I had been dabbling around with the idea of changing the gauge faces on my stock Miata gauge cluster but a few things came across my mind such as pros and cons of why would I want to keep the gauge cluster stock?

The pros of keeping the gauge cluster stock:
1. Simplicity
2. Already functioning
3. Legal (Motor Vehicle Division requirements)

The cons of keeping the gauge cluster stock:
1. Gauges aren’t 100% accurate
2. Tired and old
3. Starts to squeak more often with the speedometer
4. Needles warble more with new harmonics from the 5-oh motor.
5. Mix of mechanics and electronics…
6. Positioning of tach and speedo are reversed
7. Oil Pressure Gauge doesn’t function accurately
8. Coolant gauge doesn’t function accurately

The cons won. I figured that I would go ahead and create my own gauge cluster with gauges that i could use and not have lame duplicates. I already have a vacuum, oil pressure, and coolant temperature gauges on the a-pillar. I had acquired them with the intention to provide me more accurate information of what’s really going on in the engine. To support the con number 7 and 8, the autometer gauges I have read back 40psi for oil pressure at warm idle. The miata oil pressure gauge reads between 55 and 60. I know this is a simple resistor issue, but if I can’t have a trustworthy gauge, I don’t want it. The coolant gauge on the stock gauge moves like a millimeter for every 40 degrees. This is unacceptable. I need something more accurate for my own peace of mind.

With the autometer gauges in the pillar for vacuum, oil pressure, and coolant… I figured that I would go ahead and make my own gauge cluster with gauges that could be of use and flip the two gauges, the tach and the speedometer.

Here are the pictures of what I’ve done:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.