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Problem with aftermarket water temp gauge.pics inside

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:59 pm
by lilzook
Hey guys, finally got around to fitting my water temp and volt gauge on my sierra. (here's a pic of the final product)

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This may be a long shot but my autogage electric water temp gauge isnt working properly after i wired it all up. when i start the motor, the gauge goes nuts. Up and down, hovers around 80degrees (engine is dead cold still). it doesnt stop or settle on any temp even once it's warmed up.

the factory dash temp gauge is wired in aswell. i also tried using the new temp sensor they supplied in the package but i got the same result..

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there is one wire i'm not 100% on. its the orange wire in the diagram. i wired it to 12v ignition. in the pic it shows a switch and some other things i dont understand. here's a pic of the diagram.

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any help/ideas appreciated.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:09 pm
by ZUKPOWER
is it possible to get a clearer pic of that wiring diagram? or can you redraw it for us?

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:54 pm
by "CANADA"
Orange will be for your Accessory line, Yellow to the Batt, and last one goes to Sensor :S


Im not sure why you have the 2 wires from Alt, and your sensor wire crimped into one, but might be somewhere to look...

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:56 pm
by brendan_hh
what brand gauges are they? im looking into changing my gauges (autobarn 7 colour ones)
so far i got oil presure, water temp and volts.

looking for new gauges with oil presure, water temp metric, volts, maybe air/fuel and maybe vacumme.
is it worth to put an air/fuel gauge on? i got a 1,6 EFI

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:35 pm
by Hybrid
Not that this will help the jumping around problem but I would be surprised if the orignal sensor in the car is going to give you an accurate reading on the new gauge. The gauge would be calibrated to the resistance curve of the sensor that came with it. Use the new sensor when you have your wiring sorted.

Brendan. If your running the stock ECU there is no point in getting an Air Fuel (AFR) Meter. It would set you back about $400 at the cheapest with sensor, controler and display. It would tell you the AFR no worries but you wont be able to do anything about correcting lean/rich parts fo the fuel map anyway.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:52 pm
by brendan_hh
yer i am shure i have oxy sensors on the exhaust thow if that helps or anything. i cant tune it myself but at least i have an ider of whats going on? or still prob not worth the money?

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:07 pm
by muz_ook
brendan_hh wrote:yer i am shure i have oxy sensors on the exhaust thow if that helps or anything. i cant tune it myself but at least i have an ider of whats going on? or still prob not worth the money?
yeah spend the money on something else, there is no need for one........


Muz.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:21 pm
by Hybrid
brendan_hh wrote:yer i am shure i have oxy sensors on the exhaust thow if that helps or anything. i cant tune it myself but at least i have an ider of whats going on? or still prob not worth the money?
Nah the sensor you have is only a narrowband unit. Basically only meaures 14.7 AFR (stoich) or rich or lean. You'd need to get another wideband sensor (about $100) installed in your exhaust, a controller($200 and up) and a display ($100) to show accurate AFR ranges. The guages you have now can already tell you theres a problem which is all an AFR guage is any good for without a tuneable ecu. Honestly its just a plain waste of money.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:05 pm
by mick85
you should be able to get a pretty accurate read from your water temp gauge but you'll have to only wire the one gauge to the original sensor, not run the two off it

so either wire the new gauge to the sensor and disconnect the factory or vice versa as the original sender inst made to give a reading to dual gauges, only one.

well that was the case with my old commodore, new electric gauge gave a good reading when run off the factory sensor :armsup:

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:06 pm
by lilzook
[quote=""CANADA""]Orange will be for your Accessory line, Yellow to the Batt, and last one goes to Sensor :S


Im not sure why you have the 2 wires from Alt, and your sensor wire crimped into one, but might be somewhere to look...[/quote]

the alt wires arent crimped to the sensor wire. it just looks like it is in that picture ;)

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:14 pm
by lilzook
heres a better pic. i have the orange wire connected to the red. 12v ignition source.

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mick85 wrote:you should be able to get a pretty accurate read from your water temp gauge but you'll have to only wire the one gauge to the original sensor, not run the two off it

so either wire the new gauge to the sensor and disconnect the factory or vice versa as the original sender inst made to give a reading to dual gauges, only one.

well that was the case with my old commodore, new electric gauge gave a good reading when run off the factory sensor :armsup:
I havnt tried one at a time yet, i'l give that a go, cheers :)

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:37 pm
by brendan_hh
hey lil zook wht brand gauges do you have where diget them?

hybrid- do you think a vacuum gauge is worth it? good to see how much more you need to give it offroad?

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:44 pm
by brendan_hh
Hybrid wrote:
brendan_hh wrote:yer i am shure i have oxy sensors on the exhaust thow if that helps or anything. i cant tune it myself but at least i have an ider of whats going on? or still prob not worth the money?
Nah the sensor you have is only a narrowband unit. Basically only meaures 14.7 AFR (stoich) or rich or lean. You'd need to get another wideband sensor (about $100) installed in your exhaust, a controller($200 and up) and a display ($100) to show accurate AFR ranges. The guages you have now can already tell you theres a problem which is all an AFR guage is any good for without a tuneable ecu. Honestly its just a plain waste of money.
just for the sake of it http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AUTOMETER-AIR-FU ... dZViewItem say will work with most narrow band units

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:05 pm
by lilzook
got it working properly.

Note: only one gauge per sender. I unplugged the factory dash gauge wire and the new one works spot on ;) pity i cant have them both going.

Brendan_hh - got the gauges for free from a mate. there just cheapo ones, not sure where theyre from.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:27 pm
by mick85
lilzook wrote:got it working properly.

Note: only one gauge per sender. I unplugged the factory dash gauge wire and the new one works spot on ;) pity i cant have them both going.

Brendan_hh - got the gauges for free from a mate. there just cheapo ones, not sure where theyre from.
told ya so :finger: hehe :P youll be better off with the aftermarket one as youll get a more accurate reading over just the factory one which tells you hot and cold and in between.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:46 am
by Hybrid
brendan_hh wrote: just for the sake of it http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AUTOMETER-AIR-FU ... dZViewItem say will work with most narrow band units
If your really that keen go for it. I would have thought a gauge showing reach stoich lean would be constantly jumping from lean to rich and back as you went from part thottle to acceleration enrichment etc. When you think its going to only have the one 14.7 Stoich crossever point to work off with a narrow band.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:08 am
by lilzook
mick85 wrote:told ya so :finger: hehe :P youll be better off with the aftermarket one as youll get a more accurate reading over just the factory one which tells you hot and cold and in between.
Haha. thanks mick :P you were right.