drewthrewpoo

Ive got my boost guage in but dont have it tapped in to light up yet when i cut my lights on? What wire should i tap into? There are like billions up under the steering wheel. Ive done this stuff alot in the past but i dont have anything to tell me which wire is which. Ill ground the negative somehow i just want it to work without me having to run wires all over the car. If anyone has any info on which wire (color or anything) i should use just let me know.

Drifter93

To supply power to light in your boost gauge just run the wire off of one of the fuses in the little fuse box just to the left of the clutch peddle. Find a fuse that allows power to your gauge at all times except for when your car is turned off. It's not going to heart you if the little light is on while you are driving in the daytime.

Good luck.

adam c

iTrader: (2)

You will want the boost gauge lights to work with the rest of your dash lights. This will allow them to have power, and work with your dimmer switch.

Run 2 wires from the boost gauge light connectors to the ash tray light. Using in line splice connectors, connect your two wires to the wires that go to the ash tray light. Don't cut the wires.

Simple and effective.

Adam

spurvo

As an alternative, you can spice into the wires that light up the headlight cleaner switch. Oh, don't have a headlight cleaner switch, cause you aren't Canadian? All the better to splice into with, my dear. The connector is the blue one that is just sitting there under the shift console. The red with black stripe is the hot, the red with green strip is ground. This allows you to use the dimmer control, and not hack into other wires. Or just use the ash tray wires....

drewthrewpoo

Sweet. Thanks guys for the help

Crash

Any easier one to get to than the ashtray is the illminator wire that goes into the radio it only gets power when you turn on your headlights if you have an aftermarket pigtail for your radio it should be the orange and white wire.

Joe Still

In a related issue. I've finally gotten a boost and water temp gage and opted for the center channel speaker replacement as it looks more like stock.

How do you remove the speaker grille and speaker. The sales lit says "snaps Out".

Also how do you remove the console to access the wires mentioned in the previous posts?

Hate to ask rookie questions but I've had this car for 9 years and I don't want to start butchering up the interior.

spurvo

The center console is not too bad. Just unscrew the shift ****, pull it off, pull out the ashtray, then carefully pull up on the lip on the backside of the ashtray hole. You will pull, then hear a snapping sound. This is ONLY the clip releasing, not things breaking, if you pulled slowly to allow the plastics to bend and conform to the new position. The other clips are located on either side of the shift boot. Slip your fingers under the console cover (not the whole console, just the smooth plastic) now that the back is loose. A little rocking of the back of the consle cover up and down as you move your fingers forward will pop those clips real easy. Then carefully pull the connectors loose from the switches. The leads for the warning lamps should be long enough that you don't have to disconnect them unless you want to remove the whole cover. note that a vacuum cleaner is real nice to remove the dust from those foam wire harness covers!

Enjoy!

drewthrewpoo

Well i hooked them up to the head light thing. It wasnt going to anythig to i tapped into that. It works great and ill use all the info just incase i put any other "lit" things on the car

Joe Still

Spurvo, So far so good. Got the speaker out and the gages in the pod and snapped in (temporarily). Its a great looking install and I'm sure the boost gage will help with engine diagnositics.

Now- where is the most popular place to go trhru the firewall with the boost hose and the water temp sensor wire? I was hoping this would be obvious when I followed you great instrutions for console removal but somehow I doubt it.

spurvo

HA HA! Firewall punching SUCKS!! Not much access, but here are three ideas:

1) Break out the drill. Typically, folks go right next to the steering column. Make SURE you drill the hole large enough to put in a grommet to reduce the possibility of sharp sheetmetal cutting through the wires and/or boost gauge hose. Also cuts down on engine smell in the passenger compartment.

2) Go through the steering column boot. This seems a little wierd, but really all you do is take a wire coat hanger and push it through the rubber boot that is around the steering column in the firewall. Whatever you put through the hole will be nicely sealed between the engine bay, and a rubber boot is a bunch easier to replace than a hole in the firewall if these cars ever become as collectable and rebuildable as Corvettes (and with 13K units in the US, I wouldn't be shocked!)

