Gauge Wiring Problem

[FOONIN]

I am trying to install my gauges and am stuck. I wired them up to the traction control. However unlike other gauges I have two sets of wires:

1. Red, Black, White

2. Black, White - this has some small box attached to the line.

I hooked both sets up to the traction control. Obvously Black is Earth then Blue wire with red stripe is connected to your dash lights and connect red wire to blue with white stripe. I tried it out to see if it would work and it did until I turn on lights. The gauge lights turned on just like tacho lights however after like 1sec they flick off and gauge seems to reset and not work? Gauge would only work when lights were off. Then it got real messed up and gauge lights would only work when lights were on (gauge lights off still. For the black wires I just soldered them both to the same point on the traction control wire and same thing for the red wire. These gauges are starting to get better of me....anyone know what the hell is going on? trying to get a friend who is an auto electrition to come sort it out as well

[FOONIN]

lol also now the interior lights dont go...hmmm...everything else seems alright

[Wenier]

did the gauges come with an install diagram. are they electonic type or mechanical? How many wires per gauge?

[xrt]

had a similar problem when I first did my gauges, I got my lights from the fog light switch though and originally used the traction control for power, my lights worked, gauges had no power though, it turns out the 12v you found on the traction control switch is more of a signal wire and must not carry enough current to power the gauges.

so I ended up getting power from behind the instrument cluster and its all good (sorry cant remember the wire colour so you'll have to poke around with a multimeter to find a constant 12v when the ignitions on.)

I did it that way to avoid taking the icc out, if youve got the icc out already I'd just get power from the cigarette lighter.

hope it helps man

Edited 25/07/10 05:30 AM by xrt

[FOONIN]

yeah they did..I just looked up threads on it ...im no auto electrition...ill get an auto electrition to fix it though... gauges have 1 set of black, white, red wires which connect into a snap connector, the second group has 1 black and 1 white with snap connectors to connect to gauge. It also has a small black box on it. I think xrt has hit this problem on the head for me though...I run a radar 24/7 through the cigg lighter so I presume that if I tap into it my radar will be getting less power? newbie question.......

more importantly my interior lights dont go, but the fuse is fine. when I press the light button on the ICC I hear the "tick" noise when turning it on or off that Id usually hear. The key hole surround light works but the rest dont( rear passenger lights, middle, front two). All other lights work dash lights etc.

[FOONIN]

is there a plug on the ICC that is connected to the interior lights????

[Wenier]

There will be a plug that goes from the switch on the ICC to somewhere in the system to control the int light from there. Your cig lighter may handle the extra load, but yea it may drain a small amount of power away from the radar. That could then maybe be a problem or not, hard to say.

[hawlass]

ok,osonvs, are you using the auto gauge gauges we were talking about? if so the instructions say:

red- battery+

black- engine ground

white- ignition switch 12v +

orange- dimmer/ +12v to dimmer

I used red- to the yellow constant 12v wire on the back of the ignition barrel

black- to the black ground on the t/c switch

white- 12v + from cigi lighter

orange- t/c switch,blue with a red stripe.

I reckon your red wire moved to the ignition may solve the prob. good luck mate

[foxtrot]

Hi Why chase wires all over the place and connect into wires with no fuses or very high amp fusible links when for 5 minutes work almost every wire you need is available by pulling out the gauge cluster. Drop and extend steering column and then pull the top edge of the rubber seal between column and cluster and take out 2 screws from there and 3 from the top edge, pull cluster towards you and reach behind to unclip the 2 plugs and in the big plug look for a red/green wire which is ignition a black wire almost opposite it for earth a brown wire at one end for park lights and a yellow wire for constant power and it only takes moments to run wires across from the top of the icc when the cluster is out. Cheers MD

[FOONIN]

Got auto sparky hooking up this weekend I hope. Id say he will do what foxtrot said. I dont know what gauges they are. they are those custom gauges Hiro sells...whatever they are????