Fuel pressure warning light






Seemed easy enough. I put a Hobbs switch on the fuel rail and wired it to a light. Didn't work. There was so much pulsing in the fuel rails that there was a wide pressure range where an LED bulb would flicker on and off, and an incandescent bulb would just change brightness. Not terribly useful. I wanted "on or off", not a bunch of "in between".
Needed some kind of damping built into the system.
Not being a "circuit board" type guy, I thought I'd try activating the light through a relay, the idea being that the mechanical relay wouldn't respond fast enough to open and close with the high frequency fuel rail pulsing.
Seems to be working, light comes on steady when pressure drops to 55 psi, and the Hobbs switch can be adjusted to put this point wherever I want. Not enough traction here in Michigan to give it a thorough test though.
The system is still responsive enough to show the momentary pressure drop when mashing the throttle, something the Autometer gauge doesn't show at all.
Four-dollar Bosch 30 amp automotive relay. Could also be hooked to an audible alarm, but right now it's hooked to a LED tail lamp replacement bulb, which is hard to miss!






Right now it's a "proof of concept" hack job powered off the cigarette lighter, with the warning light hanging over the rear view mirror.
Need to make a housing for the bulb, or use a "Pro-Lite", or maybe mount the bulb in the defrost grill next to the heads-up display so it will be reflected in the windshield. That grille pops right out, and plenty of room underneath. The LED array's probably even bright enough to be seen from the ashtray without a problem.
Thoughts on what would work best?
Last edited by Warp Factor; Jan 25, 2008 at 03:19 PM.












You see the head-up display, and on the upper right, the warning light reflected in the windshield. Looks like something you'd notice,
but need to check outside in daylight. The 12 LEDs are a little blurry and actually red, hard to get a camera to focus on the windshield.



You see the head-up display, and on the upper right, the warning light reflected in the windshield. Looks like something you'd notice,
but need to check outside in daylight. The 12 LEDs are a little blurry and actually red, hard to get a camera to focus on the windshield.






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The second picture is facing into the sun.......so bright that you can't even make out the heads-up display.
Yeah, the bulb is temporarily stuck to the base of the windshield with a suction cup.
Ain't cuttin' anything up to mount it in the dash till I'm sure everything works as planned.
There's probably room on the windshield for about 20 of these warnings. Could even spell out some text in LEDs like,
"Ain't got no oil pressure, you dumbass!"
Last edited by Warp Factor; Jan 28, 2008 at 12:49 PM.








