Any info on T I M gauges, google search doesn't bring anything bad up, apart from a thread or 2 on here where a couple of people say they are shit but without elaborating on anything.

I need a couple of gauges, probably oil pressure and temperature, the way I see it is they have been around for years and years which has gotta say something, Burton power stock them, my escort turbo has had a TIM boost gauge in it for years and has never gave any trouble.

If your just gonna comment saying they are shite, then its of no use to the thread, if you can explain why or if you think they are decent let me know.

I have been looking at a few makes, Stack, Revotec, TIM and the latter are at the lower end of the price spectrum.

Cheers
Stu

 

I had some tim gauges a few years ago, they worked just fine but no idea on their actual accuracy. I guess a more expensive gauge would be individually calibrated, not sure about some at the lower end of the price bracket?

 

Ive never used them personally, but I used to work at a car accessory shop, 25odd years ago, we stocked TIM and Lucas gauges. Although the TIM ones did look a lot more basic and were a lot cheaper than the Lucas ones, we sold loads... Didn't get many back faulty either.

 

They have gotta be better than all the chinese generic stuff on ebay.

 

Very true!

 

Care to elaborate as to why the Chinese ones on eBay may not be as good ?

 

Yeah, I got a cheapo oil pressure gauge with a LED display, I connected it up in the engine bay and my Zetec Turbo has 120psi oil pressure.

Most gauges I have looked at with the traditional needle only go upto 100psi

 

Thank you this helps me greatly

 

I had tim gauges in my rs turbo, only problem I ever had was I bought a 1bar boost gauge and ran 24psi and it bent the needle round and never sat correctly again. Other than that all the other bits like oil pressure, volts etc worked fine

 

Always liked TIM gauges. Looks very basic... this is perfect for old cars, You nothing need anything fancy and modern looking. I had some chrome boost gauge in my FRST i ripped it out for a TIM gauge. Ive never had any problems with gauges BAR, Temp, Oil Temp, Volts in the years i've been in the RS scene.

Another good basic gauge is the Mocal range.

 

One of the fast ford mags did accuracy tests on boost gauges a little while back and gave some very suprising results. They tested shit loads including the auto gauge that I bought from halfords which I thought was cheap cack but turned out to be one of the most accurate! I remember the Tim gauges turned out to be one of the most innacurate. Wish I could remember what mag it was as I threw it away after reading ( mate gave me loads) it was either performance ford or fast ford. Hope that helps

 

Poor build, coupled with naff accuracy and inconsitancy between guages. If you only want something to throw in the dash and bounce about as you boot it then they may be ok. As a tool, which let's be fair is essentially what extra guages are, the lack of accuracy renders them pretty useless.

Just my 2p worth.

 

I was sure there was a mag test somewhere that rated them, but thought I'd dreamt it?! Lol

Sometimes wonder if, with mag tests, the end results depend on how big the backhander is?!

 

Yeah wouldn't suprise me! I always wondered how that Neil from fast ford managed every mag with like 4 cars spending hundreds on each car every week/month lol

 

Same way we all do. He's a good lad Neil.

 

My gauges are TIM because I like the look of them and they don't cost a fortune. On a gauge in a car, you aren't looking for absolute accuracy, what you are looking for is a sudden unexpected change. For such a change to not show on a gauge would mean they would have to be absolutely hopeless. I would certainly never use a dash gauge to set boost levels, but I know for certain my TIM gauge would tell me if it started overboosting.

 

I think I will give them a go, I know my TIM boost gauge is accurate to within 1/2 a psi.

 

I just meant he prob got loadsa freebies for plugging the parts he got in the mag. Fair play to him, didn't mean to come accross that way