Well since the 5g lacks the ability to give me useful information about my car, I was thinking of taking the 3 little guages (voltmeter, oil temp, water temp) from my 4g and wiring them up in a little guage pod. Now I'm wondering what exactly I need to make them work, just the sensor and the gauge and a power source, or more than that? Is it even doable? Or will I have to go buy gauges to see whats going on?
Well I have had a cluster completely apart before so I'll give you some insight. There is nothing overly complex about the gauges. The voltmeter is just that - a voltmeter - 2 terminals + and -. As I recall they aren't marked as such but its very easy to figure out. The oil pressure gauge also has two terminals and is operated by a varrying ground resistance supply by the pressure sender. I am not exactly sure how the temp gauge is operated, it has 3 terminals and there may be some sort of digital input in between the gauge and the temp sensor. The fuel gauge operates in the same manner as the temp gauge. As far as making them work, voltage is easy as only a 12v source and a grounding point are required. The oil gauge needs the 12v source and a ground wire that is connected to the oil pressure sender. Temp gauge I don't know about. The BGB would be a good bet for some circuit diagrams, and to confirm what I have stated above. For your car you would likely need a temp sensor and oil pressure sender as the ones for idiot lights are different (no variable output, just on/off). In all the gauges themselves don't really work for this type of thing because of their construction. They lack good mounting points and the needle is not pinned in the centre so there must be a clear sweep area on the top portion of the gauge. They are designed to be mounted inside the plastic cluster. I'd have to recommend aftermarket gauges as well.
thanks dman, not having them pinned in the center is kinda odd but oh well. I'll look up the wiring diagrams, I mainly want the voltmeter so I might just stick it someplace kinda hidden.
For whatever its worth. Here is what I did. Junk those stock gauges. It took about 2 days worth of work, but it turned out nice. They are mounted in 1/16 aluminum panel. This is an older pic, I actually have 5 gauges on the left now with fuel press added in. [albumimg]22[/albumimg]
That looks sweet, except I can't even get the stock guage cluster out in the 5g to change the bulbs. pissing me off!
