# P3 Vent Integrated Digital Interface Install (picture heavy)



## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

I installed the P3 Vent Gauge this weekend. It was incredibly easy, and I'm very happy with it so far. I really like how it blends in with the interior, and how incredibly user friendly it is. Speedo, RPM and shift light, 0-60 timer, boost gauge, intake temp, coolant temp, battery voltage, and other options to select make it worth the price for me. I've included a picture heavy "how to" below to show how straightforward the install is. It honestly takes 10 minutes, I hope this is a help!










Gauge itself









First up, gain access to the fuse panel area by popping off the cover. (I used a flathead screw driver with a towel covering it, my version of a trim tool)









Then, create some space by wedging between the dash and vent in order to pull it out. Once you have enough room to get your fingers on the vent, just keep pulling until it comes out.



























Next, I used needle nose pliers to pinch the clip in the inner part of the vent in order to separate it from the outer part of the vent.


















Notice how the P3 gauge has the same clip, just replace the inner portion with the gauge.









Feed the cord attached to the gauge through the vent first.









Then simply clip the gauge into the same spot where you disconnected the original inner vent.









Feed the cord through the dash into the fuse panel area.









Then just put the vent back in place.









Now plug the cord into the control box.









Then plug the control box into the OBD2 cord.









Plug the OBD2 cord into the OBD2 port beside the hood release.









Turn on the car and the gauge should turn on and begin functioning.









Tuck the wiring into the fuse access area.









And get rid of any excess slack from the OBD2 cord.









Close up the fuse access panel.









And that's it!


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

Very nice. Thanks!


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## FLtrooper (Jul 16, 2012)

Looks great! I just ordered one this weekend.

Thanks!


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## IHIERBal (Sep 26, 2014)

Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing.


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## davewg (Jul 30, 2001)

Very nice. Let us know how it is looking over to check it versus the dash.

And, you have to love it when the write-up takes longer than the mod.


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## hjvelez (Mar 10, 2014)

Thanks!! I was waiting for this to order mine, looks like an easy install. Have you tested it? What psi figures are you seeing?


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

davewg said:


> Very nice. Let us know how it is looking over to check it versus the dash.
> 
> And, you have to love it when the write-up takes longer than the mod.


It's not a problem at all, about the same as looking at the Nav screen.


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

hjvelez said:


> Thanks!! I was waiting for this to order mine, looks like an easy install. Have you tested it? What psi figures are you seeing?


So far I've seen 24.2 psi, but I'll keep watching it. I haven't launched it yet since the install.


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## hybridcmk (Oct 10, 2013)

might sound like a silly question but do you think there is enough wire to run it from the vent under the mmi screen?


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

hybridcmk said:


> might sound like a silly question but do you think there is enough wire to run it from the vent under the mmi screen?


It would certainly be long enough when you plug all three components together, however the issue I'd see with that is how would you snake it through the dash to get it over to the fuse access panel area in order to plug it into the OBD2 port. Even if you could snake it through the dash, would the openings be large enough to be able to feed the control box through? 

So short answer, in theory yes, practically I'm not sure.


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## Nachtsturm (May 8, 2012)

jrwamp said:


> So far I've seen 24.2 psi, but I'll keep watching it. I haven't launched it yet since the install.


That is with the tune correct? How much did the tune increase PSI?


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## BGR (Jul 23, 2014)

Coolant temp is almost worth the price of admission alone. Does it also have oil temp and pressure?


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

Nachtsturm said:


> That is with the tune correct? How much did the tune increase PSI?


From looking at the Fourtitude article which details the specs of the S3's motor, it says that maximum pressure is 1.2 bar, which is 17.4 psi. So from my unscientific results it looks like it increased it by around 7 psi give or take.


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

BGR said:


> Coolant temp is almost worth the price of admission alone. Does it also have oil temp and pressure?


