army_rx8

hey i was about to order some Defi guages..but i was wondering what kind you guys would get...i.e. oil temp. water temp. fuel pres. EGT...etc.

Omicron

I'd like to replace the factory FAKE oil pressure gauge with a real one, and add oil temp and boost. :D

another8owner

i gave in and got the mazdaspeed bling bling guages, all 1400.00 worth of them. Just waiting for them to pass through customs.

army_rx8

Wow that is a whoel lot of bling. Wish i had tha tkinda money to put them in the center like that. But i'm going to opt for 3 guages running up the a-pillar. Hmm now to deciede which ones to get.

Oh and before anyoen goes crazy about the side-curtain airbags blowing the guages off at my face if i ever get into an accedent....the airbags are not located in the pillar..they are located in the roof..and they deploy downwards to cover the windows. hehe it comes in handy to own every single manuel that mazda has for the 8 (all 2400+ pages of them). All the a-pillar has is the srs symbol :D

takahashi

RENESIS is hot! So I concentrate on the oil and water temp. Oil pressure is good too to replace the fake one, as Omi said.

I will just get the one that Defi makes for MazdaSpeed, to go where the Navi monitor is. Unless you have one then... I think go for the smoker box, unless you are a smoker :D

army_rx8

yea those were the guages i was leaning towads buying. thanks all fo ryour input

Labop

army, you're putting them up the A-pillar? isn't that going to get in the way of the air bag?

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

Go here: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Gauges

And scroll down to post #6

Is this what you are after?

I would do Oil Temp, Exhaust Temp, and BOOST! (for later)

tokenbrit

By the 'bling bling' gauges, do you mean the ones that use the nav. display?? Or is it an add-on that looks (and functions) like the nav. display but without the nav. functions?? This would make sense to me as it equates with the high price tag.
Surely this is the case, because I can't imagine some mechanical gauges would cost that much.

Thanks.

BlueRenesis82

hey another8owner, when you get your mazdaspeed kit can u let me know how the gauge hood works? I bought the gauges and am doing something similar, but just not the kit.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Where can I get a pillar 'pod' mount for the '8?

S

army_rx8

Nemesis8 yea that is what i was going for. Nice pic i was looking for where tha twas b/c i had seen it a while ago but forgot where. LOL

Labop no mounting them on the a-pillar will not get in the way of the air bags. I already checked the mazda tech manuel on them and they deploy down from the ceiling.

Ahh now to buy the guages...why do good things cost sooo much oh well still less than the mazdaspeed guage cluster. :D

another8owner

i got these guages.




once they arrive i will post pictures of all the components.

shelleys_man_06

I think FEED has a gauge pod for the RX-8. Personally, I'd want one of each, in English units of course.

another8owner

feed guages face to the right, defi guages only come like they look in the picture. Also notice how the feed guage pod is a cover over the factory panel, the MS pod i was told bolts on from under the factory panel.

Omicron

Daaaaaamn... I'm jealous!

army_rx8

I was wondering..would a fuel pressure gauge show different reading depending on throttel position. Or would it stay constant? (like oil pressure?)


another8owner if you ever feel like gettign rid of tha tnice gauge cluster...lemme know :D hehe seriously i am jealous too.

BlueRenesis82

I actually have the guages, just not the pod, and they are super badass looking, with the whole startup and shutdown sequence. I am very excited to get cracking on my install once the white stuff is on the group here in wisconsin.

army_rx8

HEY BlueRenesis82 i was wonderign where you are going to mount the gauges? are you going to put them where the nav goes?

Sputnik

Oil pressure doesn't stay constant.

---jps

BlueRenesis82

I am planning on fabricating a gauge hood, similar to what the Mazdaspeed one looks like, but with contours on the top for the curve of the gauges, and facing the driver a bit more so it's easier to read when driving.

army_rx8

oil pressure does't stay constant....hmm learn somethign new every day. It doesn't fluxtuate based off of engine speed/load does it? How much does it move around and under what conditions. B/c the stock one(granted it is basicly just a switch either it's good or bad) doesn't move at all?

BlueRenesis82

I believe it varies by rpm and load.

Sputnik

It mostly fluxuates due to engine speed and temperature. When the engine is cold, the pressure will normally be higher. You get a much better idea of when an engine is warmed up enough to run hard by being familiar with oil pressure and temperature, then by water temp. What the acceptable range is for an RX8, I don't know. It differs between different engines.
The stock oil pressure guage is similar to what is on the Miata. The sender (the actual measuring item on the engine) sends a certain level of power (so that the guage reads in the middle of the guage), unless the pressure drops below a certain level. While that sender is a little cheaper than a standard variable sender, it is not widely assumed that this was done to be cheap. It is widely assumed that Mazda (and other car manufacturers) did this because sitting at a stoplight or similar, when most will glance at guages out of boredom (instead of when driving), they'd see the guage reading very low. These people would constantly bring the cars in to be looked at, and some wouldn't be comfortable with the way it operated even after it was explained to them (and some still didn't understand it, especially if you don't have a tech who can explain it to a layman). So, it was changed to more of an idiot light, which is more acceptable to most of the buyers. Nowadays, oil pressure problems are actually pretty rare while a stock engine is under warranty, so it's not something that really needs to be watched closely by drivers of stock cars anyway.

Those of us with Miatas who want a more accurate guage, who understand what it is actually telling us, can replace the stock sender with a standard sender, adjust the needle on the stock guage to our preference, and we get a working gauge. One would have to replace the gauge itself to get accruate PSI readings, but for the most part, you only need to see where it generally is to know it is working properly, so the stock guage with a variable sender does fine in most cases.

I don't remember if someone tried simply replacing the sender yet on an RX8, or if the Miata trick would work. It might just be much better all around to add a separate sender and guage.

---jps

Mikelikes2drive

The stock RX8 oil gauge is a switch. Racingbeat researched this while trying to tune the ECU and stated that the only time when the oil gauge changes is when it is critically low or something along those lines. Go research it... i read it either on the forums or on the website. i forget but the oil gauge is just a switch