Dumb question: On board boost pressure gauge .. how to interpret.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 50
Likes: 48
C43 AMG
Dumb question: On board boost pressure gauge .. how to interpret.
Guys,
I never really understood how to utilize the boost pressure gauge properly. Is there a practical reason the car has a boost gauge and is there a way to use the boost pressure to your advantage for performance or fuel economy in every day driving ? Or is it for track use ?
Sincerely,
Big dumb non mechanically inclined dude.
I never really understood how to utilize the boost pressure gauge properly. Is there a practical reason the car has a boost gauge and is there a way to use the boost pressure to your advantage for performance or fuel economy in every day driving ? Or is it for track use ?
Sincerely,
Big dumb non mechanically inclined dude.
Member
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 140
Likes: 24
From: SF, CA
Current: 2019 C43 Old: 2016 C450
honestly the boost guage that displays in the car is just to show you how much you're on it. There's really no need for it. The only time you really need a boost guage (a real one that measure in bar or psi) is when you're hardcore racing with alot of mods. Other than that it's just pretty to look at.
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 439
Likes: 74
From: California
2019 AMG C63S
Not sure if the gauge itself is useful for racing. It is useful to see when you're really making use of the boost from your turbo, usually during acceleration.
I've seen few racing folks install a boost gauge which shows the boost in PSI, probably this is a a cheaper no-cost version for them? It probably makes sense if you have an aftermarket turbo and you want to see how much boost is being generated, but not sure if the AMG provided gauge in the instrument cluster would work for this purpose.
I've seen few racing folks install a boost gauge which shows the boost in PSI, probably this is a a cheaper no-cost version for them? It probably makes sense if you have an aftermarket turbo and you want to see how much boost is being generated, but not sure if the AMG provided gauge in the instrument cluster would work for this purpose.
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 32
Likes: 6
2019 C43 AMG
Since the C43 has no launch control, i'll use the boost gauge when launching for fun. Ill smash my brake pedal and floor it until the boost builds to as high as itll go and then let go of the brake. May be a placebo but it feels significantly faster off the launch.
Out Of Control!!
Joined: Nov 2018
Posts: 11,432
Likes: 5,343
From: San Francisco Bay Area
2019 C63CS
I wouldn't say it's completely useless. It shows whether the engine is making boost currently and if so how much of the total possible boost. This information can be used for a couple of things. For example it can be used to drive economically. Turbo charged engines burn the least amount of fuel while not making boost. That's why they are so popular in this day and age. Manufacturers can downsize their engines to one that is more fuel efficient and then make the power with the help of forced induction, but as soon as it makes boost, more air is pushed into the combustion chamber, which in turn requires more fuel. So if you want to maximize the amount of miles you get out of a tank while on a road trip or simply are in fuel saving mood, the boost gauge can help control your lead foot. On the other end of the spectrum is launching the car like described above and to let you know when you are out of the turbo hole in general. If you wanna get off the line the quickest, then you can brake boost the car, which is what the poster above is describing. You step on the brakes and throttle simultaneously to a) build boost and b) preload the torque converter and then take off as fast as possible. Cars with torque converters don't have launch control in general. All you can do on these kinds of cars is brake boosting and even though there is no launch control feature, the ECUs generally limit the rpm to make sure the torque converter doesn't get destroyed. Otherwise you'd have to manually modulate the throttle and brake to build enough boost and get the torque converter to the stall speed. Not doing this right can cause too much stress on the torque converter and potentially damage it, otherwise.
