I was wondering if any of you have had the experience of adding aftermarket gauges to your Echo. I attempted to put a Sunpro triple gauge (h20 temp, oil pressure and ammeter) on mine and it was a pain. The initial problem was that they didn't put all of the proper HW in with the gauges.

I got the brass fittings for the oil pressure line to the engine from a plumbing store, but the water temp gauge fittings were standard and the engine is, of course, metric. :banghead: It took three trips to various stores to figure out this whole thing wouldn't work. The kit said to get part number cp7555, but magically, none of the stores were able to order it. Autozone, the guys who sold me the original set of gauges, couldn't even find that part in their catalogue.

Anyway, I'm gun-shy about ordering from anyone b/c this has been a nightmare. Parts counter guys know less than I generously gave them credit for, and I'm wondering if anyone out there KNOWS and has some experience in this arena and can say for sure.

Thanks in advance! :)

I have installed 4 aftermarket electric gauges made by Autometer: coolant temp, oil temp, transmission temp, and oi pressure on my 2003 Echo.

To install the coolant temp sender I ordered a 3/4" heater host adaptor from egauges.com http://www.egauges.com/vdo_acce.asp?Subgroup=Hose_Adaptors&Manf=All
and installed it on the heater hose that went into the heater core. It was very simple to install (just cut the heater hose at the middle of straightest part).

To install the oil pressure sender I ordered a adaptor item #501 from Frantz http://wefilterit.com/orders/500/index.htm and a hex bushing (male x female) 1/4" NPT reduced to 1/8" NPT. All gauge senders are 1/8" NPT. I simply screwed the bushing into the adaptor, installed the pressure sender over the bushing, and installed the adaptor assembly between the engine and the OEM oil filter. This is not the cheapest way to go since the adaptor might be expensive to some, but it is the cleanest and easiest way to go. You can also remove the OEM oil pressure switch and install a tee, but it is hard to get to the pressure switch, and also risks of stripping the threads on the aluminum engine block if over-tightening.

Hope this helps.

This is awesome advice! I appreciate the completeness of it (links, too? :thumbsup: Wow!) I'll have to sit down and absorb the information (it's late and I'm tired...plus the kids want me to make popcorn!. )

One question, though...you quote standard, not metrice measures below (1/4" to 1/8")...I thought everything was metric on the Japanese cars, no?

thanks,

Steven


I have installed 4 aftermarket electric gauges made by Autometer: coolant temp, oil temp, transmission temp, and oi pressure on my 2003 Echo.

To install the coolant temp sender I ordered a 3/4" heater host adaptor from egauges.com http://www.egauges.com/vdo_acce.asp?Subgroup=Hose_Adaptors&Manf=All
and installed it on the heater hose that went into the heater core. It was very simple to install (just cut the heater hose at the middle of straightest part).

To install the oil pressure sender I ordered a adaptor item #501 from Frantz http://wefilterit.com/orders/500/index.htm and a hex bushing (male x female) 1/4" NPT reduced to 1/8" NPT. All gauge senders are 1/8" NPT. I simply screwed the bushing into the adaptor, installed the pressure sender over the bushing, and installed the adaptor assembly between the engine and the OEM oil filter. This is not the cheapest way to go since the adaptor might be expensive to some, but it is the cleanest and easiest way to go. You can also remove the OEM oil pressure switch and install a tee, but it is hard to get to the pressure switch, and also risks of stripping the threads on the aluminum engine block if over-tightening.

Hope this helps.

The pressure/temp senders that come with the gauges are in standard. When you want to install a sender directly to the engine block, then you will need a adaptor that conver standard to metric.