DIY - Defi Gauges on RB - Oil Temp, Water Temp & Oil press

AD_EG

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Apr 5, 2009
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Sup zth, how you fellas been... ill try to post up some of the DIY's that I was able to take some photos...

This is installation is on an RB but it would apply to I would say most cars with a few changes here and there...esp at the wiring or sensor adapters installation. So if you're installing other makes, this guide can still be used. If at any point you are not sure of something just ask away. For this ill be doing Oil temp, Water Temp and Oil Press.

In this kit. What we will need is:

1. Controller.
2. Gauges
3. Sensors
4. Water Temp adaptor ( try to get either a Japan type or from a reputable brand, something like works. those cheap adapters might be ok... some selling at like rm10, I've never used them but I can't imagine using something like that at such a vital location. To each his own)
5. Oil Sensor Filter adapter aka Sandwich (again try to get Japan type or from a reputable manufacturer) I bought mine from Works engineering, Fast postage too.
6. Sensor Wiring harness with sockets
7. Some additional engine oil (same type as the engine oil you are currently running, or do a service if it's due)
8. 2 hose clamps, 50mm.

Tools :

1. Wire cutter/Splicer
2. Spanners 12mm,14mm,17mm
3. Deep impact socket 27mm
4. Male Bullet connectors x3 , Female x1 (pic will be below)
5. Terminal Lug Connector x 1 (pic will be below)
6. Wire Loom (optional)
7. Some additional wires
8. Oil Filter removal tool
9. Good quality double tape. Can buy the unicorn red type from tesco or anything of similar higher quality.
10. Teflon Tape
11. Electrical Tester

Optional
1. New Oil filter (highly recommended since its coming off.)
2. Wire loom, mainly for tidiness .(can buy in diy or electronic shop)
3. Magnetic strip(depends on if you gonna mount like how i did)
4. Acrylic plate ( from number plate shop)



Attached below, will be the kit, sensors, adaptors and prepping.





Water Temp And Oil Sandwich

This part of the prepping can do indoors prior to your install day.

Attach oil temp sensor and oil pressure sensor to the sandwich as below. Wrap the sensor thread with Teflon tape (aka plumbers tape) and fit into the sandwich.

~








Water Temp Adaptor

Sensor adaptor installation. This part not much photos can be taken, cause your hands will be quite dirty. So im gonna try to explain the best i can.


Water temp adaptor quite easy. In You will want to remove you radiator hose, before the thermostat. In my case bottom hose is connected to thermostat. So installation will be done on top hose.

Look at your hose and try to locate the best location for your adaptor to be installed. You can either mark the spot or eyeball it, remove your top hose by undoing the 2 clamps. Cut the hoses with sharp blade such as box cutter and attach your adaptor (sensor at the bottom as shown in pic). Water will flow through the sensor. If you install with the sensor on top... And if water flow is low, water might not touch the sensor fully and readings might be very inaccurate.

Clamp the adaptor with your new hose clamps, and refit your hose back to the radiator.








Oil Filter Sandwich

Locate your oil filter, prepare rag cloth and bucket at the bottom of the car. Use filter removal tool to twist the filter open. If your filter was installed previously by someone and it was overtightened, you will need to use the 3 legged tool attached in the pic below to get it removed. If yours is not over tightened....a basic oil filter removal tool can be purchased at a diy or hardware store between rm10-20..

The reason i mentioned to get oil sandwich from reputable manufacturers, is mainly because the cheap or badly designed ones, often lead to oil leakage, esp a if the o-ring is not durable, and you happen to over tighten, this will damage the rubber o-ring, leaks will be inevitable.

IMPORTANT
Before you install your sandwich, oil the rubber gasket on the sandwich with clean engine oil which you have already kept prepared. Just pour some onto the engine oil bottle cap, dip your finger in, oil/lube the rubber gasket/o-ring on the adaptor. This will prevent damage to the o-ring and avoid folding.

Your sandwich will come with 2 thread adaptors. So use which adaptor that fits onto your engine block. After oiling the o-ring on the sandwich, put in place where your oil filter was earlier, place sandwich at which ever angle convenient based on your engine bay setup, try to get the sensor again at the bottom and/or side. With the sandwich in place, install the bolt given with the sandwich (pic below), where the one with the inner thread goes through the sandwich and connects to the block, hand tighten first until your sandwich is at desired angle. The part that is sticking out now is the open thread.

Next is where you will need your 27mm socket, and either your tool to attach to that socket, either ratchet socket or the bar in the pic pelow. Which tool you use, make sure the socket is a match with your tool. Normally these size socket will use 1/2". After you hand tighten that bolt through the sandwich onto your block, use the 27mm to slightly tighten the bolt. Remember dont need to overtighten, this is where your oil filter use to be. So agak2 a bit. After you're done try to turn the sandwich, if it turns or moves slightly, definitely too loose.

Now with the sandwich in place, time to install your new filter. Before installing the new filter, do the same thing, oil the rubber gaskter/o-ring on the oil filter, hand tighten the new oil filter onto the sandwich.

Optional

Since i was removing my oil filter, and needed new engine oil, i did an oil service. This is not necessary, if your oil is new, dont bother. IF your oil might be reaching its time. Go ahead. For this you will need your car jacked.


Oil Filter tool



27mm 1/2" socket



Sandwich Bolt



Removing oil filter and changing oil, my wife was passing by, quickly got her to grab a photo before she left. hahahaha


















Now you can group all 3 of your sensor/sender sockets, cable tie them to a convenient location in your engine bay, as far away from the engine hot area as possible.









Connect the wiring that comes with the package to each individual sensor socket in the engine bay.

