Tried installing gauges, now evo won't start
 

hey all,

So I've been trying to install my gauges (a/f, boost, oil pressure) and my latest problem is that my car no longer starts. :)

Here's what I think happened. I had the A/F wires (power/ground/o2) tapped into the harness under the glovebox as well as the power and ground for the other gauges as well. All running to the same points. I had a switch that I ran the lighting power wires through and then tapped that wire on the hot side for the power for the functional parts of the gauges (not boost though cause its mechanical).

The first things I noticed that went wrong when the car was still running was that the a/f gauge was reading nothing despite being hooked up correctly (as far as I can tell, went off the diagrams in another post) and the oil pressure gauge was pegged at 100 psi and I didn't even have the sending wire hooked up, just power. The next day I noticed the car was idling a bit rough but seemed to even out after a bit of driving.

Today, I went to try and fix the a/f gauge. I thought that maybe in the process of running wires I got the a/f wire and oil wire mixed up, so I tapped the oil wire into the harness for the o2 as well. Nothing changed but I didn't know if that'd be relevant info . :) So I go to drive the car and it hesitates really badly around 2000rpm then jumps to about 3. Eventually I smell rubber burning/smoldering, which I'm guess was a wire somewhere.

Soon after that it died and wouldn't turn over anymore. It cranks and cranks but that's all. Something I noticed was one time when working on it I tried starting the car with the leftmost harness undone and it did exactly what It's doing now. This leads me to believe that the problem may be in that harness somewhere.

Sorry for the long post but I'm really at a loss here and would rather not have to take it into Mitsu for obvious reasons! Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Jason

Dude, glad that you take it really well. If I were you, I already !@#$%^& myself.

If you smell rubber burning, that's probably indicate a circuit overload. It cause the wire run so hot that it melts the wire rubber protection. Check the wire to determine if the wiring is correct.

Meantime also check the fuse box. You might have a few blown fuses.

Personally, at this point I would try and back out to ground zero if possible. The smoking rubber smell is a very bad sign for sure, and you may have burned a fusible link or something worse, like smoking an ECU.

By removing all of your gauge wiring and switches you will at least know that no new issues can be caused by your installation. Then I would remove the glove -box and whatever else you need to get out of the way and begin to look for signs of damaged wiring. Look for any obvious swelled or melted looking plastic, and try to assess the extent of damage. Maybe its just your gauge wiring if you are lucky.

So you are actually wired into the harness under the glove box...you mean the Ecu harness? From the sound of your oil pressure gauge pegging it seems like you got crossed-up somewhere and the voltage value was causing your gauge to peg. If it indeed was a bad connection and you wired it into the 02 harness position, you may have inadvertently shorted something with that connection.That may well be your "smoking gun/wire" so focus some attention on that for sure during your analysis.

When you set-up your gauge wiring did you build-in fusing to provide added protection? This is a fairly easy thing to do, and can keep you from causing some serious damage to your cars electrical system. I f you didn't do that make sure you do in the future, and you will be replacing fuses, not digging for burned wires.


Let us know how this progresses!

N10S

yeah, stuff was wired into the harness directly. Guess I shouldn't just try and follow directions I see :) I yanked out everything already and the car wouldn't start still. I'll have to go and check the fuses. Unfortuantely, the car is at my bank, not my house... I looked under both dash sides and didn't see anything glaring obvious. I guess I'll have to look again, deeper, see if I can find anything.

Any other suggestions? Thanks for the replies.

Jason

Use a test light to check all for fuses. Did you solder the connection together?
JP IMPORTZ

Get out that little Mits card that you got, and get it towed to the dealer... I think that's all you can do... If you spliced into wires, tell them that you were checking the lines for power.?!

update
 

turns out it was just a fuel pump fuse that blew. score.

Anyone care to help me wire the gauges correctly this time? :)

I'm afraid to do it again cause I don't know what I did wrong!

Jason

Get a professional installer to help you out. Check your local area.
The installation $ will worth. Don't try to risk and mess up your car.
You can also save some $ if your buddy can help.