I've done some searching, but haven't been able to find anything that isn't 2+ years old and no longer existing. I'm trying to find an a pillar boot gauge pod for my car. I've seen a lot of gauges that sit on the steering column like this one http://www.newsouthperformance.com/audipod.htmbut i think it would get in the way of everything else. Any opinions for those that have one there?I read somewhere about someone suggesting on making one themselves, but i dont thinka Joe-made gauge pod would look good. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I think thePodi is the best, Newsouth is cheaply made and can rub on the wheel when you turn it. You can also get a vent gauge for the center vent. There are no commercial a-pillar mounts because the air bag is in the a-pillar but some have made there own. There are lots of posts on audizine about gauge solutionsincluding someone who put one in the rear view mirror.

 

Thanks for the input. I didn't realize the airbag was there, i thought it was on top of the window, at least in my accident last year, it didn't deploy. As far as audizine, I dont normally spend time over there. I'm normally too busy (you can also read that as lazy :P) to keep up here let alone another forum. As for the vent gauge, I was looking into that, but does it affect the air flow at all? I live in central florida, and just yesterday on the way home from work the computer read 102 degrees.

 

There a lot of different ways to do the boost gauge. Somewhere on the forums I saw there was ashop that would intergrate leds in the rpmgaugecloser to the needle. Almost looked like a air/fuel ratio but was for boost. Looked very clean. I think the vent kit does close it out, but I could be wrong.

 

As a matter of fact the vent pod DOESN'T block the air nOOb!!! Lol jk. Its a vent with the hole for the gauge pre-cut so you just connect and fasten it. And even IF it did block the air remember it'll just go to another vent. You don't lose any air output.

AWE makes a clean vent gauge for the B6.
PODi's pod actually is angled by the odo so you don't lose any visibility of your HUD or tach's. Unless you're keeping track of every single mile your beauty drives through.
And no company makes or will construct any A-Pillar gauges. So your only bet is to DIY. Kwik_shift actually did a good job molding the plastic to shape it into his own A-Pillar.
GL!

 

EDIT: I have no idea why, but the post keeps doubling my apostophes in to quotation marks. Those of you who never punctuate in the first place won't care. Those who do... it wasn't intentional.

My opinion, which ain't worth a szhit, is that if gauges were supposed to be in air vents, they'd come that way. It just doesn't look right to me.
In the millions of posts about it on the other forums, there has also been pictures posted of the airbags intact and blown that show definitive proof that a low-mounted A-Pillar pod will not be in the way OR get blown in to your face with bag deployment. If you mount from about the center point or higher, that won't be the case. But low and forward towards the windshield the pillar stays intact on bag deployment.
May not suit some tastes as too "ricy", but it works for me. It is actually a pod for a Honda Civic and cut and reshaped with a heat gun a little to fit perfectly over the A-Pillar.
I like mchammered's podi steering column gauge the best. However, I decided to fabricate my own A-Pillar before his final version hit the market. There is a company who will fabricate pods in to your a-pillar and send them back to you, but it is expensive and I forget what company that was. Also, a4mods.com has a DIY to make your own.
You can kind of see it in this pic:

 

For the vent gauge, i agree that it just looks out of place. Even thought (if the air is blocked) the air would go out of another vent, I'm a bitch when it comes to the heat, and need both vents on me. If my family/girlfriend/good job wasn't located in central florida (Orlando/Tampa area) I probably wouldn't be here. I'm a New Englander born and raised, and after three years down here, I still cant get used to the heat.

From the looks of your gauge bustanut, you probably did a better job than a4mods.com. It looks better matching the black of the dash board, rather than trying to match the gray of the a-pillar. Did you follow the same process for making yours? It looks like it's something you could have picked up from the store. How long did it take you to do yours?

Edit: It's doubling my apostrophes too.

 

I don't think the A Pillar pod looks ricey at all! It seems like that's the right place to put pods because they're out of the way and yet visible. Besides not only kraut-mobiles have A-Pillar mounted pods. Muscle cars, diesels trucks etc use the same. Its all about final quality. Bustanut's pod actually looks pretty tight looking at it from the outside. My gauge is temporarily disabled til I finally mold my a-pillar pod correctly. I say you put a little time into that project and with good craftsmanship you'll be happy you chose it.

 

Ryan's from a4mods.com is actually done pretty well, but he did it completely from scratch. Mine is justa single a-pod premadefor a Honda bought from summittracing.com, and then I trimmed it some and used a heat gun to form the edges a little so it would wrap around the a-pillar down lower. It was made to fit up more towards the middle of the pillar, but I didn't want it there do to aesthetics and the airbag. It did come out pretty nice. My intent was to try and color match to the a-pillar; I just never got around to it. I wasn't going to do it with paint, though. I was going to find a headliner in a wrecked car and use headliner material. But that's low on my list of things to do, and then having it match the dash started to grow on me. Before anyone asks, no I don't have any pics of it from inside. I'll get some at some point. Another thing on my list to do.

 

Yeah, I'll probably have to give it a shot. Hey bustanut, instead of pictures of the inside, why not just make one for me and mail it to me :P