I finally got around to ordering a boost gauge from AWE, the the ones for 99 and older A4's were on sale so i figured it would be a good time to pick one up. The install only took a couple hours, could have done it faster but i didn't want to rush it. The hardest part was putting the T-fitting in the vacuum line for the fuel pressure regulator. That thing did not want to go in there.




It was worth the money but there are a couple things that i think they could have done better. You can see in the second picture that the LED's don't light up the face of the gauge evenly. Not a big deal but its going to bug the crap out of me. Also when the car is off, the needle is resting below zero, not right on it. Oh well, its still really cool.

It reads between about 20 and 25 inHg of vacuum, and when i step on it, it shows i'm boosting 6-7psi which is apparently just right for the stock k03. But when i have driven around for a while and the engine gets hot, it won't boost above 5 pounds. Is this normal?

 

Looks good. I put mine in the same spot I felt theline of sightwas a better fit for me. Is yours a VDO cuz mine also rests just below 0 when the car is off. Just a guess, but if you live in a hot climate the boost loss could attributed to heat soak.

 

Its an AWE gauge but the actual gauge part might be made by VDO, i'm not sure. and yeah i live in phoenix so i guess that might explain the pressure drop. But i would think that hotter air = higher pressure? oh well. Chip and FMIC are coming soon so hopefully that'll keep my IAT's low when it gets up to like 115 degrees

 

yeah my VDO doesn't light up the whole thing either. you can get a replacement LED from superbrightleds and it'll look much better

 

Nope, colder air is denser... which is why we use FMIC's (FI) and CAI's (NA)...

 

dang 115 degrees, install looks good otherwise. i wanted to have my apr gauge on the left but it didnt fit correctly

 

I dont think 5psi is right, no matter how hot it is. I was boosting 9psi all the time before I put the mbc in.

 

dang. thats what i was thinking too. maybe AEB's and ATW's come with different factory boost settings?

one of those black and gray vacuum system check valves, the one above the airbox, is all dry-rotted and cracking. could that be causing it? or do those lines have nothing to do with the forced induction system?

 

Looks good my friend, i'll have to see if that guage will work in my S6. My center console looks almost identical to that one

 

i am not 100% possitive, but i would say it has something to do with it, also you might have a leak somewhere else....... mine did that because of a collapig hose that eventually cracked completely...

when the engine was cold and the hose collapsed, it would boost fine, after it warmed up, the crack would let air/vacum out