Moved the Gauges.

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:57 pm

Is kind rough.. I don' t have proper tools to make stuff look nice.. I did with what I had to make adjustments. So excuse the little gaps. Am going to work on stereo next.

Post by **Calimus** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:21 pm

Thats actually not a bad job at all Jimmy. Nice work

kamzcab86 · Post by **kamzcab86** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:42 pm

Calimus wrote:Thats actually not a bad job at all Jimmy. Nice work

Ditto

I see this done semi-frequently, but one question: Why is this little mod done?

Post by **Calimus** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:21 pm

Well, I think it has something to do with being Male. Most men in general that are gear heads like to look at their guages, very frequeintly. Like, every 4-6min or less. An while we have some sort of sickness that brings this on, to make it even worse, we are so picky about it, that we want to check the guages without having to take our eye's off the road or appear that we are checking them that often.

With a cabby, thats damn near impossible, especially if you wear glasses. Can just take a quick look outta the corner of the eye for that one, have to actually bend head down, look at guages, not road. I've actually noticed myself commenting in my mind, asking what the hell was VW thinking when they put those down there? In my scirocco, the oil guage is a bit low, but not enough that I have to take my eye's off the road to look at it.

An this is nothing against you ladies at all. Some of you look at those guages as much if not more then us guy's do. However, I think the greater percentage of the female owner target VW had in mind, prollie didn't care what they said in the first place.

I dunno, maybe I'm all wrong. To me they should have been a bit higher up.

kamzcab86 · Post by **kamzcab86** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:24 pm

Makes sense.... even Mk4 guys are "littering" their dashboards with gauges

.

Just be glad we even have gauges; majority of Euro Cabs didn't come with console gauges (are gauges an American thing? dating back to the Hot Rod era?).

I'm messing with the radio about as often as I look at the gauges; if you ask me, it's a bit safer to have the radio with all its distractions (station memory buttons, cassette/CD being inserted and ejected, equalizer controls....) to be more at eye level than looking and reaching down to where the VDOs are.

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:25 pm

kamzcab86 wrote: I'm messing with the radio about as often as I look at the gauges; if you ask me, it's a bit safer to have the radio with all its distractions (station memory buttons, cassette/CD being inserted and ejected, equalizer controls....) to be more at eye level than looking and reaching down to where the VDOs are.

Which is exactly the reason VW put the gauges down low in the Cabby in the first place.. Car was designed for women... And most women pay more attention to the damn Radio than the gauges (I know my wife is that way). The less they look at gauges, the more likely the car will be brought in for maint. because not paying attention to temps and pressures. My wife Doesn't care about gauges.. which is why after I get the car to where it needs to be the driver seat will be broken so she cant slide it up.. not allowing her to drive it.

But I moved my gauges up there becasue I cannot look down at that angle anymore since the neck surgery. and I can use remote for stereo... besides, i already have my presets memorized.. and dont need to see what buttons to push or whatever.

Post by **Briano1234** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:01 pm

Jimmy is right on the button, my daughter called me once telling me that the car was over heating, I asked her what did the gauges say? She said the buzzer went off and interrupted her radio......then she checked the guages and it was in the red......

radiator fan quit.....

Gauges are ment to be at Eye level. All Air craft guages are at evey level, and set so that at normal the needles are all at 12:00.

Electrical gauges are great, but there is nothing like having a real oil pressure gauge break on a big bump, and have oil shoot out at your eyes.

My bug-eyed sprite and a cable off the generator turning the tach, a long mercury tube going to the radiator, Speedo cable was to the tranny, but the oil gauge was a hollow tube that screwed in to the head....

Real gauges...for real cars....

kamzcab86 · Post by **kamzcab86** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:04 pm

BigDaddy90Cabby wrote:Which is exactly the reason VW put the gauges down low in the Cabby in the first place.. Car was designed for women... And most women pay more attention to the damn Radio than the gauges (I know my wife is that way). The less they look at gauges, the more likely the car will be brought in for maint. because not paying attention to temps and pressures.