3) This is the hard one, but also the cleanest. Look in your engine bay on the inner fenders, right at the back of the engine bay. On the drivers side, this is under the cruise control. On the pass side, it is behind (towards the pass side) the ABS system. You are looking for a hole that seems to go into the inner fender area. This is in fact the case. To access this area, you need to pull the wheel inner fender. This is the plastic liner on the inside of the wheel well. There are three 8mm bolts and six plastic clips holding the liner. Remove the wheel on the side you wish to go through. Remove the bolts. The clips are a bear to remove. They are a plastic "bolt" threaded into a plastic "nut". The bolt part expands the nut part to make the assembly stay. So removing the bolt allows the nut part to come out. Easy, right? Except the bolt part is plastic, with Phillips head grooves in the head. They strip instantly. The harder you push to engage the grooves, the harder you keep the bolt in the nut as it is all plastic. WTF!!?? So I just ended up doing the brute force method and using a pair of small wire clippers (or anything with an angled cutting area) to slip the angles under the nut "head" and prying the whole damn thing out. The plastic actually stretches pretty well, so if you are gentle enough, you can just pop the clips out with out too much damage. Now pull the fender liner down. You will notice that there is a separate section connected to the little vents on behind the wheels. This is the ducting that cools the oil coolers (and engine bay if you do the RonKMiller dryer hose mod!). Once all the liner is pulled down (note that it is stapled to the front liner, so unless you want to pull the whole thing, just wedge the liner behind the brake caliper) you will now see the engine bay hole described above from behind. Note the wiring that is passing into the passenger compartment. This is running through a nice rubber grommet. If you unwrap the harness wrap (the electrical tape looking stuff) you will see that the grommet has enough space to pass wires and/or hard plastic hoses through. I ran a coat hanger through that had one end curled around the wires I wanted to pass through. Push the hanger into the pass compartment, which pulls the wires through, and the other ends of the wires go through the inner fender to engine bay holes. This is the cleanest approach, but also the largest PITA. Make sure you re-wrap the grommet, and pu it all back together.

For the boost gauge hose, I punched the steering column boot, as I have a column mounted boost gauge. For the fan mod that I did, I went through the pass side choice number three. Hope any of this helps ya!

Joe Still

Great help Spurvo! Thanks for taking the time. Does the Defi D Water temp gage sensor replace the factory sensor in the neck or should I cut in a tee to another coolant hose that I can thread senor into. I'd rather have two working gages than 1 working and factory one dead.

Where did you tie in your boost gage? I've been looking at the plugged tap on top rigth of the plenum but then I'd need to go forward to catch a travel path to the passenger side wheel well.

spurvo

I plumbed into the UIM plenum capped connection you mention. Works great. I ran the plastic hose through the rubber steering column boot. Then I run it up to the body seam, along to the ABS system, then over to the UIM. All tie wrapped in place.

No clue as to the Defi gauge set up. I chose to do the gauge linearization mod for temp monitoring. I don't race, so specific numbers aren't all that important. I just wanted to know when the engine reaches roughly 200 or so, so I can switch the fans on to cool back down to 180 (or so ). Works GREAT, no other gauges in the cockpit (other than boost), and I feel relatively confident I can monitor those things I deem necessary given I baby the thing pretty heavily. Though that Firebird that was ALL OVER MY *** got left faaarrr behind he other night. Drop into 4th, shove till boost says 10, wait till 6.5 K, shift, and look behind. Now which lights were his again?

What was I thinking buying this car?

adam c

iTrader: (2)

For the temp gauge sensor, I bought a greddy radiator hose adapter (36mm), and spliced it into the upper radiator hose before the air box. This gives me the hottest temp of the coolant before the radiator. Some people have used the coolant line near the intake. It is an easier install, and will give you a constant reading: not just after the thermostat opens.

Adam