Putting on some water & oil temp gauges
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 16
Likes: 0
From: NY
Putting on some water & oil temp gauges
Hi guys, I got myself a water temp and oil temp gauge from Prosports and am thinking about installing them soon. However, I do not have any knowledge with electric work and am not familiar with the fuse box inside our cars. I went on Youtube and found some good DIY installation videos, but the videos were not very clear on the areas that I am having confusion about.
Anyways, my question is..... The gauge came with a wire harness with one end plugging into the gauge and the other end with the many colorful wires plugging into I don't know. <------- This is the part I'm confused about. I don't know if I'm supposed to plug this end into the fuse box or not...
Here's the wires I'm talking about:
I know they're for negative battery, sender, etc... But I'm not sure exactly how to plug them.....
Here's the instruction videos I watched:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbAC92BrA4U & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB1rX0eksdI
*I own a 350z. Yes I know this is the wrong forum but my350z.com is pretty unhelpful. Thanks! :tipwink:
Anyways, my question is..... The gauge came with a wire harness with one end plugging into the gauge and the other end with the many colorful wires plugging into I don't know. <------- This is the part I'm confused about. I don't know if I'm supposed to plug this end into the fuse box or not...
Here's the wires I'm talking about:
I know they're for negative battery, sender, etc... But I'm not sure exactly how to plug them.....
Here's the instruction videos I watched:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbAC92BrA4U & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB1rX0eksdI
*I own a 350z. Yes I know this is the wrong forum but my350z.com is pretty unhelpful. Thanks! :tipwink:
Evolving Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 124
Likes: 1
From: Akron, OH
It's pretty self explanatory:
Black - Ground
Red - 12v ignition switched power (energized only when ignition is set to "ON")
White - 12v constant
Orange - 12v headlight switched power
Green - Sender voltage
EDIT: This wiring configuration is for the "Performance" series gauges. For the "Premium" series, red and white are swapped.
I'm not entirely sure why they insist on tying into the fusebox -- many cars have the fuses for the ignition and head lamps in the engine bay, and not really located in a convenient place that results in clean wiring. 4 of 5 of those wires are located inside your steering column, so that seems like a good place to tee in. That way you only have one wire going through the firewall. Rather than teeing into a ground wire I'd solder a ring terminal onto the wire and fasten it to bare metal.
As far as actually connecting the wires for god's sake solder them in. Too many dumbasses are content with making poor connections and complaining in the Prosport thread that their gauge doesn't work. I actually prefer to have a terminal strip for 12v constant, ground, 12v switched with lights, and 12v ignition switched. Makes connecting new devices ridiculously easy. Just make sure that the sum of the current draw of your devices doesn't exceed the rating for the wire gauge (including the draw of the original device!).
For identifying what wires in your actual car you should be tying into, that's for you to figure out with a few minutes and a multimeter. It's self-explanatory. Either that or scan the electrical schematic for your ignition circuit out of a service manual and I'll happily tell you the wire colors if you're still somehow stumped.
Black - Ground
Red - 12v ignition switched power (energized only when ignition is set to "ON")
White - 12v constant
Orange - 12v headlight switched power
Green - Sender voltage
EDIT: This wiring configuration is for the "Performance" series gauges. For the "Premium" series, red and white are swapped.
I'm not entirely sure why they insist on tying into the fusebox -- many cars have the fuses for the ignition and head lamps in the engine bay, and not really located in a convenient place that results in clean wiring. 4 of 5 of those wires are located inside your steering column, so that seems like a good place to tee in. That way you only have one wire going through the firewall. Rather than teeing into a ground wire I'd solder a ring terminal onto the wire and fasten it to bare metal.
As far as actually connecting the wires for god's sake solder them in. Too many dumbasses are content with making poor connections and complaining in the Prosport thread that their gauge doesn't work. I actually prefer to have a terminal strip for 12v constant, ground, 12v switched with lights, and 12v ignition switched. Makes connecting new devices ridiculously easy. Just make sure that the sum of the current draw of your devices doesn't exceed the rating for the wire gauge (including the draw of the original device!).
For identifying what wires in your actual car you should be tying into, that's for you to figure out with a few minutes and a multimeter. It's self-explanatory. Either that or scan the electrical schematic for your ignition circuit out of a service manual and I'll happily tell you the wire colors if you're still somehow stumped.
Last edited by raginghadron; Dec 17, 2009 at 12:37 PM.
