How hard is it to install gauges?

[01GalantLSV6]

well i just ordered an air fuel ratio gauge, oil pressure gauge, and nitrous bottle pressure gauge


so how hard is it to install these gauges? are there any tutorials for our cars? any pointers? how long should it take?

[pinoyesv6]

i have the air fuel ratio gauge its fairl easy to install. the big problem is that the ecu is under the glovebox so it gets kinda tight. other than that its just runnig wires across the car

the oil pressure. i've done it for other cars. make sure its an electrical gauge or you're gonna run into some problems. once you get the sender hooked up, again its a matter of running wires.

for the nitrous. i've never done one so i can't really tell you anything about that.

[01GalantLSV6]

thanks, doesnt sound too bad, the nitrous should acutally be easiest cuz its just a braided steel line directly onto the bottle.

[01GalantLSV6]

another question...do the gauges get their power from the wires they hook up to? meaning i dont have to run a line to the battery correct?

[pinoyesv6]

depending on the make and model of the gauges you might have to hook up more wires.

2 wires for the backlighting (if equipped)
the wire for the signal (hose if gauge is mechanical)
one for hte ground
and one that is hooked up for power

[Serstylz2]

I've always wanted to get an A/F gauge and Voltmeter... does the A/F wires run to the engine bay to the ecu, or is the actual ecu in the car under the glovebox? And what do you hook your voltmeter wires up to?

[pinoyesv6]

my air fuel is hooked up under the glovebox at the ecu itself. you get a better reading (for both the gauge and the ecu) if you tap at the ecu instead of at th o2 sensor itself

as for the voltmeter. some people hooked theirs up directly to the battery but mine is hooked up at the fuse box. this way whe i start up the car i can see the needle actually move instead of it just sitting there at 12 or how many volts.

[Serstylz2]

so you mounted the actual gauge in the glove box? i wanted it to be on an A-pillar, would hooking it up w. your method be impossible to do and still have it with an A-pillar or could I just run the wires?

[ChikagoGTZ]

Pinoy, I have a A/F tapped into my ECU, problem is I get a little sputter and I run rich for the first few minutes after I start up my car. If i unplug the A/F wire, it runs fine....think I should tap further from the ECU just to make sure I'm not getting any feedback? I'm prolly tapped 5 inches from the plug but could go further back...I may attach a diode to stop the feedback as well...what do u think?

[BlankMan]

The A/F meter only reads the voltage on the O2 line. It shouldn't matter where you hook up on the feed to the ECU - as long as you have a good connection - you're still connecting a load (the gauge) in parallel with te ECU feed and voltage remains the same in a parallel circuit. You could try an inline diode if you think the gauge is somehow raising or lower the voltage on the line...

BTW - do you guys tap the front (pin 71) or rear (pin 74) O2 sensor?

J

[pinoyesv6]

so you mounted the actual gauge in the glove box? i wanted it to be on an A-pillar, would hooking it up w. your method be impossible to do and still have it with an A-pillar or could I just run the wires?

my guage is mounted in the pillar. i ran wires from the ecu which is under the glovebox, across the car and into the pillar. not that hard at all if you know how to remove the trim pieces


Pinoy, I have a A/F tapped into my ECU, problem is I get a little sputter and I run rich for the first few minutes after I start up my car. If i unplug the A/F wire, it runs fine....think I should tap further from the ECU just to make sure I'm not getting any feedback? I'm prolly tapped 5 inches from the plug but could go further back...I may attach a diode to stop the feedback as well...what do u think?

mine is tapped like maybe an inch or two from the harness and the only time i get problems like that is if my ground wire for the gauge is loose or something of that sort.


BTW - do you guys tap the front (pin 71) or rear (pin 74) O2 sensor?

mine is tapped at the front sensor. can't tell you which pin it is but yea it does vary from year and engine

[BlankMan]

Any reason front over rear? Reason I ask is the signal wire for the rear is right there at the center console, unshieled. That means there's no reason to get to the ECU to tap the signal. Is one *supposed* to use one over the other?

