Hiding my gauges
 

On a scale from 1-10, how bad is it REALLY if I move my boost and AFR gauge to the glovebox? I've only got a narrowband O2 gauge, and I don't really look at either of them very often.

Thoughts?

Just remove them completely.

10, imagine how annoying it will be to redo your wires and all that getting under the dash is no fun. where are they now? why do you want to put them somewhere you can barely see them without crashing? you should be watching (glancing) the afr a few times everytime you do a wot.

It's narrow band, so practically useless. Sounds like a lot of effort for nothing. I'd rather be able to see the boost gauge, and if I had a narrowband I'd upgrade to a wideband and keep it somewhere I can see it.

Relocate narrowband to trash (or ebay).

If you don't look at them often, why move them?

I check mine pretty regularly, but it's really just out of habit as they're pretty much always the same. Once you've got everything set up I don't see why you couldn't hide them if you wanted to, as long as you're able to get to them if you start to suspect there may be an issue.

I'll echo Curly and Nick here- a gauge which displays the output of the stock narrowband sensor is not particularly useful apart from diagnosing whether the sensor itself has failed, and the ECU will helpfully throw a fault code to let you know if that happens.

If it were my car, I'm simply toss the gauge into the trash, and call it added lightness.

I use both an AEM analog wideband and a multisegment LED narrowband. As long as I'm doing anything other than putting my foot in it, I use the narrowband's hunting action to give me a warm fuzzy.

Sorry, I wasn't clear on the AFR gauge... I have a wb sensor running to MS and a nb gauge, so while there is no digital number to tell me the current AFR, it does tell me (relatively) how rich or lean is the mixture. 3:00 is green and ~11.5:1, 9:00 is red and ~16:1, and it's linear in between. If I do a WOT pull and see anything but green, it's a problem, but I never actually look since when I'm WOT I'm watching the road.

The gauges are currently mounted just above the radio, and I don't like that they can be seen from outside the car by people at stoplights, or by LEO if I get pulled over (more chance of having a speeding ticket tacked onto a headlight-out stop if they see those, not that it's likely in either case). I also would like to put a cubby there.

The reason I want them in the glove box is so I can open the box and see them if something does seem strange and I don't have my laptop with me. Though I could easily be convinced to just remove them completely and see how that goes.

Based on the responses about my AFR gauge, and lack of outrage at my original suggestion, I am guessing it's not that risky to move them.

I would keep AFR easily visible. Things can go to shit. Things like fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors, fucked up trim maps, temperature sensors. Your EMS can try to deal with that stuff all it wants but when it's in open loop spraying what it thinks is a fixed amount of fuel, you could end up fucked.

Then again I have more at stake since I'm running more boost. I would say gauge/nogauge depends on your tolerance for risk, and the type of risk you are willing to incur. I also have a clean driving record so LEO is decent with me.

I'm not sure why a cop would give you a speeding ticket for having gauges, unless he got you on radar. Gauges aren't against the law..

But gauges are usually an indication that something is modified. I had this happen last weekend. Thankfully the blower was out of the car and everything is back to stock at the moment, but the Sparco seat, roll bar and dual gauge A pillar pod definitely got the cop hard.

Skidude: You have an 02 NB? This might interest you... The 04 and 05 cars came with a low fuel level warning light built into the cluster. All NB's are wired for this, all you need is a 04-05 cluster. Pull the fuel gauge out of that cluster and stick it in a single gauge housing and stick that below the radio/in the glove box, and then mount your wideband in the hole. Coincidentally, this is now my plan using a VEI Systems gauge, except I plan putting the wideband where the fake oil pressure gauge is, and then put a VEI oil press/temp gauge where the stock fuel gauge lives. (Credit for most of this idea goes to Hustler btw...)