i just installed it with a boost gauge. the boost gauge works fine, but the temp gauge goes all the way to 150C when i turn the car on... i did a search and found out that it could be that the sensor is touching metal (i did the TB coolant tap) or the sensor wire is frayed. Neither of those are happening in my case. Any ideas?

 

You probably need to ground the sender to the firewall.

 

what kind of gauge is it and is it mechanical or electrical?

 

i grounded it to a bolt on the firewall

 

they are both greddy electronic. the boost gauge is working fine... so i don't get it!

 

If everything is hooked up correctly, then your gauge is defective. It is important that your ground wire is connected to the "body" of the sender, and not touching the part that sends to the gauge. Do you have a pic?

 

the ground is fine... it is not touching the sender. i don't have a pic (no digital camera!)

another weird thing i noticed is that when i turn the ignition on, the needle on the boost gauge will go to 0 (like it should) and the needle on the temp gauge goes to 150 (not supposed to happen). But when i turn the ignition off, the boost gauge needle drops back down... however the temp gauge needle will drop back down and then jolt a little back to like 40 and then come back down... as if there were stored charge in there. I don't know if this is normal, i'm just describing what i see.

 

Have you double checked the wiring to your gauge? I'm guessing you've got 12V, GND, Signal (from the sender) and two wires for illumination. Plenty of opportunity to mix it up.

I am the king of wiring things up wrong.

Last time was two weeks ago, there were no instructions on my fog lights I bought so looked at the back and worked out which connector was 12V and which was ground. I worked it out right, but when tracing the wires back through the rubber cover to the actual leads, I mixed them up. Took me 10 minutes and 3 blown fuses to realise my mistake!

My only other suggestion is that perhaps when installing the wires through the fender/firewall, the insulation on one of the wires was damaged and you have some form of short happening.

 

my suggestion, get a digital camera!

in anycase, try returning the watertemp gauge and getting a new one and installing that. then take pics with your new digi cam which hopefully you will get soon to make your life a lot easier and post the pics if that does not work.

 

2 mins with an ohm meter should tell you if the signal and the ground to the sender are connected correctly...

 

Have you checked to see if the lights on your gauge work? If they do not, you may have cross wired something.

 

The Greddy temp gauges have their own ground wire - you do not need to ground the sensor like you would with an Autometer sender.

I'm thinking you have something way goofy with the wiring to the gauge. Get a meter and the shop manual and double-check everything. For the Greddy gauges, you need constant 12v power, switched 12v power, illumination, and ground.

Dale

 

im gonna go through and check again. the lights on both gauges work and the boost gauge works... the wiring is coupled into the pod so it doesn't make sense.

 

There are several possibilities for your problem:

1. Error in wiring
2. Bad gauge
3. The sender inside the "t" fitting is in contact with the grounded "t"
4. Your TB sender is in a constant state of 150 degrees, even when the car is cold

Check #3

 

cool.. ill check up on all 4 and report back when i get a break. thanks for your help, gentlemen.

 

okay i made sure all the wiring was tight and right.. i even cut and reconnected 12V constant and 12V ignition just to ensure they were working.

i tried taking the ground off and putting it back on.

i completely removed the sensor from the brass T and then tried to turn the ignition to see if it still read max... it did.

i am confident that all the wiring is intact and correct. however.. i did see one thing that looked kinda messed up. the wire coming out of the sensor is really frayed so im thinking of cutting it and resoldering it to the sensor. i don't know if that will work, but i guess that's my only option!

 

not sure if you've fixed it already, but if not, borrow a camera and post a picture of your wiring setup.

 

I fixed the gauge. The wire was not connected properly to the probe housing so I soldered it back on. I've come to the conclusion that if your gauge is reading max on startup, then these two wires are probably touching.

Pic is kinda blurry but i think you get the point.


Nice day today


Gauges installed


Peace!