Aftermarket Gauge and Tach help

[FranHaus]

I have a 94 Camry LE and I recently installed a gauge pod and filled them with a volts and oil temp gauges...i hooked them up to my lights so when i turn on my lights at night they light up, but they do not function...i was just wondering if someone knew how to hook them up so they acctually give read outs. They are both Autometer Sport Comp Gauges..and if anyone knows how to hook up a Autometer Sport Comp Tach it would help very much... Thanks

[88 LE]

Voltage gauge - Wire it to the ignition (switched +12V). Black wire with yellow stripe at the ignition harness.

Ignition harness is at the bottom of the steering column.




The oil temp gauge, is it mechanical or electronic?

As for hooking it up, I suppose you could tap off where the oil pressure switch screws in. See the thread below.


http://toyotanation.com/forum/t134386.html




Do you have V6 or I4?

[99Camry99]

Auto or Stick?

[FranHaus]

its auto, I4, and they are mechanical i guess, they have the needle, and i am a retard its acctually a water temp. gauge..sorry but do you know where to hook this up at? Thanks again

[Venom_5]

a mechanical temp gauge means it directly reads the temperature ... unless the gauge is broken, then the needle will move w/ the temp no matter what

if its electrical, it has to be plugged in for the reading to show up on the needle/gauge

[FranHaus]

i think it is electrical because when they were hooked up they would only read when the car was on.

[toyomoho]

The oil pressure and coolant temp gauges are either mechanical or electrically operated. If electrical, a wire runs between the sensor and one electrical terminal of the gauge. The other terminal on the gauge usually goes to 12V turned on/off by the ignition system.

If mechanical gauges, a hose or tube runs between the sensor or location where it attaches to the engine and the gauge. The mechanical system requires no electrical power to operate.

Regards of type of gauge type, the sensor, tube, ect. needs to be plumbed into the engines coolant and oil pressure systems.

If the gauges have lights, there are separate wire(s) that need to be wired to the cars lighting system.

Did you hook up the actual gauge to the proper 12V system (and not just the lights of the gauge); did you install the sensors properly and run the wires to the gauges?

Do a Google search on installing the type of gauge you have (oil, temperature, etc). If you know the brand name of the gauges try to find the vendors website to see if it lists directions or a tech support number to call.

[geoff5093]

If it's electrical oil pressure guage, then it would just be wires with maybe a sensor on the end, a mechanical one would have oil going to the guage.

[FranHaus]

yeah they are electrical i hooked them up to a 12V already and they light up just with no readings but just need to find out where to hook up the water temp. gauge to. Thanks

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by FranHaus

its auto, I4, and they are mechanical i guess, they have the needle, and i am a retard its acctually a water temp. gauge..sorry but do you know where to hook this up at? Thanks again

They all have a needle that moves unless its digital.

As for installation, I would drill and tap into the water neck that bolts on the right side of the cylinder head.

[Stillrunning]

The water temp gauge should have come with it's own sender. You would remove the stock gauge sender and replace with the new one, which will give you temperature in degrees - I assume that's what you have??

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Stillrunning

You would remove the stock gauge sender and replace with the new one.

Negative on that.


Factory temp gauge uses the ECT (engine coolant temp) sensor. The ECT needs to be in place otherwise you'll get a check engine light and the ECU won't know the temp of the engine.

Senders with aftermarket gauges are usually 1/8" NPT. ECT sensor is bigger then that.

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by 88 LE

Factory temp gauge uses the ECT (engine coolant temp) sensor. The ECT needs to be in place otherwise you'll get a check engine light and the ECU won't know the temp of the engine.

Are you sure? My 95 has a gauge sender (which is what I was referring to) on the coolant outlet manifold as well as an engine temp sensor on the bottom of the rad. The engine temp sensor has 2 wires which would send signal to ECU through changing resistance, while the gauge sender has one wire to gauge. It's hard to believe a gauge manufacturer would have you source your own sender when the gauge and sender would have to be compatible.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Stillrunning

Are you sure?

I'm positive.

Pull the plug to the ECT sensor while the engine is running and warm. The temp gauge will drop to nothing and the check engine light will come on.

My 95 has a gauge sender (which is what I was referring to) on the coolant outlet manifold as well as an engine temp sensor on the bottom of the rad.

The sensor on the coolant outlet manifold is the ECT.

Sensor on the bottom of the radiator is used for the fans.

It's hard to believe a gauge manufacturer would have you source your own sender when the gauge and sender would have to be compatible.

A sender is included with the gauge.


For example: http://autometer.com/cat_gaugedetail...id=3113&sid=11

^ Under notes it says includes 1/8" NPT sender.


http://autometer.com/cat_accessorieslist.aspx?pid=8

^ senders

[Stillrunning]

Ok so all is not so clear now.

I pulled my FSM and Haynes Manual to research this as past reference showed the gauge sender to be a dedicated single wire sensor. On my engine there are three temperature sensors/switches as well as the fan switch on the rad.

On the water outlet to the upper rad hose there are three temperature switches. Facing the engine, on the left, is a two wire ECT, in the middle is a single wire gauge sender, and on the right is the TVV (Temperature Vacuum Valve) that controls the evap canister evacuation to the intake manifold. All this and the coolant temp fan switch on the bottom of the rad. So it seems my original post was correct?

Any comments?