5" Tachometer lighting problem

staples · Dec 22, 2004

Hello
I just installed a 5" Faze tachometer in my civic yesterday. I'm having a problem with the indiglo illumination. The tach comes with a power supply for the tach illumination. The installation instructions have 2 versions: 1 for dimmer controls that control the positive side of the gauge cluster circuit and 1 for dimmer controls that controls the negative side of the gauge cluster circuit. Here's what I got for the dimmer controler in the civic - 3 wires.
Wire 1 (Red W/black stripe) +12V
Wire 2 (Black) Ground
Wire 3 (Red) Goes to gauge cluster

With the gauge cluster all the was illuminted/brightest I have 0.2V to ground on wire 3. With all the way off I have 8.8V to ground. ?????

I talked to Faze and they told me to the civic is a positive side controlled cluster and to wire my power supply to wire #3 and the other side of the supply to ground.
So I did!! Now my tach works opposite of my instrument cluster, gauges bright, tach barely lit & instument cluster turned way down, tach real bright?

Has anyone ever installed a indiglo tach in their civic (Faze, Cobal, C2) and had this problem, know the solution?? I'll try wiring it up for negative/ground control of the power supply as long as I don't the power supply or start poppin fuses.

Also it seems like the tach is 200-400RPMs behind the instrument cluster, so who is more accurate, Air core tachometer or Honda. I've heard this for both Autometer tachs and many other brands. Opinions?
Thanks for any and all help.

KyleRekCivic · Dec 22, 2004

ok this is what i do with ALL of my gauges in all 7 of the cars taht i have built:

(i wire in most of the wires to the fuse box)
power(red wire)-ignition fuse
ground(black wire)-car frame
illumination(white or yellow wire)-headlamp fuse (so the gauges only light up when i turn on my headlights)
signal wire(usually a green wire)-test tach connector (this will be a blue wire coming off of the large plug on the engine side of the firewall)

hope this helps. let me know

Kyle R

staples · Dec 22, 2004

Tach works It's just the F%$#in blue indiglo illumination.
Talked to Faze again today and they told me reverse the wires cause they were wrong: The circuit that controls the gauge cluster illumination controls voltage going to ground. I'll rewire it this afternoon or purchase a separate potentiometer (variable voltage adjuster) and wire it seperate of the instrument cluster gauge. Should have done that in the first place!!

5" Tachometer lighting problem

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