You need a pressure source that sees vac and boost. After that you connect the vacuum line to the sensor the shorter the better. then you just wire the gauge according to the instructions for the gauge. You do have to run wires from the sensor to the inside of the car. I just did mine on a one 1g you need a multimeter to find power source with the acc and if you do the dimming. Sorry i cant help you any more but its pretty easy take you time double check everything before you put it back together and follow the instruction that come with the gauge. Mostly everything will make sense when your there.

Well I know all the sympathetic, hold your hand people will come in here to degrade my post, but it's what needs to be said. Time to take the training wheels off, if the instructions with the gauge and the VFAQ aren't enough to walk you through the most stupid simple of installs, than there is no hope for you with performance modification of cars.

I doubt anyone is going to write you a custom-tailored 2G install with tons of pictures. For 16 years (the amount of time 2Gs have been in existence) thousands of people have done it with less resources than you have already mentioned.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...099-boost-gauge-install-where-tap-source.html

Thanks both of you for the advice. I know where to tap in for source. It's just the wiring part that I don't know about. I've never messed with them in a car before. This is my first car, so sorry if I sound like such a noob but I am. No need to say there is no hope for me on installs though. We don't learn through just letters and words. We learn through pictures and diagrams also. You can't tell me you've learned everything you know about cars by just being able to tell a part from another just because the term "intake" might sound like it looks like that thing over there. Reason I needed help with pictures is only because I don't understand some of the terms so I just like to know what's located where and from there I will be fine. I'm a perfectionist and don't want to make mistakes. That's all it is. I've never worked on a car so take it easy. However, ask me anything you need about the human body's anatomical system and skeletal structure, I can answer most of them. Ask me about all the effects of anabolic or catabolic hormones on the human body and I'll answer them, etc. I learned what I learned through forums and my own research. That's all I'm trying to do here as well. So once again, excuse me if I'm asking for too much (even though I never asked for "a custom-tailored 2G install with tons of pictures").

Anyways, I got instructions with the gauge yes. I'll take another look at it. Hopefully it'll make more sense after all the reading I did the past few hours. Thanks again!

ishnish said:

Thanks both of you for the advice. I know where to tap in for source. It's just the wiring part that I don't know about. I've never messed with them in a car before. This is my first car, so sorry if I sound like such a noob but I am. No need to say there is no hope for me on installs though. We don't learn through just letters and words. We learn through pictures and diagrams also. You can't tell me you've learned everything you know about cars by just being able to tell a part from another just because the term "intake" might sound like it looks like that thing over there. Reason I needed help with pictures is only because I don't understand some of the terms so I just like to know what's located where and from there I will be fine. I'm a perfectionist and don't want to make mistakes. That's all it is. I've never worked on a car so take it easy. However, ask me anything you need about the human body's anatomical system and skeletal structure, I can answer most of them. Ask me about all the effects of anabolic or catabolic hormones on the human body and I'll answer them, etc. I learned what I learned through forums and my own research. That's all I'm trying to do here as well. So once again, excuse me if I'm asking for too much (even though I never asked for "a custom-tailored 2G install with tons of pictures").

Anyways, I got instructions with the gauge yes. I'll take another look at it. Hopefully it'll make more sense after all the reading I did the past few hours. Thanks again!

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I'm not saying there is no hope for you, I am trying to light that fire under your butt to go out and try. I went to school for cars, passed top of my class, there are still many things I don't know, but I will tell you one thing, I have learned more from just grabbing my tools and trying something than any other method. I have broken things in the process and had to learn to fix them, everyone thinks this bad, because broken means bad, but I look at broken things as learning how to fix.

Your question is too vague, wiring is too vague, we can tell you a million things about wiring, but you will never find any use for them when you actually get out there.

Your instructions will tell you what each wire of the gauge should go to, and from there, you will know better what you need to tap into.

It will probably ask for power, switch power and ground, the names all imply things to look for and will help you know what each does.

