A quick guide to installing gauges in center dash of ms3.
1.Open glove box
2. Pull up on strip of plastic that runs from glove box to radio display. Start from middle. Has about 4 pop clips.
3. Remove two screws which hold center vent piece. Can be pulled up and out. Has about 4 pop clips so be careful not to break anything.
4. Top of Glove box has a few screws which hold it and also about 4 pop clips. There is also 2?+ screws/fasteners underneath holding it also. Plastic shield must be removed to access these I think. Once fasteners/all screws are removed from glove box the whole assembly/lower half of the dash will pull strait out. Plastic edge must be worked over kick panel plastic near passenger door foot well. Sort of a PITA. Dont bother trying to take the door off the glove box it all comes out all together.
5. Depending on where you get power from depends on what you need to do next. I got power from splicing into cigarette lighter line. I removed the two screws which hold the top of the radio/display. The radio will pull strait out as those are the only screws. There are two lower pop clips which hold it also. Disconnect all harnesses and antenna. I also removed the shifters plastic assembly which holds the boot. Take out the ash tray. This exposes the two screws which hold the climate control assembly from the bottom. Top has two pop clips I think. Once these are out it can be pulled strait out. This was the only way I could get enough access to run a 12v line up though the dash behind everything to the cig lighter. The lighter has lines for illumination and 12v 10amp. Technically you could run both but as the illumination line is so small I didnt want to overload it running three bulbs in the gauges.
6. If you want to get power from the fuse panel by adding a jumper fuse or the like skip taking out the radio or anything else in step 5. Its not too bad once I figured out there were 2 screws holding the base of the climate controls which are kind of hidden from view. I spent a lot of time 1hrs+ just trying to figure how to get everything out without breaking anything. Just being careful. I might go the fuse box route if I did it again to save and hour or so but I not a fan of the piggy back fuses.
7. Once the glove box is out you have easy access the main engine wire harness and grommet. There are two plastic nipples in the grommet, I just punched through the top one and ran my vacuum lines through.. I left a little slack to make sure the glove box didnt hang up on anything going back in. I zip tied everything up and out of the way.
8. Once in the engine bay I ran the line according to the second diagram "yellow line". Behind all the heat shielding from the turbo/exhaust. I turned in at about the brake booster and headed to the BOV area. I put plastic flex guard to have a factory look and hopefully protect the lines from heat/rubbing.
9. I removed the stock intercooler cover 2 10mm bolts to gain access to the BOV line. Do this first before running the line as it gives you more access behind the intercooler from running line. Dont touch the intercooler fins. They bend super easy.
10. Cut in the middle and tees into it. For me I ran silicon rubber line all the way to near the firewall where the main harness it and have my Rubber to plastic hardware/fitting there. The plastic line that came with the gauges are not long enough to reach all the way anyway. The silicon will be more resistant to heat also.
11. Put everything back the way it came off. Dont worry the dash isnt as bad to put back in as it looks. Check for leaks and use thread sealer or the tape on connections.
12. As far the lotek pod I have I just sanded and shaped it for the best fit. You have to cut out most of the stock peice near the vent for clearence of the gauges. Take your time and dont scratch the dash. I left it the color it came. Black. The texure is not perfect but it would take sanding and painting it get it perfect. Its a pretty good match. I used 3 screws on each side to hold the panel down and countersinked them for a flush look. It needs at least a hour of sanding to get a decenet fit. Good luck.
I have taken it all apart and sanded and couter sinked the screw holes and sanded the overlay to a more percise fit so it even better than in these picture.
I ran my air compressor down to 20/15/10/5 psi and plugged it into the beginning of the boost gauge line to check for accuracy or leaks. This will give you some piece of mind that that what you are seeing is what the engine is getting. You can also do this as a quick way to set up a MBC. Dial in pressure you want and adjust the springs tension until it starts to leak. It should be close if not spot on if you compressor gauge is accurate.
I have a mechanical boost/vacuum gauge so the gauge has issues with flutter or jumping around. At the BOV after the tee I actually have a piece of 5/16 line spiced in to take up some volume in the line to smooth out the signal going to the gauges. I also have a piece of a smaller tee which I cut off to act as a bottleneck before the 5/16" line to slow the signal even more. Only trade off is a 5-10% reduction in response time but 95% of the flutter is gone. Mechanical gauges tend to have some noise and this takes care of most of it. Response is still instant. Without this stock boost would flutter 2-3 psi on WOT and it was hard to see the exact pressure. Think of it like a capacitor which smoothes out the signal.
WARNING:THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE SO PLEASE USE COMMON SENCE AND I AM NOT RESPONSABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU DO TO YOU CAR.
