AEM wideband and FM boost gauge need homes soon.....should I go for 2 A-pillar pods, swap the air vents out for some gauges, or put them in a radio delete panel? I'm leaning towards A-pillar pods for easy visibility while keeping my eyes on the road, but I would love to hear suggestions from you guys, particularly on your gauge setup and how visibility on the road/gauges is!
Miata is a 1990

 

A pillar is my vote. Eyeball vents are a cheap way and gauges in the tombstone sound easy to ignore.

Them cool crash pad ones aren't my style but they're a thing too

 

I had eyeball gauges for a while, hated them for daily driving, constantly in your view. Wiring is difficult to do cleanly without removing the dash or seeing it whenever you open the door. My standards are high though.

Ive also had vent gauges, I liked those, as long as you can live without the vent. I now have a radio delete gauge, very easy to see and wire. Also have two in the crash pad with revlimiter cups. Those are difficult to install nicely (nerve wracking at least), but wiring is easy once finished. I would have preferred to not have a gauge in the radio location, but although perfect tuning’s CAN gauge is 2”, the display itself is larger, so it didn’t fit in the cups.

 

AEM makes the failsafe gauge that combines both of those - one gauge may be easier to mount.

 

If you do that, I’d get one of the CAN gauges. You can have any reading you want just about.

 

I'll look into it. I initially said nope and looked no further when I saw the price but it may be cheaper than doing two. Will also look into Curly's suggestion

 

I originally had vent gauges and didn't mind them at all -- easily viewable and looks good. Only reason I changed to DDMWorks radio delete gauges is because my radio went out on me so I needed a single DIN panel anyway. I like the panel gauges now that the car is fully tuned but having them in a more visible spot was nice while I was still roughing the tune out.

 

Leaning towards vent gauges right now, I've got one question left.

Would using max heat through the upper vents in the winter cause any problems with vent gauges? My only concern is that given how hot miata the miata heat system is, it could cause some sort of issue with the gauge wiring or something.

 

I also went with A-pillar gauges and so glad I did. I have the bottom one as boost, middle is AFR, top one is oil pressure. It looks clean, almost factory...

 

any pics?

 

What is a good looking A pillar mounting thing?

I saw the ones that replace the pillar plastic completely and the ones that go on top of it.

 

Those are pretty much your options for a clean look. Unless you mount something on the gauge hood or dash, but that’s not technically an A-pillar mount