Hello everyone, please excuse my bad English, but here it goes:

 

I'm interested in buying a Mk2 Fabia with minimum specs on it. Problem is, most minimum spec ones do not feature oil gauges around here. Is it possible to mount a gauge set from a better spec'd model on this minimum spec one in order to have that feature on it? I can't find anything on the internet about this, but maybe someone can enlighten me. AFAIK, it's just disconnecting the battery, pulling the gauge set out, disconnecting it, and attaching a new gauge set and reconnecting the battery. I don't know if the minimum spec mk2 Fabia has an actual oil sensor that is used by the computer. Not sure if matters, but the engine I'm interested in is the 1.6 MPI one for the hatchback.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Welcome to Briskoda.

I don't think any Fabias have an oil gauge, other than some that may have a digital oil temperature readout?

I speculate that you actually mean a coolant temperature gauge, as shown in the image below?

Changing instrument clusters may be tricky, with coding needed, so I suspect it'll be more trouble than it's worth.

 

Yea, I meant the coolant one. I'm still new to the whole driving "thing".

 

In this VW-obsessed corner of Europe we thankfully have enough people who might be able to do it, and I'm a programmer myself, so maybe it's nifty enough. 

*"easy", not "nifty"

That higher spec gauge is called a "maxidot" display. Probably is possible but would be easier to use an app called torque pro like I use, or put an auxillary gauge on yourself.

I've been using torque for quite a while and it does the job well. Much cheaper than putting in new gauges I know that much.

12 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

That higher spec gauge is called a "maxidot" display. Probably is possible but would be easier to use an app called torque pro like I use, or put an auxillary gauge on yourself.

I've been using torque for quite a while and it does the job well. Much cheaper than putting in new gauges I know that much.

So they do have a sensor!

Maxidots are built here where I live, and there are quite a few guys who know how to mount them/fix them properly. Thanks for the info!

All fuel injected cars have a coolant temperature sensor. 

6 hours ago, TeAlex said:

So they do have a sensor!

Maxidots are built here where I live, and there are quite a few guys who know how to mount them/fix them properly. Thanks for the info!

Yeah they have the sensor so the car knows the temperature, it just doesnt have a gauge to show the driver. I'm guessing you want to wire a gauge to read straight from the coolant sensor then?

17 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

Yeah they have the sensor so the car knows the temperature, it just doesnt have a gauge to show the driver. I'm guessing you want to wire a gauge to read straight from the coolant sensor then?

Nah, just replace the default gauge set with the Maxidot earlier discussed. Having my phone connected to the OBD port, whilst practical, I don't really want to have my phone on the car at all times. Mounting a gauge to show me the coolant level is also a bit annoying, because it might affect its resale value (if I decide to sell it) and it feels like an unnecessary job. Replacing the gauge sets from this:

 

to this:



feels a bit more elegant and it might be easier to do. One such set is about 50 euros around here, maybe I'll get to 100 euros with the work a specialist might do to change the odometer to the correct value.