DIY: Oil Pressure Gauge

40 to 332

OK, a couple of things:

1. If I recall correctly, I tapped into the CIGAR LIGHTER circuit. It's a switched circuit. I never use the lighter so I wasn't concerned about powering the gauge through this circuit and blowing the fuse. If you use the BLOWER circuit, you may want to pre-check that the fuse will not blow when the gauge is connected with the blower fan running full on. I expect the fan draws a fair amount of power. In other words, with the gauge wires connected, turn the blower fan on full and make sure the fuse can handle the additional load. You may be OK since I suspect the gauge doesn't draw a lot of power.

2. Based on your description, both the red (+) wire and orange (illumination) wire need to be connected to a power source for the gauge to work and light up. If you're OK with the gauge light being on full when driving both during the day and at night, then connect the wires as you've described. In my case, I wanted the gauge light to dim at night so I went with a different wiring scheme that resulted in the gauge light dimming when the headlights were turned on. This required tapping into one of the wires that illuminate the radio unit. It's a more complicated and time-consuming wiring scheme than the one you've described.

Trust the above helps!