NJ_phil

I'm kinda short (5.7") and that top pillar gauge is kinda in my face LOL
Was gonna go with Autometer Cobalts but the OBD connectivity got me going with AEM.

Pillar wiring is nice and clean:

sevinn

Off topic...but where did you tie in the raptor light?

NJ_phil

Right behind the cluster. VSS and Tach are there and that was the easiest for me. Others pick it up at the back of the radio.

FeArZ

What gauge pod is that? Also do you have any pics of how you routed the wiring down for the gauges and how you ran the boost reference?
I haven't took mine apart, but visuals help before going into it.

NJ_phil

It's an Autometer, make sure you get the one with the Onstar Microphone cutout if you need it. Basically the gauge pod mounts over the GM pillar cover but you need to drill a hole in the GM pillar cover to feed the wires through it and behind where there's plenty of clearance. GM pillar comes off super easy, held with clips and pulls right off. You also need to drill a few small holes in the GM pillar cover for plastic push pins to hold the gauge pod on. Didn't want to destroy my pillar cover so bought a used one with scratches on eBay since the gauge pod covers it up.

I just mocked up my setup and will do the real mounting and drilling this weekend. Let me know if you want some step by step pics.. no problem at all

FeArZ

I would appreciate the pics. Going to try to find a used pillar also.
That's a great idea.

NJ_phil

Picked mine up on eBay for $58

Some pics below. Pillar removal is easy but a little strange because is seems like something is going to break, but basically grab it by the top and pull like hell until it pops off, same with the smaller trim piece at the bottom of the pillar attached to the door jamb. I would do it a little differently if doing it again (see comments below). Feel free to ask any questions or PM me. GL

Fig 1:
Drill a hole in the pillar. I used a 2-1/2" hole saw to fit the ODB connector through. Drill it where the red 'X' is marked to get more clearance behind the pillar for the wires and don't drill where the mounting tab is like I did and then have to epoxy it back in.

Fig 2:
If you do drill the hole "above" the mounting tab like I did, make sure you route to the right of the tab because pillar runs close to the left of the cover. That's why I recommend drilling the hole lower.

Fig 3:
Drill and push in supplied mounting pins. The 3 pins shown in Fig 3 are in the perfect location.

Fig 4:
This kinda sucks. The push pin at the top is the perfect location but take care with the 2 at the bottom because the metal car pillar is right behind the pins causing the pillar cover to bulge out a bit. After install I actually pulled them out and glued the heads of the pins back on to cover the holes. If I were to do it all again, I would just put a single push pin where the 'X' is marked. Don't worry about the gap at the "tail" of the gauge cover because the pillar cover tail will flex upward when you re-install it and there won't be a gap.






Pins look good:










The pic below shows where I made all the connections. Not sure if you have connectors, soldering or butt splices but all the wires and connections can be stuffed in the gap between the door jam and dash and magically go away.

FeArZ

Very clean. Appreciate it.
Found a pillar on ebay so that should be here soon.
Quick question are you monitoring fuel pressure?
I saw wideband and boost, but didn't know if the mutigauge had an input for it.

speedz06

I ordered 0333 and its at the shop, i asked them to install since its there for tuning.
Got a dashlogic here too awaiting the car to come back. New toys.

NJ_phil

The 2 lower gauges are boost and WB. The 0311 multigauge can monitor boost or fuel pressure among a few other useful PIDs, but not WB.

http://www.aemelectronics.com/?q=pro...X-Series/OBDII

FeArZ

For some reason I thought our cars didn't have fuel sensors?
When I try to monitor it in hp tuners nothing shows.

schpenxel

We don't have fuel pressure sensors from the factory
G

NJ_phil

What the heck is the scanner reading then?
I usually read between 57.5 and 59 psi

schpenxel

Ecm basically assumes fuel pressure is always 58psi

The exception is zr1's which have a fuel pump control module and pressure sensor

There is someone working to change that so we can send the real fuel pressure to the ecm, which would give at least some amount of correction for dropping fuel pressure. I don't think a product has been released though

NJ_phil

No ****.. Didn't know that it's a bogus reading. Thanks

FeArZ

Also I don't think its a way to feed inputs into the odb2 gauges. I was thinking of getting one of the PLX modules and a dash logic, but that will be more stuff hanging off the odb2 plug since the gauges already use it. Plus the PLX pressure sensor is not rated for fuel, but have seen people using them.

I think I may have to watch the wideband, and just log fuel if I see something funny going on.

NJ_phil

The OBD gauge is limited to the PIDs listed on the AEM website and doesn't have any external inputs. I already had the OBD wideband gauge and it was simple to tap off the CAN signals already in the pillar, so 1 OBD wire coming from the pillar connected to 2 gauges.

Lower gauge is dedicated boost, middle is dedicated wideband, and top is monitoring whatever is needed at the time, ethenol % when at the track and maybe fuel trim during daily use....not sure yet, just know it won't be fuel pressure

Unreal

Just got and installed the obd2 gauge. It kind of sucks. Very disappointed.

It doesn't read what is listed, it reads what it "automatically sets up". So you get maybe 1/3 of the listed PIDS, and none of the usefull ones. No boost, no ethanol, etc.

NJ_phil

I didn't recall if every PID listed on the AEM site displayed but know ethanol was displayed and worked, displayed 0% with 50Hz into the flex fuel input pin and 100% with 150Hz. "int p" did come up as I was scrolling through the PIDs but I didn't stop to see what value was. Just wired it in to see if it was working then ripped the car apart.

Car is down for repairs and should be up and running on Saturday. If you want, I'll scroll through all available PIDs and see if they work and let you know.

Also not sure what ECM you're running as I'm on the E38 and still not sure why the AEM site claims only 2008 or later vehicles are supported

Unreal

e38

Does not display ethanol on my car. No way to select that PID. It automatically decides what PIDs it thinks your car supports instead of just letting you select or go through the list. Looks like if the car didn't come factory with that PID, then it won't show. So ehtanol/boost/etc are all out even though it "supports" them.

IntakeP is absolute pressure, so in a way you can get boost it just means you see atmosphere+boost which is annoying.

2008+ because that is when all cars supported CAN, but all c6s support CAN so that is just a dumb thing to ensure the car has a can bus to read.