructions can be found on here somewhere as well.

I've got the Scangauge in my R56, and all the Scangauge 2's we sell are preprogrammed with oil temp, and boost along with the standard coolant temp, air temp, MPH, and more.
It's the cheapest way to add gauges.

I ordered a custom spec set that matches my MINI JWC interior from
www.speedhut.com ,great price and quality, I got the revolution series.

The display is not the prettiest, that's for sure. The UltraGauge looks nicer, but there have been problems with it "waking up" the car (in MINIs particularly) and draining the battery overnight. That may or may not have been solved by now, but it was still an issue when I bought the gauge.

Visibility is fine. With the lighting set appropriately (programmable lighting on the SG) it is a reasonable approximation of the instrument light colors, which is nice.

I had the gauge mounted low so I had to look at it through the steering wheel. Now it's above the tach so I don't have to look down as far. It still takes me a moment to re-focus, but not as much as it did.

JJKNZ: Have you installed them? Which ones? Was it easy to install the sending unit(s) on the engine? How did you wire it all up?

No I have not received them yet, I recently ordered them after looking for Gauges from every MFG.

Do they come with all wiring, connectors and adapters you'll need to install them? I didn't notice any vehicle-specific installation options when I browsed the site.

Here a picture of the boost gauge that I built

I got Volts, Oil Temp, Engine Temp, and Water Temp. I love my scanguage, I will never give it up!

I ordered 2-5/8 boost and oil pressure gauges and 2-1/16 oil and water temp gauges that perfectly match my black face, chrome ring JWC tach down to the
Gauge face color,lighting and text and I comes with all ness art hardware except sensor port fittings

Installation of the gauge mount kit is really easy, and installation of the senders in the engine compartment is also pretty simple and straightforward. See here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-dummies.html

Read the pdf by KeithL for the sender install, and the one from me on getting things through the firewall and doing the inside wiring. Yes the wire from Craven was single strand which I didn't like so I got multi-strand. Like komet155, I have a thing for neat, clean, reversible installs so I kind of went off the deep end figuring that all out. It took a while but it's just about as clean as a factory install, and with the pdf I wrote up anyone reasonably competent with tools could easily do the same thing.

Agreed that the kit is expensive - for me it was the only choice for aesthetics.

If you want cheap, get the OBD2-Bluetooth gizmo and the Torque app. Then add a cellphone mount and you're done.

Way, how are the Scanguages you sell preprogrammed for oil temp when the car has no sensor/parameter for it connected to the OBDII port?

I've been using the wifi PLX Kiwi2 with the iphone. It's pretty simple to get set-up and the gauges look good on dashcommand (which isn't to say they match the mini in stock form, but you can download new skins). Check out this video to get a sense of what it looks like stock:

I'm pretty sure it can monitor oil pressure, assuming you have a sensor. I have a N14, which doesn't have a sensor, and I don't really know much about the N18.

And yeah, Cravenspeed makes a great mount that even includes a hidden charger, which is what I'm using:

http://www.cravenspeed.com/products/...nting-Kit.html

Wow. That's a ton of great info. Now I just need to makeup my mind no which way to go. Thanks. Will let every know what I end up with.

I bought the Marshall gages from Marshall and made my own mount.

I have boost/vacuum, oil temperature, water temperature and oil pressure gages.

My radar detector has a digital voltmeter that shows all the time except when it is giving a warning, so I didn't need a voltmeter in the gauge cluster.



I want to get an HFS4 meth injection system, I think I'll replace the oil temperature gauge with the gauge for the meth system, as oil temperature tracks the water temperature close enough that I don't think it is necessary.

Dave

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