maxpayne

Hi, I have a 2012 wrx sedan with AP stage 1. I am on way to doing my coils and sway bars and later on downpipe and cat back.
I need some help to choose few gauges. basically 2(steering mount)+3(A piller)
I already bought a prosport mechanical boost and wideband o2 air fuel ratio gauge for steering pod but my mechanic told me AF is only used for tunning and useless for a driver. so I did research and found that he might be true and is just useful for observation in driver perspective.

Now my understanding with usefulness of gauges falls in two categories:
1) just to observe things and if you see some wrong you have to tune it or do some kind of work in garage
2) observe things and act accordingly during driving (real time)

I choose no 2 gauges to be on steering mounts and No 1 on A piller. I can tell that boost gauge falls in category 2 but Idk what other gauges are in that category that helps me act dynamically. I haven't done much reading on fuel pressure and oil pressure gauges but any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Heedz

iTrader: (51)

Boost gauge is useful to see if you have a vacuum/boost leak/overboosting etc. Also you can see where your boost gives out and shift accordingly when fun driving. AFR/EGT is going to be useful when you have a bit more like a bigger turbo or get tuned for E85. Where you are at right now I don't see it doing much esp with an OTS tune. I say maybe an oil pressure gauge if you want another one. Be able to see if your oil viscosity is holding up or not etc.

maxpayne

I think I'll stick with my prosport boost gague and will get prosport premium Oil pressure and re sale the AFR for now.. any more info on the topic is welcome..thanks

Brfatal

1. Return all of the Prosport gauges. They are pure garbage. We've known this for a long time. They are VERY prone to failure and have never shown to be very accurate.

2. If you're not unto tuning, you don't need the AFR gauge. This is a general statement (rather, an assumption), but if you can't interpret the data, no sense in measuring it.

3. If you're not tracking the car competitively on a regular basis, then coilovers are not for you. They cost a good amount (~$1,800 and up for you body style is the starting point) and you'll never see the real benefit of them on just the street. Also they are less reliable and much higher maintenance than struts and shocks (which have no maintenance at all).

4. Take a step back and determine you mod path. Decide what you want from the car and move from there.

maxpayne

I can interpret AFR and know its baseline and how it works in different situation. I am just not aware of tinning process and role of AFR in it. In any case, I am not going to do tuning by myself.
I am on basic suspension mods now as I feel a need for it for cornering. All I am doing is swift coils and cusco sway bars for now. Then few months later some exhaust upgrade for power. and that's all for this year..

Brfatal

Swift makes springs, not coilovers. Better springs may be more optimal depending on what you're running now and Cusco sway bars aren't that aggressive.

maxpayne

i meant springs only. what you think about whitelines or perring sway bars then? I don't want to much stiffness as I am not going to do track . I wanted to run 25F/22R. btw, i heard from my mechanic that people complains about whiteline noises and wear out.

Brfatal

I would have recommended Whitelines. I get noise out of my Cuscos when it's cold.

04GG

iTrader: (33)

Your mechanic is mistaken. Noise most likely means you need to re-lube the bushings. Perrin will be no different in that regard because they also use poly bushings. I had the Perrin 22mm on my car for a while and it was fine.

You shouldn't just decide 25F and 22R without trying them or discussing with a shop who knows what they are doing. I have Whiteline 22 front and 22 adjustable rear set to medium and it is very balanced for daily driving yet is far more balanced than stock without making the ride harsh. If I want it to be more aggressive, I can up that to stiff in the rear. So while it might seem logical to have the front larger, 25F/22R will most likely just make the car understeer, so it will be stiffer but most likely handle the same as stock.

I have had Prosport gauges on my car for quite a while now with no issues. If they are installed incorrectly, ANY gauge will fail. If they are installed correctly, it shouldn't be a problem. Viscosity is not exactly what you are watching for with a oil pressure gauge, you basically want to see when your pressure is not normal so you can check it to see if it is just that the level is low or if the system is not maintaining pressure indicating a problem.

Heedz

iTrader: (51)

I would first install your springs then determine what kind of sway bar is needed. I'm just lucky that my sways happened to match well with my swift+koni set up. 22mm Rallitek front with HD rallitek endlinks and rear adjustable perrin 22mm with perrin endlinks on the stiffest setting. Also your alignment will have a big play in your set up also, I got the PSRS giving me 7.4 degrees of caster and also set it at -1.5 in the front and -1.0 in the rear with zero toe. Car has perfect amount of rotation on corner out with the konis at 1/2 turn from stiff in the rear and 1.5 turns from stiff in the front.


now do you see how complicated it can get?

moto96793

iTrader: (8)

5 gauges and pillar pods with stage 1? OVERKILL! unless u love rice, imo. Boost and oil press is all you should need as stated in previous post by 04GG. May I also note that SMY makes the sexiest dual gauge cluster which makes it look as if they came with your car. I ended up purchasing some prosport premium white needle boost/oil press gauges which matches the oem gauges and i use my accessport to check other things from time to time. My current set up includes txs catted dp, spt cb, aem cai, gsebcs, dw65c, n protune by ed over at eq. everyone has their preference, do what you feel comfortable with doing.