Hey guys I wanted to just solder all 5 power wires together and put one wire into the radio 12v fuse and then the same for dimmer power and put into low beam fuse, but I am worried that will draw too much power and blow the fuse. What have you guys done with this many gauges before?
Its a Type R if its any help as to what fuses I have...
Thanks!

 

you have alot of options, make your own circuit would be my way of doing it.

 

x2 make a new circuit with its own fuse.

 

A new circuit needs two things, a relay and a fuse.

 

Gauges can draw various amounts of current. The fact that there's 5 of them doesn't mean anything. Why don't you pop your hood and wire (rig) them all directly to your battery and measure how much current they take before worrying about blowing a fuse.

 

Can someone explain like dummie style how I create a new circuit? Is this a home depot project? I have like 2 weeks to get this done and I still gotta install my engine and full race kit so time is getting tight....thanks.


Couldn't I just wire them together and just run 1 wire over to the battery in the engine bay?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by totsie7944 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can someone explain like dummie style how I create a new circuit? Is this a home depot project? I have like 2 weeks to get this done and I still gotta install my engine and full race kit so time is getting tight....thanks.


Couldn't I just wire them together and just run 1 wire over to the battery in the engine bay?</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2, i hope you can solder, it sounds like you might need to, i cant do it if my life depended on it *raises fist to air* DAMN THESE SHAKY HANDS!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by totsie7944 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can someone explain like dummie style how I create a new circuit?</TD></TR></TABLE>


Step 1: Go to radio shack and buy an "automotive relay":




Also buy an inline fuse holder and the corresponding fuse:




Step 2: Follow the diagram on the back of the radio shack box to figure out the wiring. It involves 4 wires:

- 1st wire goes from any 12v+ switched power source to the relay
- 2nd wire goes from the relay to any ground source
- 3rd wire goes from the pos(+) terminal of your battery, through the inline fuse holder, then into the relay
-4th wire goes from the relay to the 12v+ wires on all your gauges

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Couldn't I just wire them together and just run 1 wire over to the battery in the engine bay?</TD></TR></TABLE>

What you COULD do is stop being a jerk and do what I already told you to do - figure out how much current the gauges draw. Without that knowledge, this entire thread is useless. We could all sit around scratching our asses all day making up wiring diagrams when the solution the entire time might have been to wire the gauges directly to your +12v power source and install a bigger fuse.


FYI, your proposal has no way of switching the gauges on/off. Dummy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Legion &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">FYI, your proposal has no way of switching the gauges on/off. Dummy.</TD></TR></TABLE>

its 520am and im really trying to laugh as quietly as possible LOL!!!!!!!!!

 

i have over 5 gauges wired to one fuse on the fusebox for the past few years and have never had any problems...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mike93eh2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have over 5 gauges wired to one fuse on the fusebox for the past few years and have never had any problems...</TD></TR></TABLE>
yea mines getting pretty full as well.

 

What five gauges?

 

Oil Pressure
Oil Temp
Fuel Pressure
Boost
Wideband...

 

i take out the oil temp and fuel pressure...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by totsie7944 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oil Pressure
Oil Temp
Fuel Pressure
Boost
Wideband...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wideband controllers power the heater circuit inside the o2 sensor. That's generally a fair amount of current. I personally wouldn't run a wideband without a separate fused relay assembly.

Even so, under-dash fuses are usually 15+ amps. It would take over 100 gauges to pop that fuse. Although you can reduce the draw a bit by ditching the in-cabin fuel pressure gauge. That's pretty much the most useless gauge I can think of.

 

lol thanks for all the help guys. I will probably buy a bunch of extra fuses and just run all them that way for now and maybe eliminate the oil temp inthe mean time. I am in a time crunch and can't afford to take away from everything else with the motor to worry about blowing a fuse.

 

What reality do you live in where you think an in-cabin fuel pressure gauge is more useful than an oil temp gauge?? The generally accepted hierarchy is something like this:

1. Wideband
2. Boost
3. Oil pressure
4. EGT
5.
6.
7. Water temp
8. Oil temp
9.
10.
.
.
.
28. Battery voltage
.
.
.
42. Narrowband o2
.
.
.
86. A bag of walnuts
.
.
.
92. Fuel pressure

 

lol!!!!!!!!!!

The wideband should def have its own source because too little power could effect the operation of the whole thing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93supercoupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol!!!!!!!!!!

The wideband should def have its own source because too little power could effect the operation of the whole thing.</TD></TR></TABLE>


More specifically, it should be grounded directly at the battery. All precision components should always share a ground reference at a single node. I know it's tempting to ground it to any part of the car's body, but that's no good for precision. I'll spare you the details, but the basic idea is that you want the current to follow a single path directly from the device to the system's negative voltage potential (neg. battery terminal).

Failure to do so can result in the wideband reading about 0.2 points off.

 

While I'm on the subject, some people think they're supposed to ground their wideband AT the ECU. This is wrong, because then the ECU and wideband share a current path to ground. The proper procedure is to wire the wideband straight to the neg. battery terminal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Legion &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What reality do you live in where you think an in-cabin fuel pressure gauge is more useful than an oil temp gauge?? The generally accepted hierarchy is something like this:

1. Wideband
2. Boost
3. Oil pressure
4. EGT
5.
6.
7. Water temp
8. Oil temp
9.
10.
.
.
.
28. Battery voltage
.
.
.
42. Narrowband o2
.
.
.
86. A bag of walnuts
.
.
.
92. Fuel pressure</TD></TR></TABLE>

So what should the oil temp be on his turbo car?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Blown90hatcH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

So what should the oil temp be on his turbo car?</TD></TR></TABLE>


Lol, don't ask me - I stopped after #3.

 

i ran the gauge powers from my ignition switch, so they would come on when that does.

i ran the power for the lights in the gauges to my dimmer switch on the dashboard.

ive got boost, oil temp, oil pressure, egt and wideband and i dont have any problems. i did ground the oil and boost gauges together, the wideband has its own ground, as does the egt because its mounted in a different spot in my car

 

if any of you guys have aem ems look into the serial data gauge it can really clean up your dash

my 1 serial data gauge shows:

water temp
wideband a/f
tps
mph
rpm
IAT
boost
water temp
knock
and i can add more!

and i dont have to worry about any of the wiring cause it just plugs into the aem ems box itself

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Legion &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


Lol, don't ask me - I stopped after #3.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So when you are tuning a car and it keep going lean, how do you check the fuel pressure? Or if you are racing at the track/ripping it on the street and your AF goes lean....how can you check your fuel pressure?