After I bought my 2008 MINI Cooper S I noticed that there is no factory option for an oil pressure and temperature gauge package and none is available for the MINI Cooper S.Just warning lights should a problem occur.I did see that there was a chrono package that includes those gauges available for the convertible model though but not for the S coupe?

Keep in mind I do realize that the convertible S still uses the supercharged engine and not turbocharged like the R56.


Note to Mods:Please move to the appropriate forum if needed.

 

Yes,
Unfortunately, the 2nd gen car has been transformed into more of a transportation vehicle as compared with the 1st gen that is more of a driver's car. I do prefer the 1st gen concept more, but did not hesitate to order a 2nd gen for my wife.

Perhaps

 

duplicate post

 

Be glad you still have a dipstick!!! Most owners who want more information are installing a Scangauge II or similar. A pretty easy upgrade and probably way more accurate than the typical MINI gauges.

 

Gokartride, tell me more about the scanguage II, do you have one, how have you liked it, etc...

 

I have one. I mount it on top of the dash with Velcro so I don't have to take my eyes far off the road to read it. It plugs into the OBDII port near the steering column under the dash. I just run the cable up the front of the dash. That way I can easily remove it when taking the car in for service.

It has four readouts. You choose what info from the OBC you want it to display. I generally run: coolant temp, boost (MAP), mpg, and mph.

It does not have oil temp or oil pressure, which is unfortunate. AFAICT, they are not in the OBC data.

More info here: http://www.scangauge.com/

 

alta has gauges too: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ighlight=gauge

 

here are guages for an R56 that I just had put in (came from ALTA)





Above: Daytime, no lights.....Below: Night time with lights turned on

 

^^Those gauges do look great!!

And thank you for the replies everyone.

I certainly don't love my MINI Cooper S any less because they aren't offered though.

It just sucks that they aren't factory available anymore and we have to seek outside vendors for them.

Oh well I will just add them to my list of future mods down the road.

 

I'm not sure I agree with the 2nd gen being less of a drivers car, but I think the deal is the "MOST/CAN" bus talks to the single cluster in the 2nd gen and it would have been too complicated to have a different wiring set for alternate gadges. With a MOST/CAN bus setup, all that information should be on the bus, and can be "selected" by the cluster to display. Now whether is does that for all info or not is another story. Maybe someone can program a hack to select the info you want into the cluster. I have seen this done on other brands to show turbo boost, where radio station information is...

I also think I remember reading somewhere that the new navigation in the 2nd generation interior influnced the design and they were hoping more people optioned for it now (I think it's a pretty high profit option). If you gave them the option of more gadges you would preclude having the factory nav.

 

I don't think there's any software hack that will give you oil temp in the R56, simply because there's no oil-temp sender. As for the oil pressure, I suspect the factory sensor is just an on/off switch to drive the warning light, rather than a variable-resistance sender, so you probably can't use its output to drive a gauge or give you an actual pressure readout via the OBC.

As mentioned earlier, you can get boost readings via a ScanGauge or similar tool because even though there's no factory option for a boost gauge, the engine-management system still needs that information, so there's a sensor for it and the information is already on the data bus.

I wouldn't give up hope, though - it's possible that MINI will add additional senders/gauges in the future. IIRC, the Chrono Pack for the first-gen cars wasn't available right away, either.

 

^^Yes I do see what you are saying.

Since the MCS only has warning lights now and no actual oil pressure, temp gauge nor even a turbo boost gauge I would guess that MINI is confident on the boosted motor since it is fully covered for 4 years and/or 48,000 miles.

Anyway this is the first factory turbo car that I have owned and I am a bit hesitant about running the engine hard before it is fully warmed up since I have no way of telling if it is or not.

 

As for comparing it to the 1st gen - if you specced the Sat-Nav on the 1st gen MINI you didn't get a temperature gauge with that setup either.