Digital Dashboard in MkIV Escort?

I'd like to fit some kind of digital daskboard into my 1600 CVH Escort MkIV. Obvious candidate is the one from the MkII Astra GTE, though it doesn't have to be.

I have seen one pic of a car with this conversion done.

So a few questions..

Does anyone make a dash or a conversion kit that can use the existing senders, or ideally a kit designed especially for Escorts?

Failing that, has anyone gotten the Astra one to work, and if so, how?

Are there any legal issues around this. I can see possible MOT issues with the speedo and also legal problems with the odometer.

Alternately, has anyone done any kind of heads up display unit that can reflect off the windscreen so that I don't have to keep looking down. Just a digital readout of the speed (and possibly revs) would be sufficient, but the whole lot would be cool.

Basically I want to reduce time spent looking at the speedo dial, and I really hate analogue gagues, a number is far easier to read.

And ideas?

Reply to
Lum
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Try here

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HTH ;)

-- Chet

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Reply to
Chet

Overkill for what I'm after :P

And the wrong sort of look anyway. I actually quite like the 80's arcade game look of the Astra dash, and it'd match the rest of the car by being similarly dated in appearance :P

Reply to
Lum

What is this ? its not a bolt on conversion, you actually have to think about what you are doing and use a bit of brain power. Proper modifications are not bolt on tat like those led washer jets you almost certainly have!

No MOT issues with it, you just need to know a bit of electronics..

Reply to
Mark Craft

modifications

Why not look at some of the units that STACK manufacture? Not cheap (£300 touch), but yo'll end up with the sort of dash that looks the dogs. You will need one with the inbuilt odometer, and a few extra lights.

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Is that digital enough for you?

Reply to
Phil Howard

Woops...Should have read £1300...bit rich for a MkIV Escort, me thinks...

Reply to
Phil Howard

Yup - expect to pay at least £1000...

Yup. If you don't know electronics, then either learn, or forget about it.

Assuming they all work as they should, there'll be no issues.

Yup - expect to pay at least £1000...

Absolute tosh ! You don't need to "read" an analogue guage - you simply note the position of the needle - you already know that vertical is 90mph etc. That takes a damn-sight less time than having to focus-on, then read, then process the figure you've read. Think about it !

See above :)

Reply to
Nom

I fitted the Astra GTE digital dash into my Mk3 Escort (may years ago now!). The thing that gave me the most trouble was getting the speedo to work accurately, as the Vauxhall sender would not fit onto the Ford gearbox. Even if it did, it would be miles out, as most Ford gearboxes give an even output of 1000 revs/mile (60mph = 1000rpm). Vauxhalls on the other hand have some very strange numbers - 1474 revs/mile for example. In the end I made an Infra-Red pick-up mounted on the gearbox, pointing at a strip of self-adhesive foil tape with alternate sections covered in strips of black tape.

All other senders were pretty standard, so the existing Ford ones could be used with the Vx dash. The only extra you would need to find would be an oil pressure sender.

HTH

Anthony Remove eight from e-mail to reply.

Reply to
Anthony Britt

snip

You don't watch your speed when driving in town??? Have I misunderstood what you're saying or are you a tosser of the highest order?

In my experience, that 740 or Micra will be the ones that held you up getting to town (by driving at 45mph in a 60) and continue at the same speed (by driving at 45mph in a 30) through the town.

I'd start watching my speedo too if I were you.

Reply to
Jamesy

Get a Fiat Tipo or Tempra, they have a great digital dash and might even be a better car than your Escort.

Reply to
Mark W

If I thought it was going to be a bolt-on jub do you really think I'd be here asking if anyone has already done it? If it were a bolt-on I could just get it from some bloody website and do it. :P

Now there is no need to be /that/ insulting! For the record I hate those blue LEDs, the only appearance modifications I've done is replacing the indicators with some clear ones I had knocking around. All the work oon this car is going into the mechanics and the interior.

