Fitting after market instrument gauges to a 1998 Z3 2.8 (prefacelift)
- Thread starter PeterJ
- Start date
I can't work out how to comment on each photo! But the gauges are oil Temp, oil Press & (real) water temp. The A pillar gauge is Air Fuel Ratio (& before you ask, yes, it is all the same car & was converted from Auto to Manual
Hi Peter, more details please, looks good, where did the gauge panel come from.
Have a quick view of this video. It shows how to add the images in to the text...
the oil sensor distribution block for both the oil temperature & oil pressure gauge here (keep stock oil pressure sensor/warning light unchanged) http://store.bimmerworld.com/oil-distributionsending-block-p1250.aspx
Angled triple gauge mount here, but I think they do not sell them any more: http://www.speeding.co.uk/acatalog/Race_X_Interior.html
but I think these are the same:
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/din-gauge
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/din-gauge
choice of gauges important. My criteria in order of priority: 1. White needle pointers (match Stock Speedo etc), 2. Full Sweep 270 degree (electrical, NOT mechanical)) 3. Red background light. After looking at so many gauges it nearly drove me nuts (most gauges have red needle pointers!), I finally settled on STACK Gauges. I choose Water Temp (Celsius), Oil Temp (Celsius) and Oil pressure (psi). Note that is two metric and one imperial. Metric gauges come with metric sensor threads & imperial gauges come with imperial sensor threads, so I needed a 'imperial to metric' adaptor for the Oil Press gauge (psi). I choose psi because ...well, just looks & reads better than bar!!. I could have purchased the 'Pro-control' gauges, but did not like the look of the ugly two buttons on the face so went for the 'professional Stepped Motor Analogue (full sweep electric)' as they give the best traditional look that I am after and best readability. The only negative is that they have a white background light instead of red so does not match the OEM instruments at night, but this still looks good as it is on the centre console not by the Speedo etc
http://www.stackltd.com/instruments.html#Stepper
http://www.stackltd.com/instruments.html#Stepper
The Air Fuel Ratio Gauge was put on at the request of RUMA tuning who did my custom ecu remap to tune the engine so that all the mods work together properly. As there was no more room on the centre console, I went for a pillar pod on the drivers A pillar and had both A pillars trimmed in to match when I had the car retrimmed. The Logworks software reads the information directly to the digital (red LED) gauge and can plug into my lap top via a USB socket in the glove box. I would have preferred an analogue gauge, but needed the link to the lap top so had to go for the digital LED. Looks good though
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/db.php
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/db.php
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I was advised to keep the stock clock thing connected because apparently it has other functions, so I hid it behind the centre console (the actual clock did not work anyway) & I was strongly advised not to disconnect it. The switches for the soft top, air con, ASC were easy to move and as I have now completely removed the ASC system including the ASC butterfly valve in the intake, the ASC button has no function. You can see in some of the pictures that I replaced the old square air con switch with the better looking round button air con switch
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0.5Kg Gear Shift Knob & Matching Handbrake Handle from here: http://www.storm-motorwerks.com/interior/bmw/shift_knobs_v1/
Peterj, nice job and looks factory from the pics! I will be looking at doing this once my car is home. JIM