car stuttering in high rpm's

mob

the guy who hits on his mom
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Oct 3, 2003
2,566
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Dallas, TX
Hey guys, Im going to get my car checked out tomorrow by a friend at a shop, but I just installed an electric autometer oil pressure gauge, and now when I push the car and I go past 3k rpm's its starts sputtering very noticeably, the car drives perfect unless its at wot and it starts at about 3krpm. Oil pressure is right at 25psi at idle and goes up to 50 when cruising, im not sure what it can be. Can it be something electrical? The ground I used for the gauge and the light to the gauge has 4 wires going to the same ground, I dont know what the other two wires are for but I know the car wont run without them grounded cause i've had it loose before and it didnt start, if there are too many wire going to the same ground is it possible it is not getting a good connection and is making the car sputter or am I making up theories here? Any advice? This just started right after I installed the gauge, I checked vacuum lines and everything, I think there is also a SLIGHT surge at idle, maybe like 100rpm barely noticeable.

Oh and another off topic question from my other thread I really need answered, I need to hook up the light wire from the gauge to a light, I was gonna splice it into the ash tray light but that wire is a 18 gauge wire, and the light wire is a 14 gauge, I just need to know that itll be alright to splice the 14 gauge wire into the 18 gauge wire and nothing will blow or catch on fire. Thanks.
 
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Since we dont know what ground-point you used for your gauge, just remove the gauge ground and put it somewhere else. This will remove that variable.

For the gauge lighting: the bulb draw is nominal, and that's what matters in this circuit. Merging 14 and 18 AWG is fine. I like to add a one-amp fuse to the leg that goes to the gauge lighting. This way if the gauge-light's wiring shorts, the one-amp fuse should blow before the 5 amp gauge-lighting fuse in the fusebox blows. This means your gauge is dark but you can still see the OEM gauges. It can also provide you with a little extra peace of mind.

Good luck.
 
Thanks alot hissin, now I can set up the light tomorrow, I also put a fuseable link inbetween the power wire and the radio harness just incase. And im going to change the ground tomorrow, hopefully that may fix the problem im not sure if the sputtering could be related to a bad ground connection but I hope thats all it is.
 
you may try unhooking the new gauge completely and try to put everything back to way it was before and see if you problem goes away.
that will tell you if its anything related to the gauge.

it doesnt sound like a guage install should cause any problems like you stated but you never know.


i dont know if its just me but its happened to me quite often. i'll change one thing and then when i get that done, something will act up somewhere (which should be unrelated) which makes diagnosis harder, since you think the change you made affected it when it actually may just be a coincidence
 
Ah! found it, one of my plug wires burned on my hearder, time for my second set of wires within 2 months, I really need to get like 100 zip ties to get those things as far away from the p headers as possible, what a pain in the ass.