J

[pinoyesv6]

there's a reason why we have a front and a rear sensor.

not only does the oxygen sensors detect if the car is running rich or lean but you also remember what is in between the front and the rear sensor. a cat. one of the things that a cat does is seperate the oxygen from the nitrogen found in your car's exhaust.

so you're probably thinking what that has to do with the two sensors. well if the cat emits more oxygen, then the rear oxygen sensor will find more oxygen than the front. thats why you have two. the two compare values to make sure the cat is working properly.

you can certainly hook it up to the rear and it will still work. but, it will say you are running more lean right?

[BlankMan]

Not that I've seen - but maybe it's b/c of the RIPP HFC, I duuno. My gauge reads rich at cold start, pops around stoic when at a warm idle and pegs rich when WOT. The way I understood the F/R O2's is the values are supposed to be similar and that's what's compared by the ECU. It's when it sees the values are more different/farther apart from each other than they should be that it throws a code...

J

[pinoyesv6]

My gauge reads rich at cold start

thats normal


pops around stoic when at a warm idle

thats normal


pegs rich when WOT.

thats normal

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h46.pdf ('http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h46.pdf') go to page 7. it tells you about what the two oxygen sensors do in more detail. has a picture too[/quote]

[01GalantLSV6]

im getting gauges now because i have nitrous, and i figure they can be great safeguards. because im guessing, that at WOT with nitrous engaged, im gonna want to run richer then normal just for saffety and to prevent detonation. so if i run lean at WOT ill know i need to make adjustments before spraying again. and im also assuming if my oil pressure is lower then it should be, i definately should not spray. so hopefully these things will lead to longer engine life on the bottle. also, the nitrous bottle pressure gauge is good to let me know if ill get the full punch from my 75 shot.

[pinoyesv6]

because im guessing, that at WOT with nitrous engaged, im gonna want to run richer then normal just for saffety and to prevent detonation. so if i run lean at WOT ill know i need to make adjustments before spraying again.

yo. if you are running lean at WOT at any time your engine is gone.

but yea, if you are using the a/f guage for any sort of tuning, i suggest you get one with a numerical read out at least. you're not gonna remember at what voltage each of those lil LED's light up at.

[b-boy_sky]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(01GalantLSV6)</div><div class='quotemain'>im getting gauges now because i have nitrous, and i figure they can be great safeguards. Â*because im guessing, that at WOT with nitrous engaged, im gonna want to run richer then normal just for saffety and to prevent detonation. Â*so if i run lean at WOT ill know i need to make adjustments before spraying again. Â*and im also assuming if my oil pressure is lower then it should be, i definately should not spray. Â*so hopefully these things will lead to longer engine life on the bottle. Â*also, the nitrous bottle pressure gauge is good to let me know if ill get the full punch from my 75 shot.</div>

Use the A/F guage for an idea but not for tuning. If you have a FPR or AFC get your car dyno tuned. And also if you have a wet shot you should be ok as far as fuel goes. When I was running nitrous with a FPR and AFC, I could very easily run rich, which can be bad for your car as well. And the oil pressure you will want to keep an eye out for when you at WOT. If you the pressure does not rise than you have a problem. As far as the wiring goes, the air fuel is just 3 wires...power, ground, and O2 sensor (if it is pin 71 the wire is white with a thin green stripe) and a ground with a power if it has a light bulb. The oil pressure is the same but the pressure wire hooks up to a oil sensor that should come with the gauge. It should also come with some adaptor pieces so that you can hook up the stock oil pressure gauge and the aftermarket one.

The nitrous gauge is easy as well. You just need a 4an adaptor to tee off the nitrous line. You can then hook up the gauge at the bottle, the solenoid or route more steel braided line inside the car and place the gauge anywhere you'd like.

On another note I was under the impression that you were supposed to hook up the O2 sensor wire to the front O2 sensor. And for reference my air/fuel gauge starts of lean then slowly moves to rich while it goes through its warm up cycle. After it's done with the warm up cycle it bounces back and forth and it also reads rich under WOT....