92' all trac turbo 3s-gte, turbo gage question Options

[zeros]

I know this is a 6th gen forum, but I know a lot of you have the 3s-gte.
I have a 92 all-trac turbo with 183k miles on it. It has a new engine with about 30-40k miles on it. Car is compleatly stock. I had a question about the turbo gage.

Heres a picture of the gage
-> http://www.retroarcade.com/rfm/celica/dscf0098.jpg

I don't know a whole lot about turbo's and I was asking a friend what the gage ment exactly. There is a negative part to the left, a 0 line, then a positive to the right. Anyways he said it is a pressure censor and it should idle at 0. My gage does not however, it idles all the way to the left. I'm not sure if he knows what he's talking about either though, so I thought I would ask some people I can trust... which brings me here.

So is there something horribly wrong with my turbo that I need to get fixed? Or is it supposed to idle to the left and only go up when I'm driving it?

Any help or tips are welcome, I'm trying to preserve this car as long as I can.

[Gary]

Your gauge is fine.
At idle the car produces vacuum, so the needle will point in negative zone (all the way to the left)
However, the factory boost gauge on the alltrac is crap. period.
It only tell you "boost" or "vacuum".
It will not tell you how much boost and vacuum you have.
And those are important for diagnostic and monitoring.

Install an after market boost gauge and you will see a big difference in response time.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4263018408322914594
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REoG0k_LVjs

How to install an after market boost gauge on ST185
http://alltrac.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6822

This post has been edited by Gary: Oct 18, 2007 - 11:09 AM