Air/fuel Meter Not Working Properly

[joc]

Hay guys maybe you's can help me out as well my a/f gauge doesnt not bounce back and forth between lean and rich it just sits on stoich with about 4 lights lit up when you accelerate it might move 2 bars towards rich, but it has never bounced back and forth (like i have heard and have read its supposed to) is somthing wrong with gauge or is it normal for a 1.5 series skyline,also i have wired it up in accordance with autometers installation guide.thanks in advance.Also im not using standard computer anymore im using power fc.Also i have replaced to old 02 sensor with a new one cheers.

[BSK]

do you mean when under acceleration it should move over to the richer side bouncing at different values?... reason i ask is when im using my very very rich all round tomei eprom tune under acceleration it just sits right on stoich even when its pushing 1.3bar yet my dyno sheet reads different

note the A/F ratio of the second run sitting around 11.6 but my guage was reading 14 constant.

but when i change it over to a leaner tuned eprom with a very rich top end you see the needle bouncing all over the rich values hitting 10ish at its peak as it should.

my theory is something to do with constantly rich fueling maybe.

cos on the second leaner tune the A/F ratio on dyno reads the same as the guage (sorry no pic cos it made less hp)

if you havent already, get a dyno done with A/F ratio results then get em to lean it out slightly down low with the powerFC and see if you get the same result as me.

[paulr33]

if its an af guage off the stock 02 sensor (tapped onto the car's wiring loom) then it wont matter what it reads, its pointless and will never provide anything useful. you should not be using this to tune or monitor your car's af ratio

[rb26s13]

if its an af guage off the stock 02 sensor (tapped onto the car's wiring loom) then it wont matter what it reads, its pointless and will never provide anything useful. you should not be using this to tune or monitor your car's af ratio

100% agree with you there.. they guage is just for a bit of blind hense why i think he wants it to bounce back n forth

[MKDR33]

it depends on what gauge you got, its normal.. mine bounces back and forth aswell at idle aswell..

[BSK]

im using a tomei gauge with a direct connection to its own o2 sensor bunged in at the top of the front pipe.

as long as the needle doesnt move to tha right under throttle its all good. at the end of the day the eprom or powerFC in joc's case sorts all that shizen out.

[R31Nismoid]

Hay guys maybe you's can help me out as well my a/f gauge doesnt not bounce back and forth between lean and rich it just sits on stoich with about 4 lights lit up when you accelerate it might move 2 bars towards rich, but it has never bounced back and forth (like i have heard and have read its supposed to) is somthing wrong with gauge or is it normal for a 1.5 series skyline,also i have wired it up in accordance with autometers installation guide.thanks in advance.Also im not using standard computer anymore im using power fc.Also i have replaced to old 02 sensor with a new one cheers.

As paulr33 said, the gauges are pointless and nothing more than a waste of money

unfortunately you purchased it

[joc]

As paulr33 said, the gauges are pointless and nothing more than a waste of money

unfortunately you purchased it

so does that mean its screwed or not my mate has the exact same gauge its a autometer a/f gauge and his bounces back and forth so im assuming that hes is reading like its supposed to correct?

[Beer Baron]

it's just means it's a waste of time and effort. the best advice I can give you is next time you need a window broken, or a frisbee is stuck in the tree then rip this afr gauge out and throw it at it, at least that way you will get some use out of it. and after it hits the ground it will still do just as good a job of telling your your AFR as it's doing now.

[Xizor]

The fact the needle is going troppo is a reflection of the o2 sensor actually working ive been told, so its not entirely useless in that sense.

[R31Nismoid]

its useless in the sense that its not doing what it is "supposed" to do.

I could think of better ways to waste money

[Beer Baron]

The fact the needle is going troppo is a reflection of the o2 sensor actually working ive been told, so its not entirely useless in that sense.

well that's a point, but how many times per day do you need to check that your 02 sensor is working???!!!

[joc]

its useless in the sense that its not doing what it is "supposed" to do.

I could think of better ways to waste money

Well if thay dont work why do top brands sell them for.I mean i was told i need one just to make sure the car wasnt running to lean when boosted,or is this bullshit.So what gagues do i need to mointer my car and make sure its happy, i hate when people of susposed exprence tell you b/s my meachanic was the one who susgested i get the dam thing 180 dollars later it has done nothing.

[paulr33]

they make them because they are there to make money and poeple buy them. an af guage is useful with a wideband sensor, not a narrow band sensors. all cars have a stock narrowband sensor which the ecu uses for fuel economy saving. its useless as a "rich" or "lean" indicator to know if its safe or not. if you want to monitor if your car is safe ideally you want to:

exhaust gas temperature guage

wideband 02 sensor with af guage

[joc]

they make them because they are there to make money and poeple buy them. an af guage is useful with a wideband sensor, not a narrow band sensors. all cars have a stock narrowband sensor which the ecu uses for fuel economy saving. its useless as a "rich" or "lean" indicator to know if its safe or not. if you want to monitor if your car is safe ideally you want to:

exhaust gas temperature guage

wideband 02 sensor with af guage

So in regards to my initial question does any one now why my a/f meter doesnt bounce from lean to rich like auto meter states its supposed to in there manual.I dont care wheather the a/f meter with out a wide band sensor doesnt provide a correct reading i just want it to work proberly,i just want to no if its my car or the actually meter can some please help cheers

[Beer Baron]

So in regards to my initial question does any one now why my a/f meter doesnt bounce from lean to rich like auto meter states its supposed to in there manual.I dont care wheather the a/f meter with out a wide band sensor doesnt provide a correct reading i just want it to work proberly,i just want to no if its my car or the actually meter can some please help cheers

whilst you are on the throttle it should just move towards the "rich" side of the scale and stay there. Whilst cruising it "may" move between rich/lean, and same at idle.

if you want to make sure your car is running safely the only economic way is to go to someone that has a wideband air/fuel ratio meter and display. Then you can either drive along on the road while they monitor/log the readings, or even better run it up on a chassis dyno and they can have the AFR printed on a graph against RPM. most dynos (all?) will have a wide band AFR meter so my advice is just go to one.

[Medium Dave]

the lights will only start moving when the car has warmed up - if you have been patient then did you check the wiring on the car itself, if thats ok it could be that the sensor is not picking up the af mix correctly, this also happens when the o2 sensor is placed to far down the exhaust to pick up the subtle changes.

Edit - also, I think there might be two different types of narrow band o2 sensor... pls correct if wrong.

Oh and to all the disbelievers - they have two uses, mine has a high load lean out alarm, plus when im driving I can delude myself into thinking that I am driving efficiently

Edited August 21, 2006 by Medium Dave

[paulr33]

well high load lean is great and all but the stock narrow cant tell you anything outside its scope of 14 lambda. so if you lean out to 16 it wont even know