Okay, for any of you who have installed an aftermarket Voltage Gauge...

I just had the Lotek Gauge Pod put into my car. Got someone to put in the gauges for me because (since my move to Florida is coming up) I don't have time to run sending units, etc - busy packing and dealing with the holidays. Anyway, after a long discussion with the installer, I finally got them to properly install the oil pressure and water temp gauges. Problem is, he didn't install the voltage gauge right so it powers up, but doesn't read anything. I'm guessing he didn't hook both wires up to the same circuit or something. For any of you who have installed a volt gauge, which wire did you hook up to (please let me know both connections - pos and neg) ? I can go in there and redo the connection myself, but I'd like to know which wire to use.

 

Battery + and ground......

 

Well, um yeah, I kinda figured that, but short of plugging the thing straight into my battery terminal, care to be a little more specific - i.e. wire color (since the battery does tend to change a bit when it hits the dash), not to mention, plugging straight into the battery before the ignition would leave the gauge powered on after I shut the car off, draining my battery.

 

I'd probably use the cig lighter....it's a larger gauge wire...and close to your work area. Voltage readings should be OK as long as your not using the Liter

 

I don't use it, but I do have my GPS wired to it (by running an extra socket out the back). Here's the weird thing. It "reads" supposedly (according to the manual it came with) off the power that is used to power it. Problem is, it IS getting power (it lights up, goes through the start sequence, etc), but it doesn't read any volts. Any clue how it could be powering up but not read volts ? If it helps they are the "Swoosh" series gauges.

 

Maybe the Gauge is F**ked........quite possible given the symptoms. Try and wire it straight to the battery....and see if it works, and then you will know if it works or not.

 

It's got 5 wires that run to it. They are:
Batt +
Ground
One that says "On - wire to ciruit that will not be turned off when key is turned"
ACC On
Small Lamp

The voltage doesn't come with a sensor wire, the manual says it reads off the power given to it. I tried hooking the Batt + and the Ground directly to the battery (but left the other connections in tact) and no read. It powers on with no problem (as with the other gauges), but for some reason I can't get a voltage read.

 

What do you have the 5 wires hooked too?

 

Make sure that you wire it to an ignition switched 12+ source. That way it wont stay on while the car is off. Easiest thing to do is just run wires from the driver's side kick panel.

 

Right now, I kept some of the hookups that the guy did for me (since those seemed ok). Here's how it's hooked up:

Batt + - Cigarette Lighter Positive (also tried the power wire going to the stereo and didn't seem to make a difference)

Ground - ran to black ground wire on the stereo harness as well (just because all this stuff was close, hence the running to the stereo wires)

ON with no key interruption - Run to stereo positive power wire

ACC on - Run to same stereo power wire

Small Lamp - run to stereo illumination

 

Check you cig lighter fuse......

 

try turning on your headlights to see if that turns the gauge on.

 

The "on" wire needs to be run to an unswitched source. Try PM'ing Lurch as this is his specialty.

 

Lighter and fuse are fine, my GPS is wired to the same circuit, so the GPS wouldn't be working if that was the case.

 

Headlights don't affect the gauges. They come on fine (my oil pressure and water temp are completely working and the voltage does power up, just no reading).

 

On as in the battery or On as is the "the key doesn't affect" circuit ? I can do a test if it's the latter - already tried going DIRECT to the battery with a test lead on the battery wire, but haven't messed with the On Key non-interrupting one.

 

All the wires you need are in the driver's side kick panel.

 

If the connections are all good...then I would think the gauge doesn't work properly

 

Problem is, I don't know which wires since there are a TON down there. I have the schematic, but it's hard to make any sense of it (color wise)

 

Problem is knowing if the connections are "all good" - there are a couple of ways you can wire them

 

just look at the fuse diagram, they are all labeled and fused, then find the ones you need and tap them behind the fusebox.

 

It should work the way you have it.....so I would check the connection for the main B+ feed....otherwise I would check the gauge....

 

I've triple checked the connections and they are all good, something about the hookup isn't working out. I have a theory I'm going to try tomorrow. If it works, I'll let you guys know.

 

Unfortunately there's nothing on the fuse box that says, "ACC on but not interrupted when the key is turned on" so it would still require knowledge of which circuit would be best and then tracing that circuit to find the proper color wire.

Do you have aftermarket gauges hooked up ? If so, which wires are you connected to (color / location wise) ?

 

Well, I tried a few things and the only conclusion I can come up with is that one of the guys that tried to install the gauges (I had two, one finally ran the senders right and I finally said screw it, and wired everything else up myself) fried the voltage gauge. I should've just done the install myself, but since I'm moving, I didn't want to have to deal with it. The other two gauges work perfect with the wiring I did and since the voltage gauge is supposed to read with just the power wires (no sending wires), that's the only explanation.