where to hook up gauge illumination - Tuner-Junction

Johnlude85 · #1 (**permalink**) March 17th, 2006, 11:08 PM

hey guys, i just got my gauges in my pod light tonight, but its half assed. i want it to be perfect, theyre on all the time so long as the car is running. i dont want it like that. i want to hook the illumination to the dimmer switch but i dont know which wire to splice into. does anyone know. if i NEED to i can go out real quick and take a pic if anyone needs to see the wires.

Johnlude85 · #2 (**permalink**) March 18th, 2006, 05:59 PM

ok...i have 8 views and no repluies yet. maybe no one knows. if any of you have pods with gauges, where did you hook up your illumination to. i was lookin at a diagram for the cd player and there is a dimmer wire in there. i believe its orange. its for the stock radio and its not connected to the aftermarket cd player. does anyone know if i can hook the illumination for the gauges to that?

noopie · #3 (**permalink**) March 18th, 2006, 11:37 PM

sorry, i have no idea.

Johnlude85 · #4 (**permalink**) March 18th, 2006, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noopie

sorry, i have no idea.

DAMMIT!!! i saw that someone replied so i clicked on my thread...just to find out you dont know. lol oh well...add it to the post count i guess.

. thanks anyway. hopefully someone will know.

charliemopps24 · #5 (**permalink**) March 18th, 2006, 11:42 PM

Tap the guage power wire into the non-groung wire coming out the back of the interior light dimmer switch. Should work like that. I think now your power wire is tapped into the cigarette lighter power wire, right?

Johnlude85 · #6 (**permalink**) March 18th, 2006, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charliemopps24

Tap the guage power wire into the non-groung wire coming out the back of the interior light dimmer switch. Should work like that. I think now your power wire is tapped into the cigarette lighter power wire, right?

what do you mean the "non-groung" (i think you meant ground) wire. i need colors. i can take pics if need be. but my power is at the fuse box. i used a fuse tap to get power. i have em lit up, i just got wire taps tonight to find an illumination source so i can do this tomorrow. i also need to find out what wire on the o2 sensor to tap the air/fuel gauge into. so ill be googling that all night too.

charliemopps24 · #7 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:03 AM

I'm pretty sure that now the "red" wire coming from your guage is wired into a constant 12V power source. You need to wire it into a 12V source that has a switch or dimmer. You have a dimmer that worked for your climate control and stock guages. There is a red, power wire and a black, ground wire comming out of the back of it. Tap the red wire from the back of the guages into the red wire from the dimmer. Run that black wire from the back of the guages into a metal part of your chassis.

Johnlude85 · #8 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charliemopps24

I'm pretty sure that now the "red" wire coming from your guage is wired into a constant 12V power source. You need to wire it into a 12V source that has a switch or dimmer. You have a dimmer that worked for your climate control and stock guages. There is a red, power wire and a black, ground wire comming out of the back of it. Tap the red wire from the back of the guages into the red wire from the dimmer. Run that black wire from the back of the guages into a metal part of your chassis.

only the oil pressure gauge has a power wire and its wired to a fuse that is on when the car is on. thats fine, im havin a problem with the illumination part. theyre lit up, but theyre on whenever the car is on.

here are the gauges in the daytime

night time

and here is the dimmer switch on the dash. this is the wire harness for the dimmer switch alone.

Johnlude85 · #9 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:08 AM

sorry...that one is really huge

charliemopps24 · #10 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:23 AM

Sorry, my mind was on simple electronics. Do you have a voltmeter? It's kinda painstaking but it's fool proof.
If I remember correctly, back when I had indiglow's, I pulled the "dash lights" fuse out, stuck the red wire in the gap and shoved the fuse back in and made sure the wire was mostly secure. It worked.

