My EGT gauge has been acting up bad for the past couple months. It would get erratic, and start spazzing out. It would come and go randomly. Well tonight on the way home, as I was listening to Sum 41 Hell Song, I saw the needle bobbing everytime the bass would hit. So I turned off the music, and the gauge calmed back down and started reading normal. The music was really loud when the needle started spazzing. My music is always on, and the gauge always seems to spazz when its on, and the higher the volume the more it spazzes it seems. Sometimes it spazzes when the music is off, but the music has probubly screwed it up somehow.

The EGT gauge is the one on the bottom right above my tweeter. Could the sound be screwing up the gauge?? My other two gauges are perfectly fine, so I am almost convinced it has something to do with my music, I mean the tweeter is blasting right underneathe it.

What should I do?

 

Bad ground.

I had the same thing once...freaked me out...

 

Leave the music off.

 

It's obviously because you're listening to Hell Song. Try listening to Amy Grant instead.

 

Craig, I have the EXACT same problem. It's been like that since I got the gauge, and I had the guy who installed it double, and triple check the grounds. It is grounded to the same spot as my boost gauge's lighting, as well as it's own lighting. Needless the say, the lighting is PERFECT.

#1 cause is a bad ground. If the EGT is grounded to the same place as your lighting, and your lighting is unaffected, chances are you have a bad gauge like myself. The tweeter probably won't affect it, as a) tweeters are fairly directional and don't fire sound waves backwards (ie, require a box) and b) they run at fairly high frequencies -- much higher than what would resonate anything in your gauge.

On a third note, I have a 97 and do not have the tweeter in the pillar, so that should aid you in trying to decipher what the problem is.

 

 

My lighting is perfect on all three gauges too!

Is there anyways to tell if the gauge itself is bad? Is there anyway that the spazzing could be effected by a variable that doesn't effect the lighting?

I didn't know that. But I don't have a cutout for the tweeter so it's being covered up by the pillar, so maybe the soundwaves are bouncing off and messing up the wiring?


True. But what are the chances that a brand new automater phantom gauge is going to be defective? My other two gauges are perfect. Isn't there a chance of bad grounding even if the lighting is fine? I don't know if I have all the papers, as I bought the gauges from egauges.com and don't know if they will warrentee anything. I also am getting my AEM FPR/S-AFC installed soon so I'll need my egt gauge to function properly for safety reasons.

 

loose screw connections for the wiring just before the end of the probe can cause erratic readings as well...I found that to be a common thing on mine

 

Craig, does your EGT guage have the seperate black box to control it, or is it a newer one?

I had problems with mine that were traced to that black control box. Autometer replaced the EGT guage with a brand new model that didn't use that box.

 

To check if the gauge itself is having difficulties, the best way to do it is with a voltmeter. My bud was the one who did it so I can't guarantee I'll be entirely accurate, but all your doing is:

a) Test power source
b) Test ground
c) Wire gauge up by itself, AWAY FROM THE SPEAKER (like that guy with the sig pic who had no gauge pod haha)
d) turn car on, stereo off, and check it out.

The soundwaves could be messing it up, but as I said, I have the same problem and my tweeter isn't anywhere near the gauge pod, so I doubt that's what causing it. The fact that it's a tweeter and not a 12" sub makes me doubt it even more.

My transmission problem that nobody seems to be able to diagnose is suspect of a bad ground. However, I'm confident the gauge problem I've been having has nothing to do with this, since it's grounded directly to the chassis, and has been tested multiple times. Hence, I believe the actual gauge is at fault and would believe your "brand new autometer gauge" could be similar, and be faulty as well. Autometer has a 1 year factory warranty I believe, and you should be able to send the gauge directly to them and have it replaced free of charge. The guy who sold me mine is a dealer of them and I'm having it replaced directly through him, but apparently you should be able to send it directly to them. Contact 'em and see what they say if you check the ground/power sources and find em to be fine and are still having the problem.

 

Like I said - it's the ground.

Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?

 

It's the brand new kind, no black box.


Bosco500 should be mailing me my S-AFC anytime now, and my adaptor for the FPR should be in, so once I get all that i'm gonna to turbo tom and were gonna install all that, and look at the gauge then.

 

We wired mine to 3 different spots, and mine does the exact same thing. Unless my whole chassis can't be used as a ground anymore (which actually wouldn't surprise me given the fact my car is an electrical mess), than it could be a funky gauge

 

Could it be possible the EGT gauges are VERY sensitive to electrical loads, i.e. when the bass hits. All those who are having spazzing EGT gauges are you running high powered amps? If so I'll take that volt meter and check your alternator volts with the volume high and low to make sure the alt can keep up with the load demand.

 

i have to admit I am running hi-wattage...around 1700 watts now...so that may have something to do with it...


I used isolating wire wrap around the connection from the wire to the probe connections and that seemed to help as well...

 

i had that to. i checked everything.

new power source.
grounded a bunch off different places
check wiring into the car.

finally gave up and figured oh well

then one day it stoped and it never came back again.

knock on wood

 

This was initially my first conclusion as to why the EGT would be bouncing around. However, when you hit the power on my deck, it turns both my amps off. And if there's no power draw, technically it shouldn't be interfereing with anything.

My EGT movement is FAR worse now than it ever has been. Most of the time it just points straight down 'a la DEAD gauge'. I got a reading of 1100 or something yesterday but it was only for a quick second. As far as usefulness goes, the gauge is pretty worthless.

 

Thats what i thought too maybe you could try getting a cap if you dont have one

 

Where are you getting the power source. You try running a power source direct from the battery and using a relay from the ignition to trigger it? That will def. solve this problem.