Tuesday, September 04, 2012 - 10:07 pm, by: Peter Manolis(Grks1j)
Hi,
Was wondering if there is any risk of running cheap eBay gauges on my car?
Sounds like a dumb question but just want to know as I am planning to buy some , my concern lies with parts going to engine e.g. oil temp sensor , water sensor etc.
Any help would be appreciated.
Dan McColl Goo Roo Victoria (The Nazi State) Pretty Red Thing and The Black Rattler
Wednesday, September 05, 2012 - 07:52 am, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Dan McColl wrote on Tuesday, September 04, 2012 - 10:28 pm:
If the sensor fails it could dump said oil/coolant out of the engine and cause problems.
How exactly? Electrical gauges might leak electricity, but not fluids. If a sensor fails, it will stop sending electrical signals. If you want to run mechanical gauges, you could possibly have a problem. No one runs mechanical gauges inside the car anymore, as hot oil spurting all over the place at 100kph can be very distracting and not to good for your interior. I am not even sure they would be legal?
I assume you will be using a sandwich plate between the oil filter and block for oil temp and pressure, and an inline adaptor in your coolant pipe for the water temp? As long as these fittings are secure you will have no problems with losing fluids.
As long as a 'cheap' gauge reads consistent then you will be fine. What I mean here is your water temp gauge might actually read 5 degrees higher than true, but as long as it always reads 5 degrees higher then you can recognise normal from abnormal. Unless you have some other device to actually measure the true coolant temp, you will never know it is 5 degrees high.
With oil pressure- you need one that reads up to somewhere around 150 PSI min. Mine only reads to 100PSI and it reads about 80 at idle (cold) but goes off the scale with a tap of the throttle. Still lets you know if there is a massive drop.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012 - 12:34 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
Keep in mind you pay for what you get, thus if you go for a cheaper ebay one the quality will be lacking, they will probably be inaccurate and fail prematurely.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012 - 06:06 pm, by: Aaron Casey(Blownminiturbo)
ben. i have seen a few cheap aftermarket oil pressure gauges leaking oil from where the connector goes onto the sender.. so must mean diaphram problems. cant remember the brands though, one was a calibre one from ubercrap lol
Saturday, September 08, 2012 - 07:23 am, by: Julian Mazur(Jules30)
Here's some info for you.
If they're really cheap, they are usually electrical. BUT all that is supplied is the gauge, meaning you need to supply sensors and stuff. I bought a water and oil temp gauge for about $12.99 ea off eBay for my Patrol but all I got was a gauge, by the time I bought sensors, etc I may as well have bought a dearer complete gauge (which I did).
I bought a cheap electric/digital boost gauge for my soarer, about $45 compared to $200 for an autometer and everything appears ok. As I run stock boost the diaphragm won't be stretched too far and shouldn't tear.
Mechanical oil pressure gauges are more reliable and less prone to failure but hard to run a 3mil plastic line full of oil without kinking it or tearing it. All my race cars ran mechanic oil pressure gauges.
Don't buy super cheap, or from Supercheap and you should be ok,
Darren Bauer TryHard Victoria Soarer TT & Aristo TT
Monday, March 25, 2013 - 08:14 pm, by: Darren Bauer(Dazmon)
Hi, hoping someone can help me. Ben seems to know all the stats for gauges etc. I finally finished my sender & gauge installation, I've used Speco throughout coz I'll never be able to afford those nice Defi ones and Autometer read in °F instead of C etc. My elec oil pressure gauge only goes to 100psi, which seems enough for most time except harsh acceleration. Also my elec oil temp gauge takes a long time to catch up to the water temp. I'm assuming the running water temp is 90° and the oil temp gauge starts at 50° and takes a while to even pass that, eventually settling at 90° as well. Does this seem about right? I was concerned at first when it took so long to get going, I really thought I'd done something wrong.
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