Have 3 Gauges ready to be hooked up. I'm concerned about what to use for an Ignition Switch to activate the Gauges when my car Is on. I was planning on tapping In the (+) terminal of the Cigarette Lighter, seeing how I don't use It, and upping the fuse i.e from 10amp to 20 or 25amp. What do you think?

What did you guys use as an Ignition Switch to activate your Gauges?

 

silver,

i wouldn't up the fuse,
the 10 amp fuse should be ok.

the cigarette lighter uses a lot more juice then backlighting for gauges

 

no never change the fuse to a different amp... stuff fries that way!

 

Isn't the cig lighter always hot?

PaulC

 

slk what do u mean always hot? you have to push it in for it to heat up then you can lit your cigarette/cigar/joint

 

I don't know (not in front of a wiring diagram, and my car doesn't HAVE a lighter anymore), but a lot of cars make the cig lighter 'hot' or non switched, i.e. it works without the ignition switch turned on

PaulC

 

I don't know why yours Is always Hot but It's supposed to be Ignition Switched. Thats why I opted to use It for the Gauges.

Cheers!, thanks for the tips. I'll probably use that. I also have room for 2 more, with 1FAST2's panel and Dual Guage Pod. I hope I don't overwhelm my poor Cigarette Lighter with 5 Gauges!

 

If you have a greddy TT there is two wire leads that come off the harness! you can use them for ignition source and power. Illumination a taped into the radio harness

 

I didn't say mine was. I said I thought it was. Sheesh!

PaulC

 

silver,

is your car a s4 car?
if it is, listen to this.

when you take the stereo out of the dash outlet area... place thingy?

you will notice you have a mini light bulb to illuminate your cig lighter ring light.

if you keep on looking, near the radio harness you will see a second bulb holder, that has no light bulb in it. That bulb has a pos and neg, and is controlled by the light switch. IE when you turn on the lights the pos and neg will be 12V.

So you that to control the illumination (back light) of your guages.

If you haev a S5 car, that thingy doesn't exist.

my vocab is very limited tonight after 4 beers sorry

 

hrm... thinking about this again... ithink my above post can't help u silver, you were looking for a ignition controlled 12V?

 

 

I have a s4 and yes I know what your talking about as far as the light bulb plug you are talking about. Currently, I have a gutted Stereo Deck, so that bulb Is very visible. That bulb is Ignition activated. I was messing around one day and saw It would light up when I turned over the key. I'll probably use that light Instead, seeing how I could do without that bulb should there be an overload rather than the Cig Lighter.

Sheesh. Whats that all about?

 

Ah Tec, I ended up getting the Gredy EGT Gauge Instead of the Autometer one.

 

Nice! you made the right choice.

 

Since we're talking about the cigarette lighter, perhaps "hot" was the wrong word to use.
The cig lighter is live with the key in the ACC position. It would be fine to run gauges from. The cig lighter's illumination is also handy for the gauges illumination.

 

With the above mentioned, can I use your advice to tap In 3 more Gauges without the fear of frying wires?

 

I want my Gauges "activated" when my Parking Lights are ON.

 

well if you only want the gagues on when your parking lights are on, then you need the wire that goes hot when you turn your light switchy guy on the left. if so then you want a wire that is the same one that would be used to light up after market gauge faces etc... that wire to the cluster that you are looking for is behind the dash panel that has the **** on it that controls the lights. its the third one up from the bottom of the connector i believe. a factory shop manual will confirm which wire it is. also i think on www.fc3s.org they have a writeup for installing aftermarket gauge faces that light up when the parking lights come on. go check that . it should confirm this (hopefully).

 

hey and i'm just curious, why wouldn't you want your gauges on all the time?

 

Personally, I like having all the gauges and **** come on at once, with the flick of a switch. Rather than having half of them on (aftermarket gauges) and the stock gauges off when the parking lights are off. It looks better imo.

 

I tapped my boost gauge illumination to the ash tray light + wire. Now it comes on with the lights and the dimmer works too.

 

When I installed mine, I used the wire that powered the light around the cigarette lighter... That way the gauges come on when I turn on the lights. If you use the power for the lighter itself, the gauges will be on every time you start the car. I took out the cigarette lighter and replaced it with a push button switch so that I can turn them off if I need to. I am running five gauges as well as the indiglo gauge faces off of that one power source, and the stock fuse is fine.

Edit: I forgot, I cut out the back of my ashtray to put the dimmer switch that comes with the gauge faces so it is hidden... I don't smoke or use the ashtray, so it seemed like a good idea. A dremel makes fast work of the plastic.

 

I have an aftermarket source unit, and I just tapped into the ignition wire that it uses. Has worked very well so far.