pcp gauge wiring

[nai8o5]

I'm installing the pcp white gauge faces (no tach) tommorrow and I've never dealt with wiring anything. so before I have my gauge cluster taken apart, where am I going to connect the red and black wires?

[jnorion]

Black wire is the ground, it attaches to the chassis anywhere there's exposed metal. I clamped it down with a screw that was holding part of the dash to the frame underneath. The red wire should hook into the power wire that turns the existing lights on. It's in the wiring harness on the right side of the cluster, if I remember right it's the second one in from the right on the front of the plug. If you use a test light you should be able to find it.

Read this post before you do it, though, so you can learn from everyone's mistakes. Blue LEDz is pretty much the only person who has succesfully taken needles off more than once, and if I had done it his way to begin with I would have had no problem. I would recommend searching for other info about it too, this is just the one I know of.

[nai8o5]

thanks, i've read just about every post on the subject now, since I don't have a tach in my cluster I think these gauges are able to slide over the needles (??) with a little patience, I took the needles off successfully in my Altima last year, too bad the configuration is a bit different from our mazda's. I'm gonna take my cluster out now and attempt, i'll let u know how it goes

[nai8o5]

wow that's a fricken' sensitive needle! tried putting the temp face through the needle and got the white face under the black part on the bottom of the needle and a little pressure was pushing up on the needle because of the angle and snap! the little ****er popped off. The tiny metal pin is in the needle but from reading the other post and the drawing, it sounds like the rest of the metal pin is in the cluster and that it snapped in half......lol, i Hate needles! either way I know i'm ordering a new cluster now, it's a good excuse to get one that has the fricken' tach IN the cluster, I was going to buy an autometer tach, (200$) so to spend around the same or even $100 more from the dealership is worth it for me to get the tach in the cluster......I'm going to experiment with the fuel needle to see if it comes all the way off, I don't know about the speedo though, maybe I'll trim the white gauges to fit around better?

[jnorion]

I think your best bet is to try Blue's method of using the two butter knives... it worked well for me when I tried it, but unfortunately I tried it AFTER I broke the needles so I couldn't fix it. Otherwise I'd cut a slit across the face toward one side, but look on the back of the face to make sure you just cut plastic and not the indiglo stuff. Also, I'd suggest supergluing the broken needle back on just so you won't have a bright light staring you in the face while you drive. It won't work, but it'll look normal.

[jnorion]

BTW, I did the same thing you did, and then I was stupid and tried it again on the fuel gauge and the same thing happened... those things are a bitch, aren't they?

[nai8o5]

hell ya they're a bitch, well i got it all installed and working, thanks for the help with the wires, you had the position right, it's the blue/red wire on the right harness top and second from the right . I thought I was going to break the speedo needle cuz it was such a tight squeeze! and I didn't even want to try the fuel so I cut the hole bigger and it looks alright, I can't make it a circle if I tried, so during the day if you are paying attention you can tell the hole isn't straight, lol, and the other problem, which kind of sucks, the fuel needle stays on the bottom now, is it connected to the temp at all? It seems that since the temp needle is broke, it's sending the same signal to the fuel needle saying that it's broken as well, i dunno, I don't want to take it apart again right now to see if maybe I just didn't plug a harness in all the way or something. I did glue the temp needle back in and it looks normal, the funny thing is that it moves normal as well (??) when I drove around and accelerated it started to move up a little like it normally would, but when i turned the car off it went down but not all the way down to it's normal "off" position. It'll be interesting to see how it acts, but i'm confused at how it's moving if it is superglued to the plastic (????) lol

The high pitched frequency it gives off is annoying as hell without music on, I'm not sure if it's worth it yet, but definitely a good change seeing white in the gauges instead of black while i'm driving.

one more thing (last thing) those with a tach in your gauge cluster, is their more wiring than the three harnesses in a cluster w/o tach? I was thinking if there is then it might be a pain in the ass to install a cluster w/tach into my car (a dx) because of needing to re-wire it. ??

[jnorion]

There's no extra wiring (as far as I know, I've only seen mine, but it just has three plugs). I've never noticed the whining sound except when I stick my face right next to the gauges... try turning the dimmer down a bit. Also, one thing I noticed is that if you turn the stock dimmer up all the way the gauge dimmer turns off entirely, so adjust the level on that before you adjust the new dimmer.

As far as I know the fuel gauge has no connection to the temp, that sucks that it broke though. I hope your trip meter works... As far as the temp gauge moving, mine did the same thing, I think the metal parts are just touching each other inside the cluster, and since it wasn't a clean break it moves the needle slightly.

[nai8o5]

I'll mess with the dimmer's tonight, it's still sunny and bright as hell in Ca. and i can barely see when it's all the way up.....

[nai8o5]

Holy ****! Is the dimmer switch supposed to shock the hell out of you?!?!?!??! Like I said, (LOL) I've never done electric work before, even as simple as one red one black wire. Couple questions: Was our digital odometer always on? I think I remember that I had to turn my car on before I saw the mileage, now it's always on. Second, you said the dimmer switch on the car effects the pcp brightness as well, mine doesn't at all, and when the car is off the pcp gauge light is still on, I can brighten/dim it the same if the car is on and off, and I haven't mounted the dimmer switch yet (in case i have to take it apart again) so it's hanging slightly hidden at the bottom of the steering wheel. While the car is off I held the switch with my right hand around the back where the wires are, and apparently I was touching the metal part and for every notch the dial turned I received a shock! much stronger shock than I would expect too! lol maybe I have something wired wrong???

[jnorion]

No, it's not supposed to shock you, but you're not really supposed to be touching both wires at the same time either . Mine shocked me too, enough to feel and make me jump but not do any damage.

Yes, something is wired wrong. What you need to do is get a test light (they're really cheap at any auto parts store). Attach the clip to the spot where you hooked the black wire, and then start poking the wiring harness. You need to find a wire that has power when the light switch is turned to acc. or on, but not when they're off. That way it won't drain your battery when the car's off but you won't have to turn the gauges on and off separately from everything else.

[nai8o5]

a good jolt of electricity is good for you every so often yeah i have a test light but it was at work and i was too lazy to drive over there and get it, what i did was i turned the lights on and touched to red wire to each wire until the gauges turned on and then once i found one that was on i turned the lights off and if the gauges went off as well then bingo! and it was actually two from the LEFT not from the RIGHT, lol, same difference, i'm happy with my work and love how it looks at night, I won't have to spend a ton of money buying a new gauge cluster

[jnorion]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say you should do... my bad for not being clear. Congratulations on finishing... now you just have to change the rest of dash over to blue . The fun never ends!