gauges

[78Suburban]

now that I'm starting to wheel with the burb, its probably time to upgrade from idiot lights.... Summit has nice panel with temp and oil autometer gauges warning lights.. I am considering saving up and shelling out almost $200 to get all the autometer gauges I need......... I know they're the best, but I was wondering, how accurate are the $30 parts store gauge clusters? Would these accomplish the same task for almost 1/10th of the price?? Building on a budget, I find it hard to justify running ultra trick racing gauges..

So are cheap gauges junk?

 

[randy88k5]

I think most of it comes down to brand loyalty and looks. I shelled out the money for autometer gauges, but I wanted certain guages in certain styles. The ones at the parts store are all generic faceplates. I got AutoMeter Sport Comp gauges from Summit and made a custom gauge panel. Ill post up pics when Im done.

I cant say that the [Sunpro, most likely] gauges are going to be junk. I have used them in other cars with absolutely no trouble. Im sure they would work fine.

As I said, its mostly just looks and brand name pimping. The choice is yours...

 

[WhiteBurb]

I had a sunpro tach years ago and thought it worked out okay. You should also check out e-bay. I got an autometer tach for a pretty good price. And, I think autogauge is made by autometer, its just their budget line.

 

[78Suburban]

All I'm concerned with is function. I would like to brand name pimp, but its not important.

 

[down4thakrown]

i bought the triple gauge cluster from autozone and they seem to work fine.

 

[78Suburban]

ttt
know this is boring yall, but anyone else have experience with cheap gagues?
thanks

 

[dremu]

now that I'm starting to wheel with the burb, its probably time to upgrade from idiot lights.... Summit has nice panel with temp and oil autometer gauges warning lights.. I am considering saving up and shelling out almost $200 to get all the autometer gauges I need......... I know they're the best, but I was wondering, how accurate are the $30 parts store gauge clusters? Would these accomplish the same task for almost 1/10th of the price?? Building on a budget, I find it hard to justify running ultra trick racing gauges..

So are cheap gauges junk?

Umm ... another possibility would be to upgrade to a factory gauge cluster. They're cheap, prolly about as much as that parts store cluster (unless you get a factory tach, but that's another matter) ... might hafta switch a sending unit or two, but the wires should be the same and it should just drop in.

-- A

 

[thor]

Look at the summit brand with out the lights.... Nice guages imho, I have a set of their 2 5/8" guages that are 3 or 4 years old and I am very happy with them.

The big difference in guages is the degree of sweep, most of the cheap ones only move the needle a short distance and are very hard to read quickly.

 

[Ruthven13]

I have used the Autogauge triple cluster for years and it has always worked great. Pretty inexpensive too...