Gday, I am doing a little number crunching and it may be cheaper to buy a Haltech (or another brand depending on what ecu I choose) style dash than to buy all the gauges that would make up my dash (speedo, tacho, oil, fuel temp etc). So I am wandering if running one of these style gause clusters has any legel issues. Both say they for "street" use but thats open to interpritation.

here is a couple I have been looking at
haltech version - http://www2.haltech.com.au/index.php...=103&Itemid=33
EMS version - http://www.fuel-injection.com/frameindex.htm

Both retail for around the 1000buck range but I can almost spend that on a full set of quality gauges.
Has anyone on here used one of these dashes if so what do you think??

Thanks for reading

Anthony

Which state? Queensland is not so picky compared to others?

contact queensland transport

Great units but good luck getting on for $1k these are probably closer to $2k, maybe without data logging you could get it down the $1k. I have been looking into these for my IPRA car so have only really focused on the data logging versions.
There is a third version from race technologies called Dash 2 (UK company).
The haltech on is made by Racepak based out of the USA.
The EMS one is the AiM motorsport MXL, which comes in three versions (also USA based).

I am pretty sure there are no modification codes in QLD or NSW that cover instrument changes. You will still need to remain current with the ADR applicable to your model and year of manuafacture.
Doing a quick review I identified ADR 18 (applicable from 1 Jan 1973), ADR 18a (from 1 Jan 1981) and then ADR 18/03 (I think that was 2003). ADR 21 (from 1 Jan 1973) this is related to impact on dash, which should not be effected given there is a steering wheel between you and the dash.

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/motor/design/pdf/18.pdf

ADR 18 is the requirements for instrument layout. If you can demonstrate that your instruments comply with ADR 18 you should be ok. This also seems to imply you need to have at a minimum those instruments listed in category 1 and 2. There are additional rego requirements in each state that may effect you when you go to renew rego/ sell the car. In Vic there is a Vehicle inspection bulleting that requires all cars after a certain date of manufacture to have a speedo and Odometer but I couldn't find anything for NSW/QLD. I think prior to ADR 18 you didn't need to have anything on your dash not even a speedo.

Hope that helps

Bryan

Its for QLD, Gods country I might add.

The style of dash I am after is the street style - ie no data logging, GPS, etc so it should be much cheaper, one quick look and I found the Haltech dash for $950. Pretty dam good price.

Thankyou very much for your input mcgee, I will have a good look at those ADR's and see if I can pull out the relevent info I need

yeah the Haltech aka racepak ones are cheaper and that is because they use a propriaty bus for all the sensors.
This means that you will need to purchase a "V-net" cable to connect any sensors in addition to the Haltech ECU.
Go to the Racepak website and you will see what I mean. these V-net cables aren't cheap either, they have the prices on the racepak site.
I was initially looking at this as well but after adding up the extra required for the propriatry cable it works out worse (for me) then either the AiM or Dash2.

Just food for thought.

Bryan