Johnlude85 · #11 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charliemopps24

Sorry, my mind was on simple electronics. Do you have a voltmeter? It's kinda painstaking but it's fool proof.
If I remember correctly, back when I had indiglow's, I pulled the "dash lights" fuse out, stuck the red wire in the gap and shoved the fuse back in and made sure the wire was mostly secure. It worked.

thats basically what i have only sugarcoated. its a brass peice that you connect a wire to and then slide it over the fuse and then just plug in the fuse.

oh shit, they have em on ebay. anyway, here is exactly what i have http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-Blade-Fuse-...QQcmdZViewItem . so simple yet such a great thing when hookin up accessories that need power. i had acess to mitchell on demand...but somethings wrong with the server or some shit. either that, or someone found out that alot of people were illegally using it. i cant find out which wire to tap into for the illumination. i have the power down, and i have the ground down. i need the illum. and ill have the signal wires down after they light up right. all i have to do after they light up right is tap the air/fuel signal wire to the o2, then put the oil pressure sending unit where the oil pressure switch was and im good to go...its a little more complicated then that, but you know how it goes im sure.

charliemopps24 · #12 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:35 AM

I thought you couldn't install those L.E.D. Lean/Rich guages with the stock O2 cause it goes high-low-high-low-high-low, not like a wideband.
Edit: Oh yeah, mine had a power that I put into the lighter wire, a ground that I put to the chassis, and the signal wire which I put into the fuse panel. Forgot that it had 3 wires.I had this kind of overlay thing.

Johnlude85 · #13 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charliemopps24

I thought you couldn't install those L.E.D. Lean/Rich guages with the stock O2 cause it goes high-low-high-low-high-low, not like a wideband.
Edit: Oh yeah, mine had a power that I put into the lighter wire, a ground that I put to the chassis and the signal wire which I put into the fuse panel.

you can use the air/fuel gauge with a stock o2. it just wont be as acurate. its give me a really good idea tho. widebands are expensive. its hard to find just the o2 without some kind of meter attatched to it. plus for daily driving, for some reason the wide band sensors dont last that long.

Johnlude85 · #14 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 11:10 AM

any other input...i need to get this done today. its my day off.

Clone · #15 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 03:30 PM

when I installed the nitrous/fuel press. gauges in my Prelude... the autometer cobalt series... it only had three wires for the gauge itself... one power, one ground, and one illumination. The power and the illumination wires just need a 12 volt source. The ground just needs a ground. I had all of them hooked up to my stereo head unit's wiring and they worked just fine.

You should be able to wire them to wherever... I used the stereo because where I mounted my gauges, they were right above the stereo and it was easy to get to... not to mention I already knew which wires were which.

Just wire one to a ground, and the power and illumination to another 12v source. I wouldn't use the same 12v source for both wires, so try to find two. I mean, I guess you could... I dont really see why not... but I wouldn't.

Then of course, hook up the senders and shit, blah blah blah, and you should be good to go.

Johnlude85 · #16 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clone

when I installed the nitrous/fuel press. gauges in my Prelude... the autometer cobalt series... it only had three wires for the gauge itself... one power, one ground, and one illumination. The power and the illumination wires just need a 12 volt source. The ground just needs a ground. I had all of them hooked up to my stereo head unit's wiring and they worked just fine.

You should be able to wire them to wherever... I used the stereo because where I mounted my gauges, they were right above the stereo and it was easy to get to... not to mention I already knew which wires were which.

Just wire one to a ground, and the power and illumination to another 12v source. I wouldn't use the same 12v source for both wires, so try to find two. I mean, I guess you could... I dont really see why not... but I wouldn't.

Then of course, hook up the senders and shit, blah blah blah, and you should be good to go.

yea i have the power and illumination wires hooked up to the same 12 volt source and the gauges are lit whenever the car is on. i dont want it that way, i want to find an illumination wire that only has power when the headlights are on. thats how the light dimmer works, so i need to find out which wire on the dimmer switch to hook them up to.

DCxMagus · #17 (**permalink**) March 19th, 2006, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnlude85

you can use the air/fuel gauge with a stock o2. it just wont be as acurate. its give me a really good idea tho. widebands are expensive. its hard to find just the o2 without some kind of meter attatched to it. plus for daily driving, for some reason the wide band sensors dont last that long.

actually it wont help you at all if you stick it on the stock 02 you will either get dancing lights or a light that will tell you when either your in stoitch or non stoitch, narrowband is useless for tuning if your using the gauge for any type of tuning you need a wideband sensor its the only way to tune accurately enough. the gauge now though can help you learn if your 02 is going bad though.

try and find a wiring diagram of the prelude (check honda-tech they might have one) and try and find a 12v power source that is only on when the parking lights are on or when the headlights are on... this way all the gauge should go on at the same time when you have the stock cluster on