Reply to
Lum

I have found the paperwork on which I did the calculations for the speed conversion. The Astra was 1776 revs/mile and the Escort was 1000 revs/mile. On the Escort, this figure was around the periphery of the speedo dial, and could only be seen with the instrument removed.

The IR pickup that I used was a special sealed device that I have just searched for, but cannot find, so I am not sure that they are available anymore. (tried RS, Maplin etc). It is just an IR source and detector mounted in a plastic body, and they are angled towards each other. Anything reflective passing the centre of the body will bounce the IR signal back to the detector. This then gives a pulse on the output wire. I fed this back to a small circuit board which I mounted on the back of the LCD dash. I should still ahve it somewhere.....

There are seperate wires for the oil pressure gauge and oil pressure light, so you can use one or the other. The pressure gauge will read full all of the time if no sender is connected.

Anthony Remove eight from email to reply.

Reply to
Anthony Britt

It was a turn of phrase, not an actual admission of not looking at the speedo whilst driving round town. I glance every now and then, but know what 30/40/50 mph feels (and sounds) like for each gear. I'll aggree with your Volvo/Micra comment though!

Reply to
Phil Howard

FWIW all audi's that have Climate control come with digital Speedo's, there is a couple of button presses on the Climate display and it shows you the speed in KMH :(

It also shows you temp's all around the car, inc under bonnet etc, it shows you RPM as well, you name it, I think it shows 40 different settings in my car.

Just buy an Audi, Simple :)

Ron

Reply to
Ron

You might need to take out the innards and modify the escort instrument panel to take them (drill holes, etc) - I doubt they would be a direct fit.

Can't forsee any legal issues - if there are fully digital dashes in other cars then it shouldn't be a problem.

Well the BMW I-drive system sort of does what you're after (I think the windscreen has some sort of semi-transparent screen built in) - it's on the late model 7-series, and a more simple system will be implemented on the new shape 5-series, out later this year. You could try phoning up BMW and asking them the prices. We'll take bets on how many multiples of ten times what your car's worth the equipment will cost :-))

But in all seriousness you could look for a technical manual for the current

7-series, with relation to the I-drive system, to get an idea of the general principles involved.

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

What are the chances of that happening? (in a Harry Hill voice)

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

snip

Well that's ok then ;-)

BTW, not all Volvos are slow y'know (see mine). Or Micras for that matter (see Ed's).

Reply to
Jamesy

Get yourself to college then :)

Not from the top of my head - I think it's listed in Demon Tweeks current catalogue, IIRC. Go and do some Googling :)

And I am human, same as you.

You don't need to read the numbers - that's the whole point. If speed limit is vertical, then that's what you keep the needle at etc. You already know through experience what needle position each speed is, so it's trivial.

To "read" it ? All you have to do is look where the needle is pointing ! That takes a nano-second, for anyone !

Troll ahoy.

Reply to
Nom

Very mush so, he's clearly never lived with a car that has a digital readout. I put a set of Astra GTe clocks in an old Cav SRi, was pretty and everything but not nearly as easy to read and live with on a daily basis.

Reply to
Lordy

Like I have enough free time as it is! The truck drivers will say I'm complaining about nothing, but a 42.5 hour working week kills me. I can't wait till I start my next job and go back to 9-5 (and get a company car = more time to tit about with the Escort)

I've been googling FFS! it was my failure to find anything useful that brought me to prompt here!

I've been brought up on digital from a very early age though.

I find reading a digital number less trivial

See above

Whatever.

The digital speedo should also be more accurate than Ford's spining magnet and spring hunk of crap. My dials are dying as the printed plastic bit with the numbers on slowly separates from the main plastic of the unit. I've cut a horrible hole in said plastic to stop the speedo from jamming, but the other gagues are going too. This happened to my last escort also and I reckon will happen to any replacement dashboard unit I get from a scrappy.

So I either replace the entire unit with a new one from ford, which will be expensive assuming they even make them still, Get one of those Lockwood white dial kits which look shit, or have some fun replacing the dash with one that displays the speed in my preferred format.

Reply to
Lum

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