Comments on: MF Exclusive: JCW Releases Gauge Kit

By: Farfel

Farfel — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:06:00 +0000

I would prefer it if they nuked the center speedo and put a multi-gauge array there instead. I know it’s historic and all that but I hate that thing.

By: Ausom

Ausom — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:10:43 +0000

Am I correct in thinking that the credos for the MINI’s interior is simplicity? What happened to just having the simple large speedo dial in the centre of the dash?

By: Fatih Veyseller

Fatih Veyseller — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:57:51 +0000

Lateral G gauge and Temp gauge.. sounds good for r56s. motoring will be more enjoyful now.

By: golden_child

golden_child — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:15:22 +0000

Didn’t they already offer the Lateral G gauge. Wasn’t it called the “Motormate G-Whiz?”

http://www.motormate.com/gwhiz/index.php

By: misslindsey

misslindsey — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:43:39 +0000

I can't seem to find the gauges themselves at the moment, but $328 for the kit + ~$200 for gauges = $530 + $100 to install (instructions say 1 hour) = ~$650.

Sounds a little high, guess I'll have to pick up the phone and see what the dealership actually quotes. $650 for gauges that don't match well and aren't exactly what I wanted might be a deal breaker.

By: Nushpapa

Nushpapa — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:04:20 +0000

Will this be standard on all new JCWs? or will it be an option?

By: John

John — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:13:08 +0000

Looks like on Pelican Parts the gauges are around $93 and the main interface is around $328 for a non-Nav version (someone double-check that!). I wonder what the install would cost.

By: rs

rs — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:17:06 +0000

It’s interesting that the MINI Challenge car doesn’t have aux gauges but rather a scanguage looking device planted on the face of the tach and a more substantial looking device planted over where the radio controls should go. I wonder what information they put out….

http://motoringfile.com/pictures/challenge_3.jpg

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:39:35 +0000

These are listed @ http://www.realoem.com already. With individual part numbers. Go GET ‘em!

By: J Ryan

J Ryan — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:35:03 +0000

Not so crazy about the offering, the temp gauge should be part of the car from day one, especially when MINI does not offer the variable redline as other BMWs (which also are missing their temp gauge now). Having to pay $500 to get something that should have been there seems excessive.

I also agree the color should have match the rest of the gauges better, both day and night. So it does not look like an afterthought.

If JCW is serious, they should offer a choice of water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, and voltage. And let us pick what we want, those gauges allows us to know when we can open it up, when it is working too hard, and when some components are beginning to fail before complete failure.

Analog gauges like G-meter, and torque meter are very useless in my opinion. They are more like gadgets I expect to see in a Scion xB.

By: glangford

glangford — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:22:15 +0000

Gabe, Sorry for the double post. You can delete one they both say effectively the same thing.

By: rs

rs — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:22:04 +0000

Temp gauge is nice. Where's the rest? JCW...It will cost a bazillion dollars.

Temp Oil Pressure Boost

Enough of the cutesy stuff and give us insight into our cars fer cryin out loud!!!!

By: Gabe

Gabe — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:33:09 +0000

@glangford: Apparently Akismet had tagged the IP those comments were posted under as suspicious. It's automated so we have no control over it. The process is right 99% of the time.

By: glangford

glangford — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:29:24 +0000

why are my comments not showing up when submitted??

By: glangford

glangford — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:28:32 +0000

Everyone seems to clammer for a temp gauge and I want one too, but I'm not really sure for sudden failures they buy you all that much. If the sensor response time is greater than the 'time to effect', or the time from initial failure to damage, it doesn't buy you anything. The response time is greatly influenced by the mass around it and the fluid condition, whether its compressed liquid or superheated steam. In that light I'm not sure the gauge buys you much over the yellow light, red light warning system. An aftermarket gauge I saw using a sensor tapped into the coolant tank may respond so slowly to say a stuck thermostat as to be near useless to detecting and preventing damage in the engine block.

Yes, I still want one as I think there is some real value to keep track of your coolant system performance over time and understanding the 'nominal' behavior of the gauge. Just don't assume it will be the end all in preventing all damage due to all coolant system failiures.

By: glangford

glangford — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:21:49 +0000

In reality, I'm not sure any gauge is much better than a warning light, although for the extra comfort factor I'm going to go for temperature and to match and be symmetric, the torque.

For temperature, the problem is sensor location, sensor response time (somewhat based on location) and 'time to effect'. If the time to effect, the time from failure to catastrophic damage is less than the sensor response time you are hosed. Sensor response time will greatly be influence by where you put it and is affected by mass around it and condition of the fluid. You may need to boil away the fluid (compressed liquid near the boiling point) and expose the sensor to superheated steam to know you are in trouble and at that point real damage may have already occurred. In that regard it may not be much more useful than the warning light, yellow, then red. An aftermarket gauge I saw putting a sensor into the coolant overflow may not really respond quick enough to do much good. The real benefit is being able to notice trends over time of the performance of your coolant system like intermitent thermostat sticking and just changes in the gauge behavior, but probably not sudden failure detection and damage protection.

By: GregW

GregW — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:27:51 +0000

Call me old fashioned but the gauges a sporty car needs is – coolant temperature (especially in MINI with the failing thermostats and expansion tanks) and oil pressure. Without these you are relying on those warning lights to come on when too late. All the other stuff is baggage.

By: tony

tony — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:26:04 +0000

From page 12 of the pdf instructions it looks like you can specifiy what gauges you get via dip switches on the controll module similar to the PLX gauges.

Shame the couldn't get it to match the rest of the OEM gauges though.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:25:37 +0000

The gauge face color difference looks to aftermarket-like for me to go with these as well, although I’d rather see MINI offer matching black faces for the tach pod and center pie plate instead of white auxiliary gauges.

By: glangford

glangford — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:14:41 +0000

Yea, I’m going to go for coolant temp and torque gauge. I like the look of the gauges. Not sure of the cost though. I’m betting not too bad though. Its not a ‘true gauge’. It’s a tie in to an existing piece of digital data already available to the OBC through existing sensors and then converted from digital to analog (DC volts probably) to read out in the gauge in analog format. Scan gauge II will currently read water temp, but not as clean looking.