Autometer Air/Fuel Gauge

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

I just picked up a 04 GT...previous owner did a few mods to it before i bought it, but i bought it from a stealership so i dont know exactly what has been done. All i know is that it has a Procharger P-1SC supercharger and an exhaust...might have gears, but not sure (around 2700 rpms at 70 mph, auto tranny)

Well to my question, previous owner installed a Autometer Phantom Air/Fuel gauge that mounts onto the side of the instrument cluster....Assuming its installed properly, should this meter be constantly going from rich to lean?? Looks like some stupid gauge out of the fast and the furious or night rider. Main reason I am asking, is because the car is starting to give me some troubles...it has stalled on me 3 times now after putting it in park...day after i bought it, when i gave it about quarter throttle it started "dieseling" on me...i assumed those problems were because dealership put in 87, instead of 93...neither of those problems have came back in the last two days. Now the problem i am having is that when i give her some throttle, car starts to hesitate and acts like it doesnt know what gear to go into. At 60 mph, it would only show about 5 psi of boost, and car didnt do much other than make more noise (tranny is strong, not slipping) It would acclerate, but not as fast as it did when i first bought it. Later i was on the highway, at about 75 mph, gave her some gas and car would only get up to about 95 mph at about 3500 rpms (maybe 4k, not sure but definatly not anywhere near redline) Once it got to 95, felt like the car was ready to quit. I was thinking all of my problems might be a computer issue...but doesnt the Procharger kit come with a chip?

Well any input would be appreciated...and sorry for the long post

MGSTANG · Jun 18, 2006

That's all it is is a light show. It's a narrowband so it's not accurate. I can't help your other problems though. I just can answer the gauge question

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

MGSTANG said:
That's all it is is a light show. It's a narrowband so it's not accurate. I can't help your other problems though. I just can answer the gauge question

ok thanks for the info. Honestly at this point I dont care if its accurate, but maybe somewhat close. As it shows right now, all it does is go from rich to lean every 2 seconds or so...just a bunch of flashy red/yellow/green lights...rather annoying (especially at night). I'm about to clip the wires to it, and disable it. Only thing holding me back from doing that, is that i dont want a b/s gauge that does nothing.

Kilgore Trout · Jun 18, 2006

That A/F guage is wortheless junk. Replace it with a meaningful guage.

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

McTeague said:
That A/F guage is wortheless junk. Replace it with a meaningful guage.

and what is a meanigful gauge to use?

I've been a volkswagen guy for many years...been a long time since i've owned a ford. Last car was a R32...doubt any of you even know what that car was.

urban96 · Jun 18, 2006

AWD v6 golf

you could get a real wide band A/F meter from innovate. the LM1 has an analog output that you can connect to your existing autometer gauge

if you want to just replace it you could get a water temp, oil pressure or even voltmeter

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

urban96 said:
AWD v6 golf

close...but its a "vr6" instead of a typical 45 degree bank, its a 15 degree bank...kinda hybrid between a v and a inline

you could get a real wide band A/F meter from innovate. the LM1 has an analog output that you can connect to your existing autometer gauge

if you want to just replace it you could get a water temp, oil pressure or even voltmeter

ok so can you explain the difference between wide band versus narrow band? When i think wide band vs. narrow band, i think radio communications....not meter readings

I was thinking about getting a trans oil temp gauge to replace it...especially since the car is an auto...but don't know how tough/feasible that would be to do.

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

oh and y'all havent explained the one part i said originally...wasnt looking for an accurate meter reading...but like i said, it is constantly flashing between far left and far right, just a continous flash...going from rich to lean...wouldnt it atleast hold somewhat constant????? i couldnt imagine the car would constantly go way rich and way lean within 2 seconds, then back again.....thats all it ever does

Kilgore Trout · Jun 18, 2006

Because it is narrowband/junk.

To get a real reading you need a wideband 02 sensor and that will cost $500 with a guage and complete setup.

The only time you really need wideband 02 is when you are getting professionally dyno tuned and a good tuner will have one anyway. There is no point.

Replace it with a guage that reports some meaningful and useful information.

Kilgore Trout · Jun 18, 2006

dude496 said:
and what is a meanigful gauge to use?

Boost guage if you do not already have it would be my first choice.

If you already have a boost guage then automatic trans fluid.

