Help fitting turbo gauge to Defender 300Tdi

Hi all,

Bit of a newbie here. I am going to attempt to fit a turbo pressure gauge to my 1996 Defender 300Tdi. I have seen how it is done on the 200Tdi, with a black pipe being clearly visible to instert a T-piece.

However, I can't find any tutorials on how to do this on the 300Tdi. I am guessing its basically the same thing, but I don't know what any of the pipes are around the turbo.

I have attached some photos, and any help would be really appreciated.





http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/help-fitting-turbo-gauge-defender-300tdi-186267.html#post1942696

bump

Hi

On my 300 TDi there is a black pipe that runs from the turbo and goes behind the engine

I cut that, inserted a plastic T piece and connected the pipe to the turbo gauge into that

Can post pictures if needed, but am away from home PC until tonight

Station House said:

Hi

On my 300 TDi there is a black pipe that runs from the turbo and goes behind the engine

I cut that, inserted a plastic T piece and connected the pipe to the turbo gauge into that

Can post pictures if needed, but am away from home PC until tonight

Click to expand...

Hi there,

I think I can see it, looks bloody short, but it does look like the right pipe.

I'm in no hurry to do this, but some pictures would be much appreciated if you had the time. Any recommended gauges?

Cheers,
Chris.

I used a TIM gauge - reasonable match to the original

Station House said:

I used a TIM gauge - reasonable match to the original

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the pictures. I'll have a good old look around tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Cheers,
Chris.

Just to let you know, I got the same gauge you have in the photo. Got it all hooked up and went for a drive, works perfectly, getting just under 1 Bar of pressure, not sure if this is good or bad, seems OK to me. Just need to install it into my Mud Pod dash mount tomorrow.

Thanks again for the photos,

Cheers,
Chris.

Excellent

Yes, about 1 bar is where it should read

One more question if you don't mind.

What gauge wire did you use to hook up the backlight? And did you just run it off of another gauge that was already fitted?

Thanks,
Chris.

ChrisJE94 said:

One more question if you don't mind.

What gauge wire did you use to hook up the backlight? And did you just run it off of another gauge that was already fitted?

Thanks,
Chris.

Click to expand...

I have a clock in my dash and just used that feed and earth to wire up my TIM gauge.

I just spliced into the light feed for the ciggy lighter as that was nearest, but splicing into any of the dash bulb feeds (temp, fuel etc) will work just fine

I've got a Tim boost gauge and Voltmeter, a TD5 clock, and a Durite Marine Tachometer, I prefer the Durite gauge because of the modern display and lighting But TIM are good for the money

Hi again,

I have also purchased a Voltmeter.

I got the backlights hooked up yesterday, worked perfectly. I used one of the connections from the speedo backlight.

However, I used the cigarette lighter as the feed for the actual voltmeter gauge reading. But I keep blowing fuses. Also, whenever I turn the backlight on, the gauge reading reverses itself.

I am in a real muddle with the wiring, has anyone got a solution as to how they did it. I don't really want to touch the ignition switch. I did notice there were 3 connections on the back of the cigarette lighter. I'm guessing ground, light and heating element. Which one should I be using for the voltmeter feed.

Thanks a lot,

Chris.

No reason why what you've done shouldn't work

Which fuse is blowing - the fuse for the ciggy ligher?

Suspect either:

1) One of your wires/connectors is earthing

2) You've connected into the wrong wire on the back of the ciggy lighter - there are 3 wires there

3) Voltmeter is faulty

Using a mutimeter check each wire from your TIM Gauge in turn:

a) Remove the wire, using the continuity setting (usually has an audible indicator) - apart from the earth wire there should be NO reading when you put one metre prong on the wire and the other to a good earth point

b) Using the DC Voltage setting, check you are getting a good 12v feed at both the bulb wire and feed to the voltmeter with the engine running

c) if all OK, check the wires are connected to the right terminals on the back of the voltmeter

If that all checks out, could be a faulty gauge

What I'll do is get the backlights working as they were again. Then I'll sort out a feed for the voltmeter. I think the gauges might have been touching each other which could have shorted something.

I was using the red wire from the 12v cigarette lighter as the feed for the voltmeter, and then using the green wire from the cigarette lighter as the earth. I figured this would work as I measured it with a multimeter and got a good 12v supply with ignition on, and around 13v with engine on.

Earth wires are usually black - worth checking out what the green wire from the ciggy lighter is

I'd be tempted to disconnect from the green wire and run a new earth - might give you an easy fix

Think your right, there should be three wires.
Depending on the age of your truck the colours maybe.
Green live
Purple live
Black earth

you may find though

Green live
Purple live
Purple earth

It may even have been rewired by a previous owner
So normally best double check with a multimeter

Cheers everyone, checked em all with a multimeter, the gauge comes on with ignition and the backlights are working. Only problem now is the ciggy lighter doesnt work with the lights turned on because of a massive voltage drop to 0.3v, but I'm not bothered about that.

Chris.