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Thread: Electrical Problem- Gauges all over the place

  1. 15th May 2011, 04:51 PM #1
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    Electrical Problem- Gauges all over the place

    Hey Guys,

    I thought I'd be all clever and replace the gauge illuminator lamps with blue LED's to match the stereo. All went well and it looks... very cool now, though upon re-installing the dash I noticed that all the gauges were way off.
    The empty fuel tank is reading full
    The Radiator is reading hot (on a cold motor)
    and the brand new battery is under 12v



    Obviously I've disturbed something - but what could it be? Its a 200Tdi '93 btw.

    Thanks
    Alex
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  2. 15th May 2011, 07:02 PM #2
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    JDNSW
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    You've disconnected the earth to the gauges at a guess. Just possible it was already faulty, but was using the dash lights as an earth, but now the dash lights are not passing enough current.

    John
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    1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
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  3. 15th May 2011, 07:20 PM #3
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    justinc
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    Certainly as John says, an earth wire is loose or no longer connected.

    JC
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  4. 16th May 2011, 10:46 PM #4
    superquag
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    ... But the blue looks heaps better than the anaemic incandescent bulbs !!!
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  5. 16th May 2011, 11:02 PM #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by superquag View Post
    ... But the blue looks heaps better than the anaemic incandescent bulbs !!!
    oh - it's well worth the dodgy readings :P
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  6. 18th May 2011, 06:33 PM #6
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    Hmm, is earth the same as the black ground wire? I'm yet to get these working :/

    Thanks,
    Alex
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  7. 18th May 2011, 07:08 PM #7
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    Yes, if its the same as mine.

    John
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    1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
    1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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  8. 18th May 2011, 07:17 PM #8
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    what LED's did you use please ?
    It's not broken. It's "Carbon Neutral".


    gone

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  9. 20th May 2011, 04:55 PM #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by VladTepes View Post
    what LED's did you use please ?
    Hey mate, I just went down to jaycar and bought 4 of their largest blue LED's. The would have been just under a cm in diameter. I then took the plastic bulb holders in the defender dash, removed the bulbs and used some needle nose pliers to remove the metal tabs inside.

    Once that was done I soldered a 440k ohm resistor to the positive leg of the LED and hot glued it into the existing bulb mount. I then used the needle nosed pliers to break and remove the green cover inbuilt into the the gauge to remove it.

    I then lathered the mount in more hot glue and glued them to the holes where the lights used to sit.

    Pretty blue gauges
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  10. 22nd May 2011, 10:12 PM #10
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    Red face

    Im getting no where with this. I just spent a solid hour trying to get these gauges working and nothing.

    So on both the Fuel and Oil Temp gauges there are two pins:
    1) Seems to provide power at 12V
    2) Seems to come from the sender unit (transmitter).

    I'm not 100% but it does appear as though there were a few ground wires attached to lugs around a long screw (which holds the gauge in place) - are these the gauge grounds?

    My understanding is that the gauges run off the 12V power source, then the reading is modified by the resistance of the sender unit (or so it seems as the resistance of the fuel sender and ground seemed to sit around 150ohm).

    How do these gauge units ground? How can I test them - can I wire in a pot between and sender pin and ground and fiddle? Could I have dodgey gauges?

    Please help - I think I have an empty tank but I'm not sure :P

    Thanks.
    Alex
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