my problem is the gauge lights up and all but when you rev the car no LEDs light up. The only one lit is the rich one that stayed on when i had it unhooked from the o2. So what could be the problem? I need help asap! Thanks guys

 

Sorry, not enough !!!!!! at the end of your post.

But seriously...did you verify the gauge is connected to the O2 sensor? If the O2 sensor is a heated type, are the voltage and ground connected correctly?

 

I dont know if I have a heated o2 or not. Its a 92 V6 camaro. I T-taped into the wire at the right place and nothing. Squeezed the T-tap to make sure there was a good connection, nothing. Ground wire is good. Seem to have enough volts going to the gauge too. You can see the lights in the back of the gauge flickering like a christmas tree but they dont light up like they should. And they only do the flickering thing when I let off the gas as a high rpm. What could be wrong? Is the o2 sensor bad? Or what?

 

Dunno in this case, I don't work on V6's.

 

If there is only one wire to the O2 sensor then it is not a heated type. Therefore the sensor will have to heat up before it sends any signals. Your gauge will not display anything until it heats up, then it will start going nuts which is good becuase your computer gets the same signal and is constantly compensating. At WOT though the ECU will ignore the O2 and only you will see just how rich your running. Have you driven the car around for a while to see how the gauge reacts?

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"Though I cruise through the valley of Rice I shall fear no turbo, for torque art with me."
--Cullan Hooley
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1985 IROC-Z w/T-tops, 305 out and 350 L98 TPI engine in, Hooker Super Comp Headers, 3" Hooker Super Comp Cat-Back, Dropped Cat, Rebuilt TH700R4 with Shift kit, 2,800RPM Torque Converter, 3.73 Richmond gears, Auburn posi differential, Accell SuperCoil, Accell 8mm racing wires, BBK AFPR, Homemade Ram-Air (thanks to askulte), MAF screens removed, Dropped A/C, Dropped A.I.R, TB coolant bypass, Hurst Dual-Gate Shifter, SLP Air Foil, K&N filters, Holley performance fuel pump, Spohn Subframe Connectors, Re-located Spohn Lower Control arms, LT1 cam, 150 shot of nitrous, and more to come.

 

Yes and it doesnt change at all. All the lights are dimly lit and they flicker. Especially when I let off the gas or press in the clutch. But the one LED that stays lit when the car is on the ON position stays lit all the time. What is wrong?

 

A bad O2 might be the problem. But i wouldn't go that far yet. Double check the wires. Is this the Nordskog digital gauge? If so, or at least on mine, if you turn the car on (don't start it) it should power up and gradually within the next few minutes start lighting up LED's one at a time starting from the lean and going to rich. If it doesn't do that for you (it'll take a few minutes so be patient) then you might just have a faulty gauge. If it does then the gauge would probably work fine and the problem would be either your wires or the O2 sensor. Hope this helps

 

Unless this is a WB O2 sensor (which you don't have), those AF Ratio meters are just "pretty lights". The stock O2 sensor is not accurate enough to use to guage performance. The stock O2 sensors are designed to work around .450 V or around 14.7:1, nothing more. Only a WB O2 sensor will give you accurate readings @ WOT.

 

Where can I get a WB o2 sensor then?

 

Oh and its an autometer gauge

 

Ok, what would be different about hooking up a V8 air/fuel gauge then?

 

Clck, I was thinking the same thing. What an ignorant statement.

 

Monkie, go here http://www.diy-efi.org/diy_efi/projects/diy_wb/ for information on the DIY WB O2 sensor.

You will note that the O2 sensor comes from a Low Emissions Honda. The size of the engine or number of cylinders are irrelevant. It simply measures the O2 in the exhaust. Hondas use this to have accurate O2 readings when running very lean. But the same O2 sensor works for the opposite: rich O2 readings for WOT.

This is probably the cheapest route to go to get a WB O2 sensor. Generally, these are VERY EXPENSIVE. Those inexpensive AF Ratio meters are a joke at anything but 14.7:1.

Lastly, there is not currently a way to make the WB O2 sensor work with a stock ECM. I wish there was.

 

About the only thing the factory O2 sensor fed Air Fuel Ratio gauge will help with, is WOT tuning as when you go to WOT, it should stay in the rich area and give you an idea of how rich your engine is at WOT.

When you are not at WOT the O2 sensor will be jumping from rich to lean so fast that it is virtually useless and the gauge will likely not be able to keep up, thus your 'all lights are on' condition. The job of the factory O2 sensor is that of an umpire. It tells the ECM if the mixture is rich or lean and the ECM changes the injector's pulse width accordingly to get the mixture to its ideal figure (this is set in the EPROM). The ECM wants the mixture to be perfect at all times (once it is in closed loop, that is). Thus, the ECM is constantly making changes to the mixture which makes the O2 sensor go from rich to lean very quickly - these are called CROSS COUNTS. The ECM keeps track of the amount of times the O2 sensor crosses from rich (>.450mv) to lean (<.450mv) or vice versa. The idea is that if the O2 doesn't read enough cross counts, an improper mixture is present, rich or lean depending on where the O2 is staying, and the ECM knows that something is wrong and will flag a DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) in accordance with the improper mixture reading - rich or lean. This is where the troubleshooting gets real fun because the O2 sensor gets the DTC flag (blame) but is usually not (never) the problem. The improper mixture can be from any number of things like say, a vacuum leak. Anyways, this is getting pretty far off from your AFR gauge and O2 sensor questions, but maybe this will help you understand what the factory O2 sensor is for and why AFR gauges that use the factory O2 are mostly useless.

The other issue is that of heat. The O2 sensor contains a crystal that produces an A/C current depending on the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gas. The factory O2 sensor on our cars is a non-heated one and this means that it gets heated up by the exhaust gasses which may take a while to get the sensor to it's operating temperature at times. The sensor will read on or about .450mv, stochiometric, until it gets hot enough to cycle and react to the exhaust mixture. This means that reading the O2 sensor when the engine is cold is also useless. A heated O2 sensor will have a heater element in it that will get the O2 sensor up to operating temperature quicker - virtually as soon as the key is turned on. A heated O2 can be adapted onto our cars by wiring the purple signal wire to the signal wire on the heated O2 sensor and wiring the power lead of the heated O2 to an ignition switched power source and the ground wire to a suiteable ground on the car.


Hope that helps some...
Good Luck
Laterzzzzzzz

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1987 GTA L98 MD8
355, TFS Heads, LT4 Hot Cam
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