You can leave OEM ones in place and add a triple gauge set under dash, that way it retains OEM look with new reliability.
You dodged a bullet so far with smoke incident in my opinion.
Good luck.
Did some checks in the connections today as per the service manuals, it turned out that the gauge does work, apparently the sender is bad. I tested it by grounding the connection and the gauge moves all right. Will replace the sender and see what happens.
