Greetings.

I just picked up a new 2006 STi last weekend - incrediblly awesome car and my third Subi.

Now for my question: my car came with the perf. group that includes the stalk mounted mechanical boost gauge. I don't mind the guage, but hate the backlighting. It's uneven (maybe one of two bulbs are blown?), but more annoying is the light-pipe side / backlight being white in color instead of red to match teh other gauges. I thought I read on another forum where someone replaced the white bulb(s) with red to better match the scheme in the STi.

Has anyone here done this? If so, what the proper bulb P/N and where do I purchase so I don't have to take the gauge off more than once?

Thank you in advance for your response,

Aric - Monte Busa

 

+1, I just got a used one and at night when I turned on the lights the boost gauge lights up but not the needle. I'm not able to see what boost I'm at unless I really look straight at it. Are yours like that?

 

The needle "sort of" lights up, but the evenness of the side lighting is horrible....anyone else out there have any suggestions to improve and / or change bulb colors?

 

The deal with the stock boost gauge is that the face is not back-lit. It is edge-lit so there is no light directly on the needle or scale, no light comes through the face. Unless the gauge has changed there is only one bulb.
One thing you can do to improve the lighting is replace the existing 2.1W bulb with a slightly brighter 2.3 W one, go to a parts store and get some #2723 bulbs. You can also remove the condom from the bulb for more light but this will of course change the color. The condom can be changed to a different one for another color or you can use a Sharpie on the bulb for the same result.
When I first got my car it had the 3-gauge pod and I wasn't happy with the illumination of the boost gauge, it was hard to read at night. I installed the brighter bulb and removed the condom, after that it was bright enough and I didn't care about the color being off (white/yellow with no condom) since I was then able to read the gauge.
I have since replaced the Lamco boost gauge with a 45mm Omori "full color" gauge, which has excellent illumination and can be adjusted for any color. The Omori is backlit and the entire scale/face is illuminated along with the needle. You can replace the factory column-mounted gauge with the Omori, it will fit in the pod although some persuasion is needed because it's 45mm vs. the stock 42mm.

 

The Omori is a mechanical like the stocker?

 

Yes the Omori boost gauge is available in both mechanical and electrical versions.

 

Thanks to all. My order is in to J-Spec Tunng for a mech one to replace the stocker...

 

I Installed the Omori fill color gage today. After some experimentation in the car with the "full color" box (a series of pots with active circuitry controlling the blue, green, and red LEDs) I decided to bypass the box altogether as the closest color match was found with just the red LED on. That way, I also didn't have to find a place to put the (somewhat cheesy) box. I wired up just the ground and power to just the red LED, which is the outside most pin opposite of the ground pin (black wire).

A 200ohm resistor was put in series with the LED in order to limit the current draw to protect it. A 200ohm resistor was used by Omori in a jumper bypass that was included in the kit if the user wants just the green LED to light, so I figured I'd stick with this value to be safe (don't want to blow up the LED).

I used silicon spray inside the stock mounting boot to both remove the stock gauge and when installing the new one as the fit is tight (especially on the Omori due to the size difference, 42 vs. 45mm)....makes a huge difference vs trying to fit dry.

Driving / usage impression: the Omori is more "lively" than the stocker, which so far I find fun. Also it is MUCH more visibile than the stock gauge, and although the colors don't exactly match the speedo and tach it's pretty close if you dim the dash one click. The needle is also orange lit vs. red on the dash, but this too isn't that bad - not perfect but 1000% better than that stock piece of crap.

Thanks again to all who helped me.

Monte

 

Good job, and nice writeup. Perhaps you can get a better match by temporarily hooking up the control box, adjusting the level of the red using the pot, then measuring the resistance value and adjusting your fixed resistor accordingly.
The needle on mine is red, I think it's the version that's supposed to match the '04 gauges although the needles on the other gauges in the optional factory pod on my '02 are red so it matches those, that's why I got it instead of the '02 style.
I don't notice it being that much more "lively", the response is still damped due to the restrictor in the line (I didn't change that, just connected the new gauge to the existing hose), I think it may appear that way due to it being slightly larger with a more visible scale and larger sweep.