External Oil Pressure Gauge

[cal45fan]

Ever since the warning "Stope Engine Check Oil Pressure" on a buddy's 540i recently, I am toying with the idea of putting an external oil pressure gauge discreetly installed on my 540i/6. I was looking at the oil pressure switch by the oil filter housing and basically bridging a hydraulic line from there to the gauge.

Anyone using an external oil pressure gauge?

[JimLev]

BMW540san has added the oil pressure and temp gauge to his 540.

[BMW540san]

Yes, I did oil pressure and temp. Had it now for about at least 7 years and it works well and it's very accurate.
I'm on the road and my phone is acting up. I can post better pictures from home
http://s156.photobucket.com/user/yug...tml?sort=3&o=8

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/yug...tml?sort=3&o=8

[cal45fan]

Where did you tap the signal for the temp gauge from? How about the backlight for the external gauges?

[BMW540san]

Where did you tap the signal for the temp gauge from? How about the backlight for the external gauges?

VDO sells oil temp sender that doubles duty as drain plug. Only one wires comes to it and it's best way to read oil temp. Gauges are also VDO and come with their own backlight and actually with few choices of color. The orange one I chose is very close to OEM.
Also, as you adjust backlight for your instrument panel, the gauges do the same since you wire it that way.
I know people do it differently but this whole setup looks OEM and the gauges are at eye level vs ones down bellow Climate control or the ones on A pillar which I'd never do.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bmw540san&client=ms-android-verizon&source=lnms&prmd=misvn&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0 ahUKEwizier-oo7LAhVDsYMKHeTvDDUQ_AUICCgC&biw=640&bih=335#imgrc =JNqxgcsvGK9H2M%3A

[auaq]

Can DME 5.2 and 7.2 display oil temp readings through Test 16?

I know that the MS43 cannot not at least on my 03 530i, but now that I have the M5 cluster installed, I can finally see my oil temp readings through that test.

No oil pressure readings however.

[BMW540san]

Some more information for OP and picture with backlight
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...-and-Alpinweib

[cal45fan]

Some more information for OP and picture with backlight http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...-and-Alpinweib

I found the kit online for less than $40 that includes the sending unit, gauge and wiring. Where did you install the threaded part of the sensor?

[BMW540san]

I found the kit online for less than $40 that includes the sending unit, gauge and wiring. Where did you install the threaded part of the sensor?

That's little tricky.
In my case I originally bought VDO sending unit that was designed to send dual signal: one for oil pressure gauge and other for OEM oil warning light. After installing I kept getting low oil pressure warning light even though oil pressure was clearly good which means VDO didn't properly calibrate signal to match OEM.
So I ended up buying VDO single signal sender and retained factory sender for low oil pressure warning. That meant I had to fabricate a T junction to accommodate both senders.
To answer your question, you thread it in the back of oil filter housing where OEM sender is. Whichever way you do it, you have to fabricate T junction, otherwise I'm not really sure where else could you read oil pressure.

[bimas]

Very nice.

While checking out the VDO catalog, I came across the matching dual scale gauges (SAE/Metric). The pressure gauge went to 80PSI/5Bar - is it the kind you used originally? I'd like to have some kind of metric read out, and I can't find anything else. Could I still use them and disable the warnings?

Oil pressure PN: A2C53412998-K1
Oil temperature PN: A2C53413405-S

[BMW540san]

Very nice.

While checking out the VDO catalog, I came across the matching dual scale gauges (SAE/Metric). The pressure gauge went to 80PSI/5Bar - is it the kind you used originally? I'd like to have some kind of metric read out, and I can't find anything else. Could I still use them and disable the warnings?

Oil pressure PN: A2C53412998-K1
Oil temperature PN: A2C53413405-S

Thanks.
I've used Vision series gauges but it's been 7-8 years and I'm not sure if they're still available.
I've used 0-150 psi and 0-300F. I wanted to use 0-100 psi, but there was no matching sender available at that time.
Your warning is dependent on type of sender. I had issue with VDO dual sender as I mentioned in above post, so I got matching sender for 0-150psi gauge and reused OEM sender which forced to fabricate T junction for oil distribution.
Your best bet is to use whatever gauge you prefer, combine it with matching sender and use T junction as I did.
Beware that thread at the bottom of oil canister is metric (I forgot the size) so make sure whatever sender you buy it matches it, otherwise you have to add an adapter.
Forgot to add that space there around oil canister is extremely tight which added more difficulties when deciding which sender to use.