Tripod Gauges Fitted

[Guest newl]

After having bought the tripod and gauges in the recent (read months ago) PolePosition Auto group guy, I finally got off of my lazy back side and fitted the gauges today.

Having previously installed the aux audio kit, I knew where to get started.

Removing the ICC

Some will say that taking the ICC out isn't really needed but unless you care to fish everything, it is the best way to do things. If you're not even mechanically minded you should be able to work it out fairly easily by using the following steps.

• Lift up on the shifter surround
  
• Remove the two screws on the trim inserts to the left and the right
  
• If you have an FPV with gauge pod, you'll need to pop that as well by lifting up on the rear edge (closest to the windshield) and continuing to apply pressure until it pops out (mine came out fairly easily). If not, you'll still have to pop the placeholder (XR6T) in the same manner
  
• Remove the two screws either side of the tissue holder and remove it, unplugging the lighter (and aux plug will have to be unscrewed if you have one of these as well)
  
• Now, you have a couple choices here. I chose to disconnect the negative lead from the battery to eliminate the problems you may encounter (I had to do this because my alarm kept rearming itself when I was trying to disconnect one of the plugs). Or you can chose not to with the knowledge that the aforementioned problem may occur.
  
• Unplug the antenna lead
  
• Starting from the right, unplug the 4 plugs from right to left. If you have sat nav, that'll be on the far right towards the front and should be unplugged last. The plug that I hard the hardest time with was the second from the right as the lock clip position isn't exactly clear. It is on the right side of the plug behind a guard. All the other three are on the front of the plugs as they face you. If you make the mistake and unplug left to right, you'll hear a relay going bonkers and you'll know you stuffed up (and you'll have also left the battery plugged in )
  
• Undo the 8mm bolts, two on each side of the ICC
  
• Undo the screw at the top of the ICC
  
• Pull the top of the ICC towards you (clipped into place with the same snap clips as is on the shifter surround)
  
• Once the top of the ICC is free, you can grab the bottom and pull straight out top and bottom.
  
• Keep the unit level, not shifting more than 90 degrees, don't knock it, etc. Use common sense and caution when handling is what I'm saying here
  
• The ICC is now free from the hole hopefully somewhere safe for now awaiting the return to its home when you're finished
  

Installing the ICC

Installing is pretty much the reverse of taking it out.

• Place the ICC back into it's hole and push firmly back into position. It will snap into place as the rear connector seats in
  
• Push the top of the ICC back into the locking holes
  
• Reinstall the four bolts (two each side)
  
• Reinstall the top screw
  
• Reconnect the 4 (5 if you have sat nav) plugs from left to right (sat nav will be last still)
  
• Reconnect the antenna
  
• Reinstall the tissue box holder using its two screws while not forgetting to plug the 12v back into the lighter socket and aux cable back into the bottom if applicable
  
• Reseat the trim and afix using the single screw for each
  
• Seat the shifter surround firmly into place
  
• Inspect everything to make sure you don't have any spare parts or screws
  

Okay, now on to the gauges.

I got the boost, air fuel ratio and oil pressure gauges.

I took all the bits and pieces out of the lovely stress relieving bubble wrap that PPAuto kindly provided with the Tripod.

Taking the gauges out of the boxes and grouping them up with the supplied bits and bobs that come in the white boxes is what I did next. This allows me to know what bits goes with what gauge. I then worked out what order I wanted the gauges in (I chose AFR, oil pressure and boost from left to right).

Begin by installing each gauge into the cup, fit the rear plate (snaps into place) and plug the supplied cable into the gauge. Repeat this process for all three gauges. Do not fix the cups to the holder just yet. Before you do that you will need to secure the snap plugs into place on the left and right cup holes. Once that is complete, you can secure the three cups to the base.

Now the real fun begins.

I am sure the choices are many for where to obtain power, earth and dimmer from. My choices were fairly obvious because it keeps the cabling runs to a minimum. Power was obtained by using the 12v supply on the cigarette lighter as it is fused and switched. I chose to grab the dimmer from the fog light switch (fog light/traction control on the XR6T as the traction control on the F6 is in the center console on the ICC). Both locations are close to the ICC and gauge sets.

I wired up the power and dimmer to the gauges firstly just to make sure things were working as expected. They weren't. Power was there but the dimmer only worked on the oil pressure gauge (center gauge). This told me that my choice of splicing crimps was not the best choice for the job. Back into the house for the soldering iron and some heat shrink, a little bit of lovely rosin smell throughout the car and a burn of the lighter to shrink the wrap followed by a power on test and we're rolling again. Power and dimming work as expected now.

I decided to work up the boost gauge first as it was the easiest one to do. I mounted the boost sending unit to the left of the chassy that the ICC fits into with a tie wrap. Again this was done to reduce the cabling needed. It does require more tubing but that isn't a problem as Jeff provides more than enough with the gauge. I fished the tubing down the left side towards the grommet in the passengers foot well area (typically not visible if you have floor mats so move them back if you don't see it initially). I pulled the grommet out into the cabin and cut a hole into it big enough for the tubing to fit through. At this point, I also took the opportunity to push through a single black wire for the AFR gauge as well. I pushed through the tubing along side the wire and refitted the grommet.

