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 Post subject: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 12, 2016, 9:13 am 
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Joined: June 11, 2008, 1:31 pm
Posts: 432
Location: Denver,CO
I made a guage pod for my Intellitronix 6 guage panel. I drilled 6 holes in it for dummy lights and switches but I'm not totally sure what to fill them with. The gauges I have have speed, temp, tach, oil pressure , fuel and voltage. It also has lights for turn signals and high beam.

The switches and lights I know for sure I will have are a hazard button, aux switch for extra lights, and headlight idiot light.

I'm debating having lights for check engine (because it will likely always be one and I'll have to wire in a hidden switch to turn it off), brake fluid idiot light, and Maybe a washer fluid level low light (honestly I'll try to never drive when I need washer fluid)

My other thought was to add a light to indicate the aux switch is on.




Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Here is a pic of my cluster. ImageImage

Evo

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Last edited by evo626 on September 12, 2016, 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 12, 2016, 12:44 pm 
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Joined: July 17, 2008, 9:11 am
Posts: 6414
Location: West Chicago,IL
Only because my donor had them, I have installed idiot lights for Alternator, Low brake fluid, Low oil level, Low fuel level, hand brake on.

Attachment:
idiot.JPG


IIRC, the alt light was required for the alt to function at all. It needed to be an incandescent bulb, not LED. I could have used a resistor in place of the bulb I guess.

I only found out later that the low fuel sensor needed a higher power bulb to function properly. The sensor is a NTC resistor and wired in series with the light. the current runs thru the sensor and light bulb. When the fuel is high, the fuel keeps the sensor cool enough to not illuminate the bulb. When the fuel level is below the sensor, the sensor heats up and the resistance goes down causing even more current to flow. Eventually there is enough current for the light to light-up. I never chose to fix that.

I have gauges for speedo, tach, oil pressure, coolant temp, fuel level and voltage.



If you are using the OEM ECU and normally have no "fault codes", I think a check-engine-light might be a good idea.


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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 12, 2016, 2:02 pm 
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Joined: June 8, 2010, 8:02 pm
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Location: White Rock, BC, Canada
Shift light. Coolant and oil overtemp.

Washer fluid seems not required. You should be under the hood often enough to make sure your fluid is full on a car like this. :wink:

Cheers.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 12, 2016, 3:41 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
I have big fat red LED for a CEL right in front of the driver that also acts as the alternator light, two green LED turn signals and a blue LED brights indicator. Unlike RX7 I did not need any resistor for the alternator light to work but I did run it through an alternator as it wanted to partially illuminate my LED all the time when the alternator was running.

Eventually I will be adding a low oil pressure switch, coolant flow switch, and coolant temp switch. With the oil cooler I really doubt I ever will get the oil hot enough to need an oil temp switch but that is another possibility. If I ever go aftermarket ECU I may eventually add a shift light, but I think I could also just use my ear for that with the exhaust right next to the driver.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 13, 2016, 1:27 pm 
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Location: Denver,CO
I think I'm decided on idiot lights.

On the left with be
*Shift (white)
*Water temp Overheat (red)
*Check Engine (yellow)

and on the right will be
*Hazard switch
*Headlight (blue)
*AUX


evo

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 13, 2016, 1:44 pm 
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Joined: April 23, 2006, 8:26 pm
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Location: SoCal
Low oil needs to be very prominent, if not already handled by another lamp.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 13, 2016, 11:47 pm 
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Location: Denver,CO
KB58 wrote:
Low oil needs to be very prominent, if not already handled by another lamp.

Good point maybe I'll forgo the aux switch and do low oil instead.


Evo

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 15, 2016, 12:46 am 
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Location: Denver,CO
Looking at the stock warning lights low oil level isn't one of them. My ecu only has a light for low oil pressure. Looks like most aftermarket system use oil pressure rather than oil level. Would this work just as well?


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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 15, 2016, 10:42 am 
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In my experience you are more likely to see the low oil level light go on compared to low oil pressure. Low oil level is just likely to happen first. My '86 Mustang GT was the first, maybe only, car that had one of these. I thought "you'd need to be an idiot for that to go off", and it didn't in the first 100 thousand miles, but before I got to 250k miles it had gone off a couple of times...

If your oil pan doesn't have the required switch, it would be difficult to install and not really worth it. I don't think it requires an ECU though, just a light bulb connected to it. I suggest using a tail light from a trailer for this particular warning light... Nice, big and red.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 15, 2016, 1:40 pm 
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Location: Denver,CO
horizenjob wrote:
In my experience you are more likely to see the low oil level light go on compared to low oil pressure. Low oil level is just likely to happen first. My '86 Mustang GT was the first, maybe only, car that had one of these. I thought "you'd need to be an idiot for that to go off", and it didn't in the first 100 thousand miles, but before I got to 250k miles it had gone off a couple of times...

If your oil pan doesn't have the required switch, it would be difficult to install and not really worth it. I don't think it requires an ECU though, just a light bulb connected to it. I suggest using a tail light from a trailer for this particular warning light... Nice, big and red.

Yeah mine doesn't have a sensor for it and it looks like a pain to add. I looked and there doesn't seem to be much on the aftermarket side.


Evo

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 15, 2016, 8:46 pm 
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Location: West Chicago,IL
horizenjob wrote:
..... My '86 Mustang GT was the first, maybe only, car that had one of these. ....If your oil pan doesn't have the required switch,.....


My '90 RX-7 donor had one and I installed the light in my Locost as mentioned above. And yes, there is a float switch in the oil pan. So there are at least 2 cars that had them. The RX needed them because the rotary engine took oil from the oil pan and used it to lubricate the rotor apex seals. I can only guess that too many 'merican drivers didn't check their oil and burned up their engines. The switch is also tied to a buzzer in case you don't see the light :shock:

I think the 1st gen RX-7's (1979-1985) had one too.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 16, 2016, 8:08 am 
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Unless you are running a rotary or have an engine that uses a lot of oil, I don't see the need for a low oil level light. You should be checking the oil level regularly anyways and should see it start to drop well before the light would go on. Also if you for some reason get a hole in the pan or an oil line gets a hole, you will lose oil pressure at the same time if not faster than the oil level. I see a need for oil pressure possibly oil temp if you are using the oil for a turbo.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 16, 2016, 9:28 am 
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It's highly likely that a low oil level sensor will be tripping all the time during drives on twisty roads, and especially on-track. The false positives end up getting ignored, possibly causing an actual low level event to be missed. In a commuter car it'll be fine, but in a high performance sports car, no.

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 Post subject: Re: Dummy lights
PostPosted: September 17, 2016, 9:45 pm 
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Location: Denver,CO
Ran into a little kink. The housing I have is too shallow for switches. The front cover is 1/8 and the middle is 3/4. The LEDs I have wont work and sourcing new ones that are durable enough has been a challenge but I found some 12mm ones that will work. All of the switches I have found will need the back cover drilled out and that ruins the look I'm going for.


So I'll have 6 idiot lights total.

Evo

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