Write-up: Installing Boost & Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge

[duffman1278]

What you need:

- Extra 18 Gauge wire- Inline Fuse Holder- 5 amp Fuse- Multimeter- Wire Strippers- Soldering Iron or Butt Connectors

I decided to wire up both my Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge and Boost Gauge at this moment.

To begin with, the Autometer sheet says that the Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge comes with a white wire, but mine didn’t so if yours does than I dunno what to say lol.Remember to disconnect your battery before starting just to be safe later on.

1. I began by first stripping my red wire off my Air/Fuel gauge, which will be getting the 12V power.2. Next I joined the red wire and orange wire which is the Inline Fuse Holder I got from Autozone. What I didn’t show in the pics however was the 12V cable coming from the Boost Gauge. This is however, very simple since the boost gauge just has a Black and White wire. You simply strip the white wire and join it with the Inline Fuse Holder, and Red wire shown in the picture.3. After that I soldered them together. After that I wrapped them in electrical tape. You can use butt connectors if you choose.

4. Next, before I forgot, since I’m usually pretty clumsy about this stuff, I put the fuse into the holder. Make sure it’s a 5 AMP!. That’s what Autometer says at least.5. At the other end of the Inline Fuse Holder, I soldered in my extra 18 Gauge wire that I also got from Autozone. I gave myself enough slack to work with, because remember, its easier to subtract than to add 6. Following this, I soldered some extra 18 Gauge wire onto the purple wire of the Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge so that I could have extra wire to connect it to my oxygen sensor.7. Next, I grabbed both black wires from both gauges and than grabbed some 18 Gauge wire and soldered all 3 wires together, which will be my grounds.8. Finally I whipped out my multimeter and looked for a 12V source when on ACC and I happened to find that the radio had one so I used that as my 12V source. Make sure you’re only getting 12V when you have the key one click away from starting. If you hook up the power to the cable with constant 12V, than your gauges will be on all day lol and that’s not good for you miata battery people like me 9. Now grab that extra wire you soldered or connected from step 5 and solder it into the 12V source that you desire, for me I choose the Radio source. There’s others if you’d like.10. Lastly, make sure to ground your ground to the chassis. Preferably somewhere clean. Than reconnect your battery. Clean up your area and turn the key on and watch in amazement those crazy lights glow.

[hungryjoseph]

question: not really related to your boost gauge, but wiring in general. the positive from my fans are hooked up directly to the battery (with a fuse of course) and my negative is grounded with other grounds. the fans only turn on when the key is at ACC. my battery keeps draining, but the fans are off when the key is out. is this because the positive is hooked straight to the battery?

[duffman1278]

Hmm that I dunno because I have a friend that has it like that, but his battery doesn't die. You should probably check the electrical again.

[xekushnr]

I wouldnt recommend splicing them into the radio wire. Even though they dont draw a ton of power, it could be enough to start blowing the radio fuse.

[duffman1278]

Yea thats what I did. Unless I'm misunderstanding you

[positron1]

So both guages power wires go to one end of the inline fuse and the other end of the inline fuse is tapped into the 12V radio source and both guages grounds go to one end of the other 18 gauge wire and the other end of that 18 gauge wire goes to a ground source on the chassis? This is something that I will be doing soon also so thanks for taking the time to document it.

[duffman1278]

Yup thats it.

I didn't have all the equipment to setup my Oil Pressure Gauge but if you add another gauge you can just do everything the same and than add the extra wires from the other gauge to here. Basically I went from 2 seperate power sources into one, same for ground

[dickie]

hey duffman, this is a helpful bit of info and i would like to article-ize it.

[240sxvaj]

nice

[duffman1278]

Go for it, thats why I made the article

[otterman]

You should add that narrow band a/f gauges are trash.

[Ekinchheng]

Hey do you think you could do a diagram of the boost gauge vacuum lines? If you could can you include it with a boost controller. Me and my friend is new in the turbo world and we're having a hard time installing the boost controller. I heard that if you install it wrong you could blow up the wastegate.

[duffman1278]

You should add that narrow band a/f gauges are trash.

Well it was free so I put it in, and it looks niice lol

Hey do you think you could do a diagram of the boost gauge vacuum lines? If you could can you include it with a boost controller. Me and my friend is new in the turbo world and we're having a hard time installing the boost controller. I heard that if you install it wrong you could blow up the wastegate.

The vacuum lines are REALLY easy, they've been posted a million times. I actually posted how they go like 2 weeks ago. Just look around for it.

[R6_240sx]

Go for it, thats why I made the article

What joo wantz fo custom title?

Sad, we go to same school and I still haven't seen ur car, lol.

[duffman1278]

I think I'll go with "Moe Man"

I don't drive my S13 to school though, I have a 91 integra that I take instead as my DD, blue.

[wzntha]

.

[duffman1278]

Well from the first pic, the instructions show to put a 5 amp fuse. Now I'm not too great with how electrical stuff works but I think its used to protect your devices incase of a short or something. Instead of killing your gauge it'll just kill the fuse. Not COMPLETLY sure on that though, I just follow the instructions lol.

Have you looked online for instructions for your gauge?? On their website maybe?

Actually, my boost gauge didn't say anything about a fuse, now that I think back. It told that I could just wire it straight to a power source and ground. I just wanted to combine the 2 gauges into one to make things easier.

[White Comet]

looks good, nice write up. my car came with a narrow band a/f ratio gauge and yeah they dont really do a whole lot, but it was free

[duffman1278]

Same, I just gotta figure out why my ground wire on the SR harness doesn't match up with the ground wire coming from my O2 sensor lol

[kona240]

Yeah narrow band dont do a whole lot except look cool with the dancing lights and such. But very good write-up duffman.

[White Comet]

^ yeah its like a rave though

[s14tan]

Sweet Im going to use this later.

[duffman1278]

^ yeah its like a rave though

Thats exactly what I was going for haha jp it'll be like a party in my car everytime I ride in it!!

[wzntha]

.

[duffman1278]

No no, I just made BOTH light sources into one, than joined those TWO onto the fuse. From the fuse, on the other end, the 2 sources become ONE source of power. After that you just connect it to a 12V source.

[idahotuner]

good job duffman i am proud of you

[White Comet]

No no, I just made BOTH light sources into one, than joined those TWO onto the fuse. From the fuse, on the other end, the 2 sources become ONE source of power. After that you just connect it to a 12V source.

the only problem with doing this is one gauge is sometimes dimmer than the other

[deuceforty]

where is the signal wire for the o2 sensor in the car? does the PCM refer to the ECU? im not real sure where the heck im supposed to put this thing

[duffman1278]

You must be talking about the air fuel ratio gauge right?

[funigui]

ALRIGHT well not to bash but... here we go

1.when you fuse a wire, you do it from the source. the concept of a fuse is if something happens to either the gauge or the wiring, it will trip saving you from blowing the gauge and catching your car on fire.

2. a "good ground" isn't the radio bezel. Look for bolts on like...the firewall.

Other then that, essentially this method should work. may the fork be with you