Autometer Electric Oil Pressure Gauge = Check Engine Light?

[SimonTuffGuy]

I installed my Autometer oil pressure gauge and got the sender hooked up on Thursday... I ran it around town (probably 5-7 minutes) and then parked it for the night. I went to the dragway Friday and on the way up, passed a string of 5 cars heading out of town.

As I was hitting the last car, I saw my check engine light pop on. It's never come on before this. (Installed A/F ratio gauge and hooked that up too, but I can't imagine that'd throw it off by adding that into the mix).

Anyways - When I installed the Autometer gauge, I took out the stock sender, put the Autometer in and then ran a new wire to hookup. I left the stock wire "hanging" but out of the way.

I have a feeling I need to do something with it, but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions?

Car Specs - Festiva with BP swapped in... Running on the Festiva harness with the BP plugs splices where necessary - runs fine and gets up and moves fine - again, never tossed a code before, and I didn't actually check for codes (mostly because I'm not sure how)...

[elscotto80]

Yeah, i cut mine and taped it off, nothing to report of.

[SimonTuffGuy]

No check engine light though? I had a gauge installed on my last engine (regular 323 SOHC 1.6 swapped in) and that never tossed it either.

Anyone have the directions to check the codes? I know it's usually a process of turning the key on and off and watching for the check engine like to blink a certain number of times...

[therieldeal]

i'm pretty sure that the oil pressure wire doesnt connect to the ECU in any way... its wired to the power harness, not the engine harness.

[jasoncsprotege]

Make sure your A/F ratio gauge is wired in correct and that your ecu is still hooked up to your O-2 sensor. The oil pressure gauge won't throw a CEL but the O-2 sensor will. If you are just running a 1 wire O-2 sensor you just need to connect your A/F gauge to it.
Hope this helps,
Jason

[SimonTuffGuy]

Jason - I have the A/F gauge (1 volt) connected via one of those blue "splice in" plugs...

I'll have to check that out though, maybe in the process of putting that in, I somehow cut it...

From what I've read... you can hook up that wire to ANYWHERE between the ECU and the O2 plug out of the exhaust manifold... Is it possible to connect at right at the ECU and still have a good reading? And if so, would you know what wire that is on the ecu?

[jasoncsprotege]

Those "splice in connectors" sometimes have a tendency to cut the wire they are splicing into. I beleive the wire is a red with a blue stripe, and yes you can connect it right at the ECU but it will still be just spliced in. If I were you I would look at a soldering iron and solder the connection
Jason

[SimonTuffGuy]

I believe I found my problem... When I did the splice in connector, I put it on the actual harness side instead of the O2 wire... It looks like there's a sheilded wire in another wire strand (from cutting back some of the cover... It's a blue wire inside of a black one... The spliced thing I used cut into the blue wire (which is what I want), but it was also touching the blacjk, which is what I believe was messing up the gauge.

Now my problem... The black wire is still touching parts of the blue from where this spliced thing went in... Can I just cut where that spliced part was, strip the outer black wire back and pull the wires back and then put the blue wires together (how it "should be") and then solder it back together? I usually use a shrink-wrap connector that has a solder connector on the inside... You heat it long enough and the solder will melt and you've got a great connection.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about above, I'll post a pic that might help show what I'm trying to get at.

[jrally]

Huh?? I you saying the blue wire is encased by a shield ground wire, that's then covered by the black plastic casing? If so, then yes. Fix the cut blue wire inside, then reconnect the outer ground shielding back together and get everything covered back up with electrical tape or better yet, self-vulcanizing rubber tape.

-Jon R.