Wiring for retrofit Coolant- & Oil-Temp gauge

[St.Eve]

Hey,

as stated before, i retrofitted my 92 BX14 with a new cockpit which now has water- and oiltemperature gauges instead of warning lights.
I want to ask if anybody know which connectors / cables / sensors have to be wired. At first test - i just connected it into car - both gauges seems to be "powered", as they needles moved a bit into scale since ignition turned on. So "operating voltage" seems to be supplied. So where to collect measuring data? and how to connect it on the new dash?
any help would be appreciated because i have no idea where to start.
thank you!
greetings from Hannover

[Kitch]

Well, for a start you'll need to fit an oil temp and coolant temp sender to the engine. I'm assuming you've done that?

[RobC]

I remember my 1989 BX14 engine already had a coolant sensor in place on the thermostat housing, which was rather handy.

Oil temp can be fitted in place of a sump plug, I think?

[St.Eve]

I have not fitted them yet but the senders are in stock. The coolant sender is not a problem, i think same as rob, a sump plug sender will help here.
My problem is that the cockpit has a lot of connectors, like four or five, and they have many pins on it. Has anyone an idea which one of those move the gauges for coolant and oil temperature?
I connected the new cockpit for testing into the car, and while ignition is on, both coolant and oil gauges moves a bit. So i think, operating volts are given there, but no information volt (sorry, i don't know how to explain this properly )

Thank you
Steve

[RobC]

I worked it all out from the wiring diagrams which are in the haynes manuals (and presumably official workshop manuals as well). I'm sure a pdf of them is around here somewhere...

[St.Eve]

Was looking for something like this. I have a bunch of manuals (original from cit), but thats all S1-Series (last topics are MY 1988). I don't own the Haynes - it would be great if someone who does could take a look there for me.
Thanks in advance
Steve

[St.Eve]

No ideas?
I think - there are four connectors, 2 big white's and 1 green and 1 blue - that it has to be the right side white connector. It could pick up like 8 wires, but only 3 are installed there. The other connectors are "busy" so far. For some motivation for you, my "custom instrument":



Would be awesome if someone could help me getting these instruments working.
Thank you

[TizzyD]

You will need this thread:

https://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... temp+gauge

And if you check the latest page on my blog you'll see how I connected it all up (I fitted the GTi dash to my TZD Turbo) I just haven't wired my oil temp up to a sensor yet but the gauge gets power as it moves off the resting position when you turn the ignition on.

https://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... &start=195

[St.Eve]

Hi,

just read across both threads, and as far i understood this (had trouble with some words, had to use google translate a lot ):

It is indeed the 10-pin-connector, the white right sided one.
Pin Number 2 supports Oilpressure - but only the warning lamp, right? So where to connect the pressure gauge - even on this one?
Pin Number 6 supports Coolant Temperature - which can be used for the gauge now, instead of the warning lamps.
Pin Number 7 supports Oil Temperature - which i do use for the gauge now.

I understood that right?

Plus: On my BX14 there are two sensors/switches in the thermostat housing. Which one i do replace doesnt matter, right? ( I have to say that at the moment none of my temperature warning lights are working, and i only found one connector: the yellow one, which should be for red lamp. Maybe i dont have the white connector on my car due standard-cheap-model?)

For the oil things; i don't need that oil level working so i gonna ignore that. And if i dont need the red warning lamp, i can just replace that oil pressure switch in the middle of my engine with a temperature sensor. Correct?

Thank you for helping - and excuse my noobish questions.
Greetings from Germany (today its british weather)

[TizzyD]

So for the coolant temp gauge you first need to know which temperature switch in the thermostat housing is for the Orange light and which one is for the Red light. Do this by unplugging one of the connectors and earthing it - this should bring on one of the temp lights in the bottom right of the dash. Now you should know which temperature switch brings on which coloured light.

What I did was I removed the Red temperature switch from the thermostat and fitted the coolant temperature sender in its place. I then swapped the wires round so that the Orange switch brings on the Red light on the dash. I then plugged the temperature sender into the wire that was originally used for the Orange light on the dash. Behind the dash you need to then move the wire (which used to go to the Orange light) and wire it to the back of the gauge (Pin 6)

The reason I kept the Orange Temperature switch but wired it to the Red light on the dash was so that if the car got too hot it would bring the Red warning light but at the temperature that the Orange light used to come on. I fitted a connecting wire between the Orange and the Red lights behind the dash so that both warning lights come on at the same time so I can't miss it.


Oil Pressure

If you use a T-peice like I have then you can keep the Lower Oil Pressure warning light and have the Constant Oil Pressure sender wired to the back of the gauge (Pin 2). You will need the GTi circuit board and the bit of plastic which has a Blue 5 pin plug on it (see my thread for a picture) over and remove the one fitted which will have a Blue 4 pin plug on it. The Oil Pressure gauge has the Oil level function as well - you get 10 seconds or so of Oil level check and then the circuit switches to Oil Pressure mode. Once you start the car the lower oil pressure light goes out and the gauge then takes a continuous oil pressure reading from the sender you wired in.

I hope that kind of makes sense, it's easier to do it than it is to write it out.

[St.Eve]

Hey guys!

Great news (at least for me ) - it worked. Today i mounted my cluster (thanks to dave) into my car. I rewired my connector at PIN two, six and seven. Plugged it in, tested via grouding the wires - aaaand the needles moved. Made me pretty happy, was much more work than i thought about. And i am very happy with my custom cluster. I didn't manage it to install an UK speedometer, maybe i will do that later, but for now, a GTi cluster with a clock instead of a rpm-meter, is pretty unique for me.

And very interesting - i have two coolant sensor mounted in my car. One for the red, one for the yellow lamp (in the original cluster). But - on my connector to the cluster, there wasn't a cable wired in on position 6. So - the coolant warning lights were not wired. In my opinion, thats very dangerous. Did not expected that. I shot some pictures, if anyone is interested in.

So far - thank everybody for helping and the links. You helped me out a lot!

Greetings from Germany
Steve

[TizzyD]

Congrats, now you can enjoy driving along and having the knowledge of what is roughly going on under the hood!

[St.Eve]

For the prove:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/p84mcnfofiesa ... 3.jpg?dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/s/hknga0kcbltdk ... 9.jpg?dl=0

I like this layout very much. Its btw maximum amount of needles this cluster can wear (as the clock uses 3 needles, and the revmeter only 1).
I did not made the oilpressure working, because its not that easy to find a fitting one for TU3 engines (the original oil pressure switch is a M16x1,5 sized), also the oillevel system (which actually isn't wired into it at all). I missed to adjust the "mileage" (in km), so it shows of much more that there actually is. But, i don't think about selling it (they start to become rar and trendy here in Germany slowly), so its just cosmetic error (our "MOT" don't mind such things).

I also fitted the "behind-bumper-foglights", because i don't like the arrangement with frames at the original ones, plus they are hard to get / expensive.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnjn0pokg84nv ... 5.jpg?dl=0


Of course, they are yellow, and in addition with yellow sidelights - it looks pretty badass in the dark.
I just should care about the bumpers now, and if anyone could advise some good polish / plastic gel stuff, you would be welcome. I don't wont to paint them, as its not original to do so.

Thanks to anybody and greetings from windy Germany

/edit: somehow i messed up the image links, i guess. i placed the original link below