The DEPO boost gauge on the Octavia project wasn’t working. The needle wouldn’t move and the back light was flashing indicating there was a problem with the gauge.
The Boost Gauge Repair Process
Putting a multimeter on the signal output of the boost gauge sender showed that the sender was not outputting a signal to the gauge.
Next step was to open up the boost gauge sender to see if it had any obvious problems.
On first inspection I could see it had some light water damage. Some of the components had water stains. Cleaning the stains off and resoldering some of the pins made zero difference to the signal output.
So a new sender was needed.
Looking online the DEPO boost gauge senders looked to be exactly the same as GlowShift boost gauges and ProSport boost gauges. Unfortunately these senders cost over 30 dollars. Not the end of the world but searching on AliExpress I found boost gauge senders for less than 10 dollars. Some claimed they were for Depo boost gauges but it was obvious from the photos that the senders were not the same. At the very least the wiring connectors were different.
Having said that, the sender only used three wires, I was thinking I could depin the connector on the Depo boost gauge I had and put the pins into the connector on the AliExpress senders.
3 weeks later the sender arrived. Quickly bodging the Ali sender up with the Depo gauge showed the gauge was reading plausible numbers and the gauge stopped flashing. In short, the sender looked compatible with the Depo boost gauge even if the connector wasn’t.
Depinning the connector of the Depo gauge loom and doing the same with the pigtail from the new sender showed that the pins were not compatible. The pins from the Depo gauge would not click and stay in the AliExpress gauge sender.
Hard Wire
In the end cutting the old pins of the Depo boost gauge and connecting them to the pigtail supplied with the new sender was the easiest way forward. Not ideal but if the gauge has a problem in the future I know where to get a cheap sender and I won’t have to do any wiring next time.
ProSport Boost Gauge/GlowShift Boost Gauge/Depo Boost Gauge Repair – Summary
In a perfect world I would have used a genuine DEPO sender but I thought I would take the chance with the universal sender. The price difference was big enough to make the gamble worthwhile.
There was a bit of wiring involved but nothing difficult (wire colours were the same) and the gauge now appear to be happy and working properly.