It doesn't show oil temp unfortunately, but since the car reads oil temp on the lap timer screen, I'm not too concerned about that.


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

wow that install couldnt be easier. i may order one for my car now.


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## ZsPower (Feb 13, 2015)




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## tateltot (Dec 4, 2015)

What did you do about the dimmer/illumination connection? Also, did you end up getting the analog boost sensor at any point? Trying to decide how to proceed.

Thanks for the great writeup.


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

tateltot said:


> What did you do about the dimmer/illumination connection? Also, did you end up getting the analog boost sensor at any point? Trying to decide how to proceed.
> 
> Thanks for the great writeup.


I didn't enable the dimmer/illumination, so I just manually change it. I actually like it reversed, dimmer at night because the bright setting is just so much more than the rest of the cluster in the dark. And I didn't do the analog boost sensor, I was told that's really only necessary once you go big turbo. Whether that's true or not who knows, but I think the OBD does a good enough reading. If it's off by .xxx it doesn't really concern me. Thanks!


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## BETOGLI (Jul 15, 2010)

It looks amazing!


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## TornadoR32 (May 18, 2006)

How do you like it so far bud? Dont use mine a whole lot but like it!


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

TornadoR32 said:


> How do you like it so far bud? Dont use mine a whole lot but like it!


I like it a lot, but honestly I just keep it on the boost setting and never change it.


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## rhoyle (Sep 17, 2015)

So it's really just eye candy then?


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

rhoyle said:


> So it's really just eye candy then?


It's a boost gauge, I don't know if that means it's eye candy...


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

It's got a ton of good information when you need to reference it, but I don think anyone is looking at their battery voltage every day.


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## rhoyle (Sep 17, 2015)

Ok, maybe I'm missing something. Is the boost gauge really useful though? I can see coolant temp, oil temp, or oil pressure being useful on a day to day basis (especially on a track) but a boost gauge? especially one that's just reading from the ODB port, and not an actual measurement of vacuum? 

Are you monitoring this for some indication of trouble or just seeing how much the turbo is working? I'm sorry if this is a naive question, I'm just failing to see how useful this would be in a modern car.


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## Scb67 (Aug 29, 2015)

hybridcmk said:


> might sound like a silly question but do you think there is enough wire to run it from the vent under the mmi screen?


I ran mine to the left vent under the Nav screen......very easy. Just used one of those long metal flexible grabber things...grabbed the end of the wire and ran it straight across under the dash. Much better than the left air vent (where I originally had it!)


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

rhoyle said:


> Ok, maybe I'm missing something. Is the boost gauge really useful though? I can see coolant temp, oil temp, or oil pressure being useful on a day to day basis (especially on a track) but a boost gauge? especially one that's just reading from the ODB port, and not an actual measurement of vacuum?
> 
> Are you monitoring this for some indication of trouble or just seeing how much the turbo is working? I'm sorry if this is a naive question, I'm just failing to see how useful this would be in a modern car.


I mean, the short answer is all of it is only useful when you're making sure something's not wrong. Saying you don't need a boost gauge in a modern car is I guess a valid point other than making sure you don't have a leak, but boost gauges are kind of a common mod...so ultimately ??? Not really trying to get into a philosophical discussion on the reasoning for boost gauges.


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## SotoDojo (Jan 16, 2016)

rhoyle said:


> Ok, maybe I'm missing something. Is the boost gauge really useful though? I can see coolant temp, oil temp, or oil pressure being useful on a day to day basis (especially on a track) but a boost gauge? especially one that's just reading from the ODB port, and not an actual measurement of vacuum?
> 
> Are you monitoring this for some indication of trouble or just seeing how much the turbo is working? I'm sorry if this is a naive question, I'm just failing to see how useful this would be in a modern car.


