so i got a gauge pod that came with 3 gauges and i got it installed for cheap... it came with a volt/rpm/air fuel ratio gauge, and the guy that installed said he could hook up the volt and rpm, but wasn't sure about the air fuel ratio gauge...

anyways, when i came back he said he was able to get it hooked up...

well, after testing it for a while, the gauge says my car runs lean... like really lean, the bottom of the guage lean...

i'm thinking it may be an installation issue, or at least i hope... either case i think i should take it in and get it checked out at an actual mechanic shop because i read the running really lean gives power but is really bad for the engine...

thoughts?

 

what kinda gauges r they? does it bounce back and forth and go into lean when u take ur foot off the gas? what wire did he hook the gauge to, he should of hooked it to an o2 sensor plug, at the sensor side of the harness.. if it is wired before the harness it will give u a false reading, due to the resistor in the pigtail...

 

i'm not sure what he hooked it up to, but at first he said he doesn't know how to hook it up, but when i came back he said he read the instructions and figured it out... the needle only jumps when i first start it up (all 3 gauges do), but after that it slowly moves up about 2 lines/bars and just stays there... oh and it doesn't move when i rev or at all really, just sits there 2 bars up...

 

Welcome to narrowband A/F gauges. They are basically just a light show. Need a wideband to get any useful information from it.

 

Yup, what he said. I wouldn't worry about it saying "lean". As long as you still have stock pcm in there it should be fine.

 

well that's a relief and a disappointment at the same time lol... thanks though!

 

Really from what I can see, they aren't even useful on carbureted engines. I was going to get one for my truck to use to check the carburetor tune, but it wouldn't work right, lol. I have been curious what a narrowband A/F gauge is actually useful for and works on correctly?

 

well depending on the gauge u can hook a wideband sensor to it and it will not jump around, u get interference from the ecu trying to constantly keep a good air fuel mixture... when u hook it to a wideband u are only getting the wideband and not the help of the ecu... a frined of mine used a narrow band o2 gauge and his wideband sensor and accually tuned the car like that... he is running ms and could look at the accual numbers of his mixture on his laptop.... if u hooked up an wideband to that gauge it would only fluctuate when the engine does, not when the computer is trying to tell it to.... hence the light show

 

so it's supposed to jump around huh, i read that on other sites too... lol he probably didn't hook mine up correctly then cuz it doesn't even move...

 

yours sits on LEAN. man mine sits on RICH after bouncing when i turn it on. its a glowshift 7 color tinted series gauge that ive had on there for like 2 years.

but like the other 2 guys mentioned its mostly just useless and it doesnt really do anything besides give u a reading.