Audi VDO Guages

[max318i]

I'm M42 engined, so no oil cooling for me

[jbh]

im hoping to get mine organised this week for fitting the engine into the car at the end of the week. just need to find a temp sensor

[march109]

That's the easiest way of doing it James, but it's not ideal.

I would probably fit a temperature sender housing into one of the oil cooler hoses. This way you are monitoring hot, flowing oil rather than the sump temperature which is always a bit lower. It would however only register on the gauge once the oil thermostat opens.

Was going to mention this isn't ideal either since the oil cooler works off a thermostat.

I still think the sump is the best place, you should be able to drill and tap a new hole for any sized sensor rather than bodge the sump plug.

[gaszman]

i have the set of gauges and both sensors
the large 1 wich has wk and g on the connections pt nos 085 919 561 this is the combination switch oil light and pressure
also i have switch801/018/002this is oil temp 180/oc 8-24v both have the same thred so will need a t peice then connect both into the oil pressure swith hole on the m20 i guess

[buster]

I found that when using the bmw temp sender both the audi and m3 gauge read the same.

[stonesie]

Is this a good idea for the oil temp gauge? I want my VDO gauges in and working before the car next sees a track (Croft )

Its the bolt for the oil cooler/filter fitting on the block so should be suitable for either temp or pressure, unfortunately only room for one sensor...


Dumb question..... On my oil pressure sensor it has 2 connectors marked G and KL, would KL be for the idiot light? if so that would tidy up the instalation

[buster]

yeah, ones the normal oil pressure light and the other the pressure reading.If you connect them the wrong way round the pressure goes to full and the oil light stays on constantly.

[stonesie]

Well I've got the suckers in and working, Volt gauge is very slow until its been on for a while, dunno if that's just how the AUDI ones are?

The bolt for the filter/cooler plate is quite easy to drill, the sensor is a M10x1 thread so it needs a 9mm hole drilling then some loving from the thread tap (which was much more expensive than I thought) and a VERY thorough cleaning out after.


The only thing that got me going was low oil pressure readings, then I checked, 5 bar gauge/7bar sensor so it will be reading low

[e30Pats]

I've got a set of Audi VDO gauges and have trawled through all of the threads on it and come up with the following list of bits I need from Demon Tweeks for my M20B25:

VDO Oil Pressure Sender Unit - Link
0-5 bar PN: VDO360-081-029-004C

VDO Oil Temperature Sender - Link
PN: VDO323-801-009-001D

LMA Oil Pressure T-Piece - Link
Engine Thread: M12x1.5
Pressure Takeoff Thread: 1/8 NPT
PN: LMA052

LMA Oil Temperature Sump Plug Adaptor - Link
Sump Thread: M12x1.5
Sender Thread: 1/8 NPT
PN: LMA121

I've decided to go for the sump plug temperature sender route as although not ideal, is the easiest. I just wondered if anyone can confirm that I've got all the bits required and all the correct threads etc before I go and order them?

[Theo]

Sounds about right to me Pats, but you might find the parts cheaper here: http://www.etbinstruments.com/Sensors_ancillaries.htm

[stonesie]

I think you have it about covered there mate, just get something like 5 M12 copper crush washers.
I ended up with 2 on my Tee piece to get the take off hole pointing the right way and they will do for replacements for the sump plug/temp sensor when you do oil changes.

Also a wrap of PTFE plumbers tape will help those taper threads to seal.


My way was slightly more expensive as the thread tap alone was about £12 delivered (M10 x 1 is a bit odd-ball)

[e30Pats]

Cheers Theo, will definitely use them for the senders as it works out about £20 cheaper for the pair.

Thanks for the tips stonesie, wouldn't have thought of that until I'd made a start!

[Theo]

Stonsie, it's very odd that your voltmeter is slow to react - they should instantly show the correct voltage reading.

Liking the temp sensor in the banjo bolt by the way - good way of doing it I rekon.

[e30Pats]

stonesie, did you use any of the loom that came with your gauges if it came with it?

[stonesie]

Sorry forgot to re-check this

Yes i used the plugs on the gauges and about 3" of wiring and connected all the +ve and -ve wires together, the signal wire's to the temp and pressure gauges are a length of old speaker cable


I'm thinking of replacing the volt gauge with water temp though, there's some handy blanked off threads on the thermostat housing on M20's....

[e30Pats]

Thanks for getting back to me. Just wasn't sure if it was possible to make use of the dimmer module etc that has come with the loom on mine. I don't think I'll bother though as it's probably more hassle than it's worth. I'm guessing yours are permanently illuminated?

[capri_rob]

Thread Revival

4 pages of questions and lots of muddled info

Is there a definitive step-by-step guide anywhere for installing the Audi VDO gauges to work with an M20 Donk ?

Oil Temp & Oil Pressure seem to be the problematic ones - surely there must be a way to "plug and play" this without engineering work/drilling/thread taps etc

I installed an Oil pressure gauge on my first car ( Mk1 Golf ) when I was 18 and it was a piece of p1$$ - fitted a T piece so even the dash warning light still worked too - why so hard to make this work on a BMW ?

[DanThe]

I fitted these to an S50 conversion a few months ago, quite simple on that as everything is on the back of the oil filter housing. For an M20 I would T piece the pressure sender location for both pressure senders or just the one, you can get them to work the low pressure on the dash too so no real need for two senders (ebay link below). The temp i would fit to the oil filter housing which is described by Ant a few pages back.
I wouldnt want anything hanging out of the sump plug hole waiting to get bashed by something.
For the volts just tap into an ignition wire.

You will find the threads are different so pre-made T pieces are the way to go. Later BMW temp senders work with these gauges BTW.

Neatest way to fit the gauges is to remove them from the plate -



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-VDO-OIL-P ... 672wt_1348

[capri_rob]

That is exacly how I want it to look.

Job for the winter once the turd is MOT'd - I'll sling a few beer tokens your way for your expertise Dan

[StefanAnghel]

Very interesting...