Well according to the website 

"P3 V.I.D.I.
Boost and Vacuum from OBD2 port
Plug and Play install - just plug into your obd2 port and install into dash!
Optional analog sensor for reading boost on tuned/big turbo cars.
OBD2 Data for Coolant Temp, Intake Air Temp, Exhaust Gas Temp, Throttle Plate, Speed, RPM with Shift-light, Battery voltage and more!
Optional Auto-Dim or Manual Dimmer
Code Read/Clear
2 x universal 0-5v linear analog inputs
Includes Digital Display, Custom OBD Wire Harness, Control Box."


So this might be more appealing to you if it does in fact read temps and rpm. Personally I just like seeing the boost as a number instead of the stock LED's. I'll do this mod eventually.

-Soto


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## BETOGLI (Jul 15, 2010)

Yeah, and you have a 0-60 MPH chrono... so it's a lot of fun IMO.

As stated before you can check your boost pressure and check if you have a leak, but as well on switchable tune programs you can see if you're pulling building different boost in different files/stages of a tune.


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## tateltot (Dec 4, 2015)

jrwamp said:


> I mean, the short answer is all of it is only useful when you're making sure something's not wrong. Saying you don't need a boost gauge in a modern car is I guess a valid point other than making sure you don't have a leak, but boost gauges are kind of a common mod...so ultimately ??? Not really trying to get into a philosophical discussion on the reasoning for boost gauges.


+1. Bottom line: to each their own. 

However, when my computer, car, oven, dishwasher, whatever, stops working, I want to be able to diagnose the problem. I don't want a "service" light. I want to know that I have a boost leak or if I'm experiencing spikes. Or that my coolant temps are excessively high on a long trip in the mountains. I want to know that an ECU tune is running too lean by looking at EGTs. I come from the land of DSMs where I know, can diagnose (and potentially fix) problems, possibly before they get too serious. I want to know the mundanities of my intake temp so that I can actually see if some heat wrap or cowling made a difference. I want to know, exactly, that a stage 1 or 2 ECU tune added "so" much boost. I want to know if my battery is dying prematurely. I would like to see my true throttle position. 

The VIDI can do all of these things. 

I have less control over the performance of my S than I did over my heavily tuned Eclipse, but I'll be damned if I accept "check engine" as a reasonable warning or diagnosis on a $45k car's operations.


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## k2jer (Jan 29, 2016)

Scb67 said:


> I ran mine to the left vent under the Nav screen......very easy. Just used one of those long metal flexible grabber things...grabbed the end of the wire and ran it straight across under the dash. Much better than the left air vent (where I originally had it!)


Do you have a picture of this?


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## jrwamp (Mar 25, 2011)

tateltot said:


> +1. Bottom line: to each their own.
> 
> However, when my computer, car, oven, dishwasher, whatever, stops working, I want to be able to diagnose the problem. I don't want a "service" light. I want to know that I have a boost leak or if I'm experiencing spikes. Or that my coolant temps are excessively high on a long trip in the mountains. I want to know that an ECU tune is running too lean by looking at EGTs. I come from the land of DSMs where I know, can diagnose (and potentially fix) problems, possibly before they get too serious. I want to know the mundanities of my intake temp so that I can actually see if some heat wrap or cowling made a difference. I want to know, exactly, that a stage 1 or 2 ECU tune added "so" much boost. I want to know if my battery is dying prematurely. I would like to see my true throttle position.
> 
> ...


 you said what I wanted to say, I was just too lazy to type out something like that


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## TornadoR32 (May 18, 2006)

jrwamp said:


> I like it a lot, but honestly I just keep it on the boost setting and never change it.


Same.


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## tateltot (Dec 4, 2015)

Install went great. Piece of cake. Now, I just need to track down a proper illumination/dimmer wire that isn't somewhere inconvenient like the center console. Our headlight switches don't match what the VW guys have (they just tap their gray headlight wire), which is making this difficult.

The S has four, thin-gauge wires coming out of the headlight switch instead of a bigger, more robust harness. Probably because the auto headlights are managed elsewhere.


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