Power is basically going to be constant, that is what is going to power the gauge at all times from the moment your car is put into accessory. Switch power means just that, a switch will turn it on, this will be what turns your illumination of the gauge on and off with the lights. Ground is ground. But your gauges may have a dimmer wire, or other functions that we cannot prepare you for because we need input from you and you can't give us input until you at least try it, because you don't know what confuses you until you get confused by it.

Look its pretty easy. Wire Red (white on some gauges) to a hot wire (cig lighter works.) Wire black to a ground. Poke the vacuum line that came with it through the fire wall (big rubber grommet underneath the dash behind steering column and pedals.) And then using a t-fiting plug that into a boost/vacuum source. (Generally the fuel pressure regulator is used.) That is the thing that is shaped like a hat and is on the end of your fuel rail. (Unless your running an AFPR) If you totally can't figure out what the fuel pressure regulator is, then just use a nipple on the throttle body.

You should get a multimeter if you don't have one. They are useful for testing all kinda of stuff. It would help find the hot wire to tap into. They can be had for like 7$ (Cheap Harbor Freight one might last a year) to 20$ (Decent all purpose digital one that could last a while) To a lot more for high end ones.

I would suggest the 20$ one for a begginer as it has a bit more versatility, and will probably last longer than the Harbor freight one.

I appreciate you trying to light my fire under my butt . It actually did motivate me to go out and try but didn't piss me off so I hope it didn't seem so. I can't just grab tools and try doing this or that though cause I have to pay for whatever I damage on my own. My dad's against mods but he's letting me do it as long as I buy my own things. I just can't break things cause I don't want him thinking idk what I'm doing cause I would just get an "I told you so" since he thinks anything aftermarket on the car is bad. I'm lucky to get 4 hours every 3 weeks where I work making minimum wage it's pretty terrible so hopefully you understand my position. Getting into med school will hopefully pay off but I've always wanted a car to work on just never got the chance until now. So as much as I want to do all of what you can do (I envy you and your knowledge already ), I'm a little limited.

Well I've never even seen a boxed boost gauge in person before so idk what all the wires even mean. I can get a pic if you want. I haven't read up anything on installs of a Halo Prosport boost gauge. The article you sent me stated "For hooking up a mechanical boost gauge". This is why this confuses me. Idk if it's different to tap in with an electronic boost gauge.

Yeah the instructions actually do tell me. I just don't know where that would be located in my car .

Ahh good point about the confusion. Not until I try it. It's that I've read many people who hook up boost gauges and although their car is off, their boost gauge remains on. I don't want to run into that problem which is why I'm trying to find the correct way. I think posting up a pic would be the most helpful right now since it's the only input I can think of giving right now.

Boostinsideways said:

Look its pretty easy. Wire Red (white on some gauges) to a hot wire (cig lighter works.) Wire black to a ground. Poke the vacuum line that came with it through the fire wall (big rubber grommet underneath the dash behind steering column and pedals.) And then using a t-fiting plug that into a boost/vacuum source. (Generally the fuel pressure regulator is used.) That is the thing that is shaped like a hat and is on the end of your fuel rail. (Unless your running an AFPR) If you totally can't figure out what the fuel pressure regulator is, then just use a nipple on the throttle body.

You should get a multimeter if you don't have one. They are useful for testing all kinda of stuff. It would help find the hot wire to tap into. They can be had for like 7$ (Cheap Harbor Freight one might last a year) to 20$ (Decent all purpose digital one that could last a while) To a lot more for high end ones.

I would suggest the 20$ one for a begginer as it has a bit more versatility, and will probably last longer than the Harbor freight one.

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Thanks for the info Boostinsideways! I've read about the cig lighter as an option and I think the switch that turns on lights as the other option I believe. I can't remember. I want to use what's the best option though. I'll have to look up what the fuel pressure regulator is sorry . Also, what does AFPR stand for? My guess was fuel pressure regulator but the "A" got me lost. Unless it stands for "air".

My dad has a multimeter so I should be good to go on that. I'm sure he has a good quality