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Opinion Needed: 2003 Monte Carlo

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Old Jun 22, 2024 | 07:12 PM
  #11  
bumpin96monte's Avatar
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Originally Posted by Lee Spencer
Have any of you guys put in aftermarket gauges? I don't want to change out the stock cluster, but I thought about those cups that mount on the A-pillar for two or three gauges for more precise oil and water temps, and perhaps voltage. Any other ideas?
Yes, I've got a 3 gauge pillar in my monte now - wideband AFR, oil pressure, and boost.

Personally I hate it. The one I got was a limited run specific for 5th gen montes, but even still the fitment is pretty poor - its obviously a tacked on chunk of plastic. Ive never been happy with how it fits even after modification. Its on the long term to do list to do fix somehow.

The worst thing for me is that the gauges are hard to read. All of them are in a completely different focal plane from the main dash cluster, and they're all different distances from each other. To make things worse, 2 of the 3 I run are analog, so you've actually got to focus to figure out where the needle is on the scale. So I find myself taking my eyes off the road too long trying to figure out what they're saying.

Of course my purpose for them was a bit different - they were intended for a performance build, so the time I really care about their info is at full throttle. At full throttle, theres no way I can keep an eye on them at all. I ended up putting a warning light on the oil pressure and got a wideband with a color scale AFR - so that way if I see anything go red out of my peripheral vision, I know to let off. For what it sounds like you're looking for - just generally keeping tabs on the engine, it probably wouldn't be as frustrating.

I will say though, it sounds like the info you're interested in is stuff the pcm already measures. Id strongly consider a single pod mounted up by the other gauges with a OBD2 gauge like an aeroforce or something. You don't really need a bunch of separate guages for those - you can easily flip between parameters (including practically everything else the pcm reads / outputs) on a single guage depending what you want to look at for that moment.

If youre dead set on the pillar, I'd get it down as low and close to the distance from your head as the stock gauges so you've got an easier time seeing the info.
 

Last edited by bumpin96monte; Jun 22, 2024 at 07:15 PM.
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