Gauges

[Bugger]

I am installing some new gauges in my bug. The fuel gauge doesn't work, so I ordered a new one and I ordered a tach, but have space for one more 2 1/16th inch gauge in my setup. All I will have including the gauges I have ordered are speedo, fuel and tach. I am using VDO ****pit white gauges. My choices are oil temp, oil pressure, or volts.

[freekazoid]

Well I might say that oil temp or pressure is better than volts. I would probably do temp, its a crucial condition of how the car is performing and you can actually gauge pressure from temp readings if you know what range temp if normal on the gauge. If the temp gets to high you know your going to be loosing pressure. Or you could use the pressure gauge and have a warning light hooked up to a gene burg dip stick temp sender. Thats actually what I'm doing. I got a temp and pressure gauge but decided to not use them right now. I'm just hooking up three led's aside from my tach/speedo/fuel. One for turn signal, one for gen/alt light and the other for the oil pressure warning. The oil pressure warning light will have duel functionality because you can hook it up with the temp dipstick so that the light flashes when oil is passed a point or stays on when pressure drops.

[Bugger]

I like the idea of using warning lights, I think I will go with oil temp and eventually hook up a warning light for oil pressure.

[Bugger]

Okay, I found out more on this subject. The stock bug cluster has a warning light for low oil pressure and low volts, which are supposedly pretty good according to gene berg. He says that the aftermarket temp sensors are no good, what is your experiance with them? Also I am having a hard time posting pics, I shrink them with a program and can't get them below 100kb. I want to post some pics of the installation of the gauges in the custom panels that I made.

[freekazoid]

Originally Posted by Bugger

Okay, I found out more on this subject. The stock bug cluster has a warning light for low oil pressure and low volts, which are supposedly pretty good according to gene berg. He says that the aftermarket temp sensors are no good, what is your experiance with them? Also I am having a hard time posting pics, I shrink them with a program and can't get them below 100kb. I want to post some pics of the installation of the gauges in the custom panels that I made.

I don't have any first hand experience with the aftermarket temp sensors, I've basically been in the same boat as you for the past few months on trying to decide my gauge configuration. But yes those stock warning lights are exactly what i'm using just with led's. I've read a decent amount on here and other forums about how the temp senors can be slow to react and to really get a real reliable oil temp you basiclly need to tap the case. I'm using VDO gauges and I know there is a connector that allows you to connect a pressure and temp senor to the stock pressure switch, but same problem of slow and not very accurate readings. Then again I think if you take the time to learn how the gauges function (what their typical readings are) with your engine you can learn how to spot out warning signs. I wish I knew this stuff before i got all excited and bought more gauges and senders than i'm now planning on using. BTW I have a VDO temp sender 323 064D that replaces the oil pressure relief plug for what is probably one of the better places to get a temp reading without tapping the case. I'm not going to be using it or the gauge either, so please take the sender off my hands if your looking for one.

I've never tried posting pics on this forums, shouldn't be too hard. Maybe sign up for a pic hosting service like photobucket and link the pics from there.

[Bugger]

Thanks for the reply, maybe i will just make a new panel that will fit my seatbelt/brake light instead of another gauge for now.