1.Open glove box
2. Pull up on strip of plastic that runs from glove box to radio display. Start from middle. Has about 4 pop clips.
3. Remove two screws which hold center vent piece. Can be pulled up and out. Has about 4 pop clips so be careful not to break anything.
4. Top of Glove box has a few screws which hold it and also about 4 pop clips. There is also 2?+ screws/fasteners underneath holding it also. Plastic shield must be removed to access these I think. Once fasteners/all screws are removed from glove box the whole assembly/lower half of the dash will pull strait out. Plastic edge must be worked over kick panel plastic near passenger door foot well. Sort of a PITA. Dont bother trying to take the door off the glove box it all comes out all together.
5. Depending on where you get power from depends on what you need to do next. I got power from splicing into cigarette lighter line. I removed the two screws which hold the top of the radio/display. The radio will pull strait out as those are the only screws. There are two lower pop clips which hold it also. Disconnect all harnesses and antenna. I also removed the shifters plastic assembly which holds the boot. Take out the ash tray. This exposes the two screws which hold the climate control assembly from the bottom. Top has two pop clips I think. Once these are out it can be pulled strait out. This was the only way I could get enough access to run a 12v line up though the dash behind everything to the cig lighter. The lighter has lines for illumination and 12v 10amp. Technically you could run both but as the illumination line is so small I didnt want to overload it running three bulbs in the gauges.
6. If you want to get power from the fuse panel by adding a jumper fuse or the like skip taking out the radio or anything else in step 5. Its not too bad once I figured out there were 2 screws holding the base of the climate controls which are kind of hidden from view. I spent a lot of time 1hrs+ just trying to figure how to get everything out without breaking anything. Just being careful. I might go the fuse box route if I did it again to save and hour or so but I not a fan of the piggy back fuses.
7. Once the glove box is out you have easy access the main engine wire harness and grommet. There are two plastic nipples in the grommet, I just punched through the top one and ran my vacuum lines through.. I left a little slack to make sure the glove box didnt hang up on anything going back in. I zip tied everything up and out of the way.
8. Once in the engine bay I ran the line according to the second diagram "yellow line". Behind all the heat shielding from the turbo/exhaust. I turned in at about the brake booster and headed to the BOV area. I put plastic flex guard to have a factory look and hopefully protect the lines from heat/rubbing.
9. I removed the stock intercooler cover 2 10mm bolts to gain access to the BOV line. Do this first before running the line as it gives you more access behind the intercooler from running line. Dont touch the intercooler fins. They bend super easy.
10. Cut in the middle and tees into it. For me I ran silicon rubber line all the way to near the firewall where the main harness it and have my Rubber to plastic hardware/fitting there. The plastic line that came with the gauges are not long enough to reach all the way anyway. The silicon will be more resistant to heat also.
11. Put everything back the way it came off. Dont worry the dash isnt as bad to put back in as it looks. Check for leaks and use thread sealer or the tape on connections.
12. As far the lotek pod I have I just sanded and shaped it for the best fit. You have to cut out most of the stock peice near the vent for clearence of the gauges. Take your time and dont scratch the dash. I left it the color it came. Black. The texure is not perfect but it would take sanding and painting it get it perfect. Its a pretty good match. I used 3 screws on each side to hold the panel down and countersinked them for a flush look. It needs at least a hour of sanding to get a decenet fit. Good luck.
I have taken it all apart and sanded and couter sinked the screw holes and sanded the overlay to a more percise fit so it even better than in these picture.
I ran my air compressor down to 20/15/10/5 psi and plugged it into the beginning of the boost gauge line to check for accuracy or leaks. This will give you some piece of mind that that what you are seeing is what the engine is getting. You can also do this as a quick way to set up a MBC. Dial in pressure you want and adjust the springs tension until it starts to leak. It should be close if not spot on if you compressor gauge is accurate.
I have a mechanical boost/vacuum gauge so the gauge has issues with flutter or jumping around. At the BOV after the tee I actually have a piece of 5/16 line spiced in to take up some volume in the line to smooth out the signal going to the gauges. I also have a piece of a smaller tee which I cut off to act as a bottleneck before the 5/16" line to slow the signal even more. Only trade off is a 5-10% reduction in response time but 95% of the flutter is gone. Mechanical gauges tend to have some noise and this takes care of most of it. Response is still instant. Without this stock boost would flutter 2-3 psi on WOT and it was hard to see the exact pressure. Think of it like a capacitor which smoothes out the signal.
WARNING:THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE SO PLEASE USE COMMON SENCE AND I AM NOT RESPONSABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU DO TO YOU CAR.
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