3 pin socket is oil press. 2 pin is temp, which is oil and water im sure you can see from which adaptor each is coming from. Take the water temp wire harness (blue socket at the end) connect to the water temp, and oil temp wire (white socket at the end) harness connect to the oil temp, and of course oil press wire harness is with the 3 pin with black socket at the end.

once you connected the 3 wires into their respective sockets, pull those wires through your firewall and into your car interior where your controller is going to be placed. Each of them will be connected to the controller respectively.


3 sensor wires pulled through the firewall.



IMPORTANT

Now before you close and be done with the engine bay .

1. Check oil level. you would have lossed some oil from the oil filter change, so topup accordingly.

2. When you removed your top hose, you would have lossed some water and some air would have gone in the system. So careful at this stage as well. You will want to add water to your radiator and check your spare tank make sure there is water in there at the Full mark. The air should clear out after driving for a bit, once the thermostat opens.

Once completed, we are done at the engine bay side of things.







Interior wiring.

Constant 12v - Red Wire on controller.
With your tester look for the contant 12v signal, if you alr have any existing gadgest installed such as alarm, ebc, turbo timer, audio player etc this would be easy for you. If you dont, you can find one easily as well from the ignition wiring harness with your tester. If you're unsure of this just ask, will try to guide you or if you have your wiring diagram layout for your car you can follow that diagram for this source.


Ignition / Switch - Orange wire on controller
With your tester, you will want to find the wire that gives you 12v signal when key is turned to ign and no signal when key is off.


Illuminination - White wire on controller
This you need to source normally from the lighting side of your steering/ignition wiring harness , AC dash panel or your audio wiring loom. On audio side, illum normally is the orange wire. For ac or ign wiring loom, it depends on car to car. If you are testing for a fresh source, all you need to do is use your tester poke into the wiring loom socket, look for a 12v signal when you switch your light on. Basically on that same wire, there will be a 12v signal when light on and no signal when light off.


Ground - Black wire on controller.
This you can pretty much ground to any part that is already used as grounding. So can locate any exisiting ground spot or use a new one convenient to your controller location.


Once you have gotten the source for this 4 wires, splice into them. Use the additional wires which you have, the length depends on your location of the controller, colour is up to you.

you can either solder, crimp or just twist and tie, dont forget to wrap them well with quality wiring tape aka black tape one end of the wire to your car wiring. At the other end, you are going to attach the connectors. Attached below is where the female x 1 bullet connector and 3 male bullet connector will be used.




In this pic, is the defi controller wiring harness



In this pic, is my wiring which i pulled from the car. In my case i used

12v - Red wire - attached a female connector at the end
Ign - Blue wire - attached a female connector at the end
Illumination - Orange wire - attached a female connector at the end
Ground - Black Wire - attached a male connector at 1 end, and at the other end you will want to connect the terminal lug attached below.


Terminal Lug for ground wire at other end.

Ground the terminal lug to a bolt

You can either use rubber insulation on the connectors, heat shrinks, or just good ol wire tape on each of the connector. And this is where the optional wire loom can be added. Bottom will be attached how it all looks once you got your sources, with connectors installed and insulated.


Once you covered all of that, we can move on to connect the defi controller wiring harness.



This is after connecting the harness and adding the wiring loom to tidy up. Sorry this pic a bit blur, working alone with not so clean hands and trying to snap pics....with a white phone aint easy man. hahahah . The other end which im holding up is the white socket that will plug into the controller unit, into the DC SOURCE input.


Try to tidy up all your sensor wires, and the dc source wires, cable tie them and group them as neat as possible. So when next time if you gonna do any rewiring for other stuff, its not gonna look like a time bomb that needs to be defused.



So we have the power wiring setup done, we pulled all 3 sensor wiring through the firewall, time to connect all of it.

Water temp with blue socket goes into water temp input
Oil Temp white socket into oil temp input
Oil press black socket into oil press input
The wiring harness that connected to the car 12v etc goes into DC SOURCE input.

IMPORTANT
for BF gauges install in meter output 2, if you connect black face to output 1, it will only illuminate when headlight switched on.

If you you connect white face to output 2, it will illuminate the whole time :driver:

Now so your 3 gauges would be connected via link, then connect that meter output 2 harness to your gauge.


IMPORTANT

At this stage, we are going to move on to mounting and more or less be done with it. So please take note of this important stuff first. When you have completed the installation make sure to check if you have any oil and/or water leaks in case something was not tightened properly. For this you will have to start your car, at the same time you can see your gauges opening and closing ceremony, and your sensors if you are getting readings, so while idling look under your car, and from the engine bay, if you see any oil and/or water leaks. If you do, please attend to that first and recheck your fittings.


Mounting

My mounting method is optional. You can mount anyway you like, but ill just share what i did.

Get some magnet strips at diy store, place them on your dash few rows so its firm, and on the acrylic plate the same amount of rows using the double tape mentioned at the beginning. This prep work can be done the day before also.

The reason i did it this way so that i can just easily at any time dismount my gauges and take them with me, as we all know, how safe our place can be. After saving up and getting these damn gauges... which i basically always wished i had for like i dont know maybe 8 or so years, last thing i bloody want, is a broken window ... missing gauges, to add insult to injury controller still there huhuhuhuhhu :bawling::bawling::bawling:








Pulled the wire through the dashboard compartment so that its nice and tidy.




After all is done, always remember to check for oil spots just in case. And check your spare tank water reservoir. Sorry if some pics werent taken, please let me know if got any typo's that needs to be corrected hahahaha... panjang bruuuhhh type... bound to make some errors.
 

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