Reliable, accurate, affordable gauges?

[osdecar]

Hi guys,

I want to measure water temp, oil temp and oil pressure.

Obviously, the cheap crap from ebay will be unreliable and won't last very long, and the top end brands costing +£100 surely will work fine.

But what about all the rest in the mid-range prices?

Someone suggested me to look at VDO and STACK, but they look very old fashioned, I'd rather have something digital, as I think it's easier to read...

What else do you recommend me?

[tigamilla]

osdecar said:

Hi guys,

I want to measure water temp, oil temp and oil pressure.

Obviously, the cheap crap from ebay will be unreliable and won't last very long, and the top end brands costing +£100 surely will work fine.

But what about all the rest in the mid-range prices?

Someone suggested me to look at VDO and STACK, but they look very old fashioned, I'd rather have something digital, as I think it's easier to read...

What else do you recommend me?

If you want digital - why not just go for a bluetooth OBD2 reader and an old phone that you can sturdily mount (assuming your ECU can see these values from existing sensors)?

[osdecar]

tigamilla said:

If you want digital - why not just go for a bluetooth OBD2 reader and an old phone that you can sturdily mount (assuming your ECU can see these values from existing sensors)?

That's exactly the reason, my OBD does not measure oil pressure nor oil temperature.

Plus, I have already done all the installation and harness using eBay crappy gauges for testing in the next trackday, and I want to know what brand to use when these fail and have to improve the car.

[gruffalo]

Have a look at SPA gauges.

[osdecar]

For what I've been looking, SPA is way more expensive than VDO or STACK.

I think I have to give up the quality affordable digital gauges. As no one seems to do them, it's either classy looks analogue gauges, or an aftermarket dashboard.

Looking at analogue gauges, STACK professional line seems to be what I'm looking for, but it's still quite expensive.

I've found a brand called prosport which seems to raise mixed opinions, specially about the sender unit quality. But this reviews mainly about turbo boost gauges, I don;t know if they have problems with temperature senders too.

Seems like the least I will be paying for all three is around £250 which seems stupid given the small amount of electronics inside one of this things and all the modern electronic stuff you can buy for that money these days...

Any other recommendations?

[motorhole]

gruffalo said:

Have a look at SPA gauges.

Seconded. Seem expensive on the face of it but they do a dual gauge which is pretty useful - I have a dual oil temp/oil pressure gauge of theirs - so kind of like getting two for one I guess?? Also handy when space is at a premium.

[rxe]

https://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products.php

I’ve got one of their handheld oxygen sensors - works very well.

[Al Murphy]

Have you looked at Autometer gauges? They are a US company but there are a few importers of their stuff. Be sure to get genuine ones, there are knock offs available on the usual auction sites. I've used them in the past, never had any failures and they are available for a sensible budget.

Al

[osdecar]

I ended up buying the pro-sport ones that I mentioned in a previous message.

They seem to be very popular in some JDM forums, and most of the people complaining had their issues solved by their after-sales service.

So seems like a good product for a fair price to me. Also the videos in youtube looked quite good. Let's see how they perform when installed.