Gauges Vs. OBDII Reader + App
 

Hey guys, feel free to move my thread if I'm posting in the wrong area.

I've been looking at getting an Oil Pressure and Temp gauge for some time. Was gonna go with Tanabe brand ones, but now I'm realizing it might be cheaper to go with an Android tablet, the Torque (or other) app, and a bluetooth OBDII adapter.

Any reason I should go with one over the other?
The only thing I can think of is the refresh rate/how quickly it sends, in which case I wanted to ask for recommendations for apps and bluetooth adapters, lol.

Try oft, have both

I know OFT offers a lot more like tuning, but a smaller screen a slightly higher price, I've kinda taken it out of the equation. Though I plan on picking one up if I ever choose to get UELs.

Have you considered a scangauge II?

Never knew of it until now. It looks pretty good, however, I get some discounts on Android tablets lol, and I find more use for the tablet outside the car for a similar/lower price point. That's a pretty nifty suggestion though!

Depends on what you want to get out of the gauges.

For simple monitoring, you're perfectly fine with a OBD-II reader. It's cheaper and there's nothing to screw up.

Standalone gauges are better from a functionality and are easier to read, especially at the track. Tablets, while nice, sometimes have too much glare or are otherwise difficult to read when you are scanning for something for a split second.

I have used both (Aim Solo DL, Pivot OBD-II gauge, as well as standalone Blitz Racing Meter SD gauges) and I prefer standalone gauges for track use. For street use, it's whatever you prefer.

-alex

You won't get oil pressure from OBDII unfortunately.

As I'm researching I'm starting to come across this info. Damn :/ on the huge Torque app thread I don't see anyone that got it to work. I feel like Oil Press is an important one.

Street use, yes. But as stated above I guess Torque/OBD won't read Oil Pressure so that kinda answers my question.

For oil pressure you can either use the oil galley plug near the throttle body and in front of the intake manifold, or if you get an oil cooler you can get on that supports a pressure sensor in the sandwich plate.

Might end up just getting an Oil pressure gauge and then go with the OBD Tablet combo later on.
Guess this thread/question has been resolved. Thanks all!

They didn't get it to work because the car does not have an oil pressure transducer and does not have the actual oil pressure data in the computer. There's an oil pressure switch that just lights up an idiot light on the dash when your pressure drops to something ridiculously low like 3 psi, but it doesn't provide the actual pressure.

But, as has been noted, there is a spare port in the oil gallery right on top of the motor where you can install a pressure sender, and they also left a pass through hole in the firewall for aftermarket gauge lines. I bought a digital aircraft oil pressure gauge that will eventually go where that stupid digital clock is in the center stack, when I get around to installing it.

This is exactly right the oil pressure light is like the older miatas or older cars for some reason it's just a switch with an ON and OFF value that happens to engage at a low psi. It'd be cool if it actually was a pressure unit, it would be really useful with a limp home table that engages at a certain pressure for safety, really could help the turbo aftermarket :lol:

There's also oil filter sandwich adapters if you want to run more than one sensor from the engine.

-alex