[BC42875]

Has anyone heard of gauge pillars avaliable for the Intrepids? There was talk of making one for the RT which would fit the others but I can't seem to find them. If there's not any out there right now I'm gonna fiberglass something up. That's what we did for my buddies car. It came out all right.

Let me know

 

[Warlord187]

What are guage pillars anyway?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I have no clue either??

 

[JoeKD]

Guage pillars are simply a housing made to hold a guage on your windshield pillar. This way you can mount one or two guages on the plastic to the far left of your windshield. Being an EX-ford guy I have seen them in numerous Mustangs and SHO's.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I gotcha. I've seen those before

 

[JoeKD]

here's what they look like installed, still nothing listed for Intrepids though.autometer pods

 

[Warlord187]

Ahhhh, so they are exactly what they are named!

I wouldn't be able to put them on mine anyway because I have tweeters mounted on my A-pillars (they came that way from the factory).

 

[JoeKD]

True enough, the price we pay to have the Infinity system. It would be nice to add an oil pressure gauge though.

 

[BC42875]

Hey all,

My friend and I are looking into making it for the Intrepid. We're looking into making a mold and possibly selling them. Would anyone be interested in buying them? Let me know.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Well, if you do make them, this is the place to sell them

 

[Warlord187]

Depending on the price, I may be interested in them.

I looked more closly at the A-pillar and it turns out that a guage might be able to be mounted there since the tweeter isn't mounted on the A-pillar (just next to it on the door).

 

[Thrasher]

I saw em in a Dodge Ram, err...wait..maybe those were tweeters in the pillars, not gauges. nevermind.

but I have seen those gauges on the pillars, I dunno, I'm kinda mixed on that.

 

[1mz-fe]

if i could find a good place to mount gauges i would work with some haste to install a vacuum gauge, an ammeter (both easy) and then try to slide in an oil pressure gauge. being a raised die-hard truck guy i miss all the "guy" instruments that come with the territory. it's better to see a trend and shut down before the idiot light comes on. if it saves you a dead battery or a vacuum leak once, not to mention an oil system malfunction, all the gauges are paid for right there.

 

[Barnz]

I saw an Eclipse with the gauge pillar, it looked VERY nice, are the gauges something a shadetree mechanic like myself can hook up?

 

[1mz-fe]

the vacuum is easy, you just find a vacuum hose and buy a cheap T connector and run a line inside to the gauge. the ammeter can't be very hard, i'm sure someone that's good with electrical stuff could explain it better than i could. the oil pressure is going to be more difficult, i haven't quite figured out where or how to install it. i wish someone with more knowledge could do the mod and then tell the rest of us how.

 

[JoeKD]

oil pressure guages are usually installed by running a T or Y fitting off the fitting that is already in place for the idiot light sensor. Very easy to do.

 

[Warlord187]

Let's say I installed a vacuum guage and an oil pressure guage. Wow, look at those guages with all those numbers! What do they mean???



Thanks.

 

[1mz-fe]

joekd, are you talking about putting a T connector on the area where the sending unit is for the low-pressure light? what type of line do you have to run to the gauge in that instance?

warlord, the whole point of gauges is to learn what normal indications are and then be able to spot problems based on that. for instance, if you see that your ammeter is showing a constant discharge, you probably need to take your alternator off and have it benched. or, if your oil pressure is low, it could be an indication of serious problems. just like the stock temp gauge...you know what's normal, if you see it suddenly going up then you will go and shut the car down and do some investigation, right? right.

and the point of a vacuum gauge is twofold. 1 you can tell if you have a vacuum system problem, aka LEAK. 2 you can measure fuel economy with it. numbers are different for different cars, but i recall someone here having done a vac gauge with a 2nd gen trep and said if you can keep it above 15psi then you are getting best economy.

 

[Warlord187]

Thanks 97.

Let's hope that after a guage is installed there wasn't already some problem. If so, than you'll think the problem is a normal guage reading.

 

[1mz-fe]

the key is to drive it across a wide variety of speeds and throttle position so you can tell exactly what high and low tolerances are. like for instance if one day you were cruising near the century mark and your oil pressure was 5psi you'd want to shut down in a hurry...