If you have a manual trans then engine coolant temp or one of the things Urban suggests.

SaleenGT2001 · Jun 18, 2006

+1 on the boost gauge. get one taht has boost and vaccume

urban96 · Jun 18, 2006

McTeague said:
Because it is narrowband/junk.

To get a real reading you need a wideband 02 sensor and that will cost $500 with a guage and complete setup.

The only time you really need wideband 02 is when you are getting professionally dyno tuned and a good tuner will have one anyway. There is no point.

Replace it with a guage that reports some meaningful and useful information.

it depends on the wideband kit your going with

the LM1 kit i have i bought new for 320 shipped, only extra cost i can see is paying someone to weld the bung into your exhaust (20-30 at most)

theres many different kits out there, if you plan on doing any self tuning i would suggest one but if your just basically going to drivet he car then its not really worth it.

Your car already has a narrowband oxygen sensor installed. The ECU uses it to provide whats known as 'closed loop' fuel control. You can simply tap the stock sensor wire if you want to run an aftermarket 'narrow band' meter.

The narrowband sensors are really only good for letting you know if you are 'generally rich' or 'generally lean'.

Wideband sensors, while definitely more expensive, are VASTLY more reliable and provide a very clear picture of whats going on with your air/fuel ratios, since they are able to tell you where your A/F ratio is within the range of typically 9:1 through 20:1 (narrowband sensors can typically only sense between about 13:1 and 16:1).

im not sure what could be the cause of your problem, have you pulled codes? it could be the bad gas. pull codes and dump in a bottle of octang booster. kenne bell recomends NOS brand

Kilgore Trout · Jun 18, 2006

Ok, $300 then... I did not realize they could get gotten that cheaply, I thought they were $500.

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

I do have a boost gauge, thats how i know that when i get to 60 it only pulls about 4 psi and the tranny cant figure out what gear to be in

As far as the gas problem...dealer put 87 in it, the car had started developing problems...developing "dieseling" and stalling...but the car was still strong...chirp the tires in first, then smoke then when the car hit second (car is AUTO)

Put Prestone "0-60" booster in it when its was down to about half a tank, then filled up the rest with 93...now the car doesnt know what gear to be in, and the only thing it will do is chirp into second....power is gone

dude496 · Jun 18, 2006

oh and agian, thanks to everyone for all of your posts.

urban96 · Jun 18, 2006

do you know how the car is tuned or who tuned it?

try getting the codes pulled if you can

could either be the trans on its way out or just a bad tune hard to say since you havnt owned the car very long. you could also try changing the trans fluid/filter and seeing how your fluid looks

BennyBlown2v · Jun 18, 2006

McTeague said:
Ok, $300 then... I did not realize they could get gotten that cheaply, I thought they were $500.

Got my LC-1 for Autometer gauge for $179.99 after e-mailing the guys at DynoTuneNitrous.com. Gauge was 50 bucks - Wideband is becoming a more affordable deal everyday

I'm with Urban96, figure out as much as you can on where the car has been and whats been done to it. Perhaps you could go to a performance shop and have them take a look at it for a few bucks - or hell, local mustang guys if you know any.

Night Shifter · Jun 19, 2006

I had a 93 that came with an A/F meter that I let one of my buddies install...He supposedly knew a lot about wiring...I try not to do anything involving electronics because i don't want to f something like that up. anyway long story short, my car(even though it was a stick) developed every problem you mentioned... sometimes at 3,000rmp it would bounce off the rev limiter.... but it was all caused because the A/F meter wiring was terrible and shorting out causeing my computer to freak out...everytime i would try to accelerate it felt like i was driving a geo metro with an anchor attached to it, then when the wiring to the meter would work it would give me a sudden kick of power like i had a 300 shot of nitrous and my power would be restored(which never lasted cause the wiring would short out again)
Check the wiring to it and like everbody else said, get some codes pulled... hopefuly this helps.

dude496 · Jun 19, 2006

I have a appt at a local tune shop on thursday...they are gonna throw it on the dyno and do some testing...hopefully its just a chip problem.

03ghoststang · Jun 19, 2006

i didnt bother reading the other post but to the original thread starter your car has gears if it's taching 2700 rpm @70mph and it might even be 4.10's

Autometer Air/Fuel Gauge

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