The "women" part aside, ahem!, the gauges in these cars and the GTIs are a selling point; they weren't even installed in the basic Rabbits/Golfs (and do I have to mention that the Cabs are chopped GTIs/Golfs which were initially "guy cars"?!). The gauges aren't 100% accurate and when it comes to designing and selling cars aesthetics and form following function are a very important part of the equation. Aesthetically speaking it would've been highly inappropriate to install the gauges in the dash area rather than down in the console. A bunch of gauges in the dash are for hot-rodders and gauge-obsessed enthusiasts, not your average commuter or Sunday-driving Joe and Jane. You want gauges up in your dash, fine, install 'em; but don't go blaming women or VW for them not being installed in your preferred location 'cuz your average Joe and Jane far outnumber hot-rodders, racers and enthusiasts. I also have to mention the fact that your average American driver, which includes both women and men, don't check tire pressure regularly (which leads to lots of blow-outs here in Phoenix) let alone read the blasted gauges.

BigDaddy90Cabby wrote:But I moved my gauges up there becasue I cannot look down at that angle anymore since the neck surgery. and I can use remote for stereo...

That makes a lot of sense and is a very good reason for the swap

BigDaddy90Cabby · Post by **BigDaddy90Cabby** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:13 pm

Ya'll see that??? Kammy is trying to stomp a mudhole in this fat guy and walk it dry

Didn't know that you would take total offense to my statement. I do apologize for stating what I have personally experienced with the wife and her disregard to occasionally watch gauges or warning lights for that matter -- which lead to something happening to the $28,000 Vehicle I got her a couple years back. I didn't drive the car at all, so I didn't know what was going on.. but the one time i got in it, she took off, and timing belt and gears gone, adn waterpump gone. On that particular car, they had to pull the whole front clip off, drop the motor, and do some other stuff just to get to it.. $ could have saved $5200 to replace the motor and labor.

SO SORRY KAMMY!!

kamzcab86 · Post by **kamzcab86** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:59 pm

I am woman; you heard me roar! LOL! But seriously, not offended, Jimmy, just struck the tiny "all women are the same" and "these are girl cars down to the bone I don't care what you say" nerves, is all

. You have to remember that there's just as many men as there are women who don't read gauges, don't follow maintenance procedures...well, they just don't know jack about cars. I'm just doing my small part to re-educate you men in that not all women and not all men are alike and generalizing the two based on a few experiences is not fair and can even be harmful.

Well that and I'm in a pissy mood -- go to drive the Cab for the first time in over a month and before closing the hood I check the belts... alt belt is loose once again

which meant driving the Jetta. Then, I go to order brakes for the Jetta ('cuz ya can't just turn the friggin' rotors ya have to replace 'em) and realize the plastic I need to use is at home.... Cars! I'm gettin' me a horse and buggy!

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:25 pm

kamzcab86 wrote: .

Just be glad we even have gauges; majority of Euro Cabs didn't come with console gauges (are gauges an American thing? dating back to the Hot Rod era?).

I think I can put a little light on this. I was living in Europe when I bought my Cabby.

First of all I will point out that I did (at the time) check the prices of the car between German dealers and a dealer in Canada. Although I did buy the car from the Canadian dealer, through the (no longer offered)European delivery plan.

In Germany (and I assume the rest of the EU) the radio and the gauge set were options. Where in North America they came as standard equipment.

I also remember that the European models had several engine choices including a diesel, while only the 1.8 l "JH" engine was offered in cars for North America.

I would assume that it was more of a cost saving measure to standardize the export models.

It makes sense to me, because the radio in North American cars was an option here and standard equipment in Europe. Go figure?

1lowcab · Post by **1lowcab** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:37 am

i've been wanting to do this swap, just haven't had the time. but from what i've heard the radio won't fit in the console in cabs with A/C... no room. let us know if it fits.

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:29 am

1lowcab wrote:i've been wanting to do this swap, just haven't had the time. but from what i've heard the radio won't fit in the console in cabs with A/C... no room. let us know if it fits.

I would tend to think that the lower console would be the same size. The differences would all be in the dash.

But I don't have A/C.

A small change I would make would be to angle the gauges toward the driver's position.

sixsracing · Post by **sixsracing** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:06 am

Cars with A/C have bigger boxes under the dash for the heater core and the evaporator core. A lot of the box is behind the center console.

CalAltaDubber · Post by **CalAltaDubber** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:08 am

OK. That makes sense to me.