The bonnet was already up from disconnecting the negative battery lead. Locate the BoV just behind the cross over and pop the hose off of the right side. You will need the T piece and filter supplied with the gauge. Reach down to the grommet and pull the wire and hose through giving yourself plenty to work with (you can pull the excess back later). Fit the T piece and filter as per the instructions.

Now being as we pulled the wire through for the AFR gauge, run that over to the O2 sending unit drivers side of the donk. Can't miss it, 4 wires just behind the heat shield. Tap into the black wire in whatever method you choose (I was using a splice crimp).

Secure the wiring and tubing all the way back to the grommet using tie wraps or whatever other preferred method you choose.

Back inside the cabin, pull the excess back in from the engine bay. Connect up the tube to the boost sending unit and secure with a tie wrap as outlined above. Wire up the sending unit to 12v and earth and the data line to the gauge itself.

This cannot be tested just yet because the ICC isn't installed so I moved on to wiring up the AFR gauge next. Having dropped the tube down by itself and having the after thought about the AFR line, I had to drop a piece my 4 core alarm wire down to fish the AFR wire back up to where I wanted it. I connected this up to the data line on the gauge.

At this point, I'm quite happy to have just the two gauges connected and powered up. The car is going into the dealer for it's 60000km service so I'll have the sandwich plate fitted then and connect up the sending unit at a later time when I get another round tuit (or when the disco light pisses me off and I order the oil temp gauge to replace it instead )

I reinstalled the ICC using the steps outlined above, reconnected the negative battery lead and fired up the car. The gauges did the normal full sweep self tests and the boost and AFR gauges settled into their normal positions for expected operation. Outstanding! I just love it when things just work as expected.

You'll now have to drill two 7.5mm holes so the snap lugs of the base will have somewhere to secure to. Refer to the instructions as supplied with the Tripod. This is the first intentional damage I have done to my car. It wasn't an easy thing to bring myself to do. Drill the two holes after marking the position. Blow out the plastic and seat the Tripod base. You're done!

Anyway, sorry for not having any pictured. Perhaps when I do the oil pressure gauge I'll take a few snaps that outlines a few of the proceedures above. Hopefully this will help others in the future as the forum as helped me out heaps in the past as well.

Related Links

Power and Dimmer from Bain

ICC removal by Ninka (see post #3)

ICC removal image (forgot who by)

Edited 24/02/08 12:51 PM by newl

[Dagabond]

Pinned top write up newl.

[Guest]

Excellent write up Newl. I have just 2 questions for you

Would you be interested to do all of that again?

What would the going rate be to do such a thing for a fellow forumite?

[Guest newl]

Thanks for the pin there Dags.

Rapid, I wouldn't mind giving you a hand. Drop me a PM and we'll see what we can sort out.

[INFLYT]

Just read it.

As the guy's said, thumb's up for a top write up man.

[Superdan]

bloody well done Newl, farkin good write up mate!!

[Guest newl]

Okay, phase two of this write up. Each photo will be followed by the text that describes it.

This is the gear surround. Lift up on the back side of it. This part should come up fairly easily. The closest part (towards the cup holder) will be the most difficult and may require a bit more oomf to pop the snap clips.

Once the surround is pulled up, you will be able to pull the trim screws located on either side. This is the right one.

This is the left trim screw.

Once both screws are removed, you can pull the left and right trims out and sent them aside along with the screws (I use the flat bit in front of the instrument cluster).

This screw is located at the top of the ICC and will be visible once the top panel is removed (see the first post of this thread).

There are 4 bolts holding the ICC in (along with the top screw mentioned above). These are the left two.

These are the right two bolts. Pull these and the left two and keep them somewhere safe.

There are two screws holding in the tissue holder. One on the left and one on the right.

This is the screw on the left side of the tissue holder.

This is the screw on the right side of the tissue holder.

12v power for the accessory plug.

Here we see the ICC plugs as well as the antenna plug. Remove the plugs left to right.

I mounted my boost sender on the left side of the ICC chassis as seen in the above two photos.

Dimmer control was pulled from the fog light switch (or fog light/tc switch on the XR6s) which is on the brown wire.

I pulled power from the accessory plug.

I suggest labeling things once they're installed otherwise you'll probably be hard pressed to figure out what is what afterwards if you ever need to work on it.

Note the two holes where the pod sits just above the rectangle holes.

Left hole drilled.

Right hole drilled.

Routing power from the 12v accessory to the gauges and also to the boost sender.

Always keep things neat and tidy.

All back in one piece. BTW, don't use those stinky Christmas trees and hang them from the vents as they can damage (strip the paint) on the ICC facia as seen above.

[seventytwo]

Very neat install, mine looks like a spaghetti factory.

[arronm]

why did you need to take out the ICC?

Edited 24/03/08 01:05 PM by arronm

[Guest newl]

Makes it heaps easier to route wiring and what not.