ok, I suck when it comes to electrical stuff. Anyways, I am trying to install an Autometer Z Series Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge. When I try to connect the purple wire to the o2 sensor signal wire, nothing happens. It doesn't want to stay on, it blinks red for a Sec, then dies out. If I remove it, it just stays green. So how do I do this? I need to see if im running lean.

 

well.....black=ground make sure it is grounded well, red=power, and purple=O2, i know you know this already. double check all connections and tell me exactly how you are connecting it to the O2 sensor

 

I dont kno about autometer Z but I installed a Stewart Warner A/F gauge and I grounded it on my A/C pump and soldered the wire to the O2 sensor and have 12V power from the battery...works great but its hella sensitive when the 02 is cold

 

I connected the purple wire to the o2 sensor wire coming out from the 02 sensor. black wire I grounded to the chassis. The power wire I wired onto a 5 amp fuse that wired to the trailing coils. The gauge turns on, but once I connect the Purple wire, it goes out. is it my 02 failing?

 

even when you are driving it is gone or have you tried that cause you could just be lean and it is not registering but under load it should move oh and by the way those gauges are useless except for being a ricer i bought one and thought i might need it and it turns out you dont but anyways thats your call
and the reason it is hella sensitive is because the stock o2 is narrow band you really need a wideband to read the gauge right

 

that gues does nothing
take it off and get a wideband

 

thats what i suggest too i am replacing my gauge with something else hopefully i can get some sucker to buy it from me like we did lol

 

I thought it was better than nothing. It seems to tell you if it is lean or stoich or rich. I just want to know if im running lean. Some people say its useless, but some people say it works but its not accurate. As long as it can tell me if im dangerously running lean, that would be fine.

 

it will show lean when you are above 14.7

by then

you would KNOW you ran too lean...

 

whats that website for the how to o2 sensor.s..theres one out there about making your own wideband setup uising vw o2 sensors and junk... anyone know which one im talking bout... i though o2 was in the aem of the website or the adress

 

Is the sensor HOT? You'll get no proper readings from it until you've been driving for 3-4 minutes.

Then go to a dyno. A/F gauges on the stock sensor are useful for readings trends (so you can spot potential problems if the readings don't follow the normal pattern), but if you want an accurate full-load reading you need a wideband AFR meter.

What you should've done was make all three wire connections at the ECU. Messing with the shielded wire in the engine bay is a recipe for failure. The wire is unshielded at the ECU end and there are power and ground wires right there.

The sensors are cheap, and original ones won't be working very well any more, so you might as well replace it.

It can't.

These two comments are based on ignorance, not knowledge or experience. Just because you don't know how to use something, doesn't make it useless.

BS. Do you actually understand how narrow-range sensors work? At an AFR of 14.7:1 it'll be exactly in the middle.

 

I've used mine quite alot since I got it. They work wonders if you can understand them. Like said above, that sensor needs to warm up first. Hell, when I first start my car, I get no reading at all. Leave it idle for 5 minutes, still not reading right. Have to drive it and get it up to temperature.

Make sure that you are actually getting a good connection on the O2 sensor. My first try to connect to it, had me reading full rich at all times. I never made it through the shielding.

My idle is 1-2 greens in the rich. With load on the engine, that puppy constantly showed full rich. It also was very accurate with showing me the hesitation at 3660 RPM. HAve to kick the secondaries in once or twice, before the hesitation goes away. But the A/F clearly shows how lean I am when the injectors switch over.

Personally, I'm finding it to be very useful for leaning out the idle (when the car is hot, when it's cold, it just dies), leaning out the upper end so that my driving habits cost me less in gas, and troubleshooting problem areas.

 

They'll show you a few things here and there, but you can't trust them much if you're on a boosted application.

Anything under 12:1 shows up as full rich. There's less than .07volts of resolution between 12:1 and 13:1, (.17 for 12 to 14:1), not exactly the best for precision.

They'll read OK between 13 and 15, but that's about it.

 

hey, i got one for 20 bucks, its an autometer (used of course) so im not complaining, i know it wont work as well with a narrowband, but, i surely wasnt going to pay 70 dollars for one. we'll see i guess

 

ok, maybe i do just need to drive around and let it warm up. I'll try it out and report back.