Gauges

[GTS4dood]

what is the difference between "mechanical" and " "electrical". im buying for xmas and i dont know which to buy and why! can someone shed some light on this?

[AzzurrA]

okay...

Mechanical: The guage itself acts as the sensor... i.e. if you've got a Mechanical boost guage, the vacuum (boost) line will plug directly into the back of the guage, and this is used for the input for the readout...

Electrical: The guage gets its data from a seperate sender. I.e. in the example of a boost guage again, there would be a seperate sender mounted in the engine bay somewhere, that the boost line plugs into... the Sender then converts the boost pressure into electronic data, and transmits it to the guage, which then displays it for you...

So, in conclusion, if you're looking for things like Oil Pressure, Oil Temperature, Water Temperature etc, try and get Electronic, as nothing worse than driving along, and getting boiling hot oil squirted on your face if the line/guage fails or something.

(Well, thats my interpretation of things, someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong)

[Duncan]

Sounds right to me, and of course oil temp and pressure mechanical are illegal inside a cabin for that reason.

Electric gauges cost a fair bit more, but there is a good reason

[someonestolecc]

The only mechanical gauge I'd have is boost.

Another way to think about it is the gauge needs smething to detect what it's actually reading right? something that detects the temp/pressure/whatever.

In an electrical, the sender sits in the engine bay and sends an electrical signal to the gauge by a wire to tell it what value to display with the needle.

With a mechanical, you have to take whatever you're measuring and plug it straight into the gauge.. so your oil line has to go into the cabin to plug into the gauge. Ugly stuff.

[Craved]

anyone seen the price of electric fuel pressure guages??? they are like $900 from autometer...

and only $160 for Mech style fuel pressure...

so you definately pay for it. but the std ones like oil pres. and temp are still cheap for electric guages.

[someonestolecc]

Ouch. I would NOT pay a. for american gauges b. that much.

Greddy electrical gauges go for 180-200 second hand on the forums. Funnily I have a water one ready to go (black face) if anyone wants (shameless plug).

[GTS4dood]

Cheers! thats pretty clear. i think that electric autometer one can stay in the shop. thats ridiculous. i also saw one that was liquid filled? whats the go with that. it sold for $60 on ebay. i thought that sounded like a sweet price.

[chaos]

Ouch. I would NOT pay a. for american gauges b. that much.

Greddy electrical gauges go for 180-200 second hand on the forums. Funnily I have a water one ready to go (black face) if anyone wants (shameless plug).

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Nengun have them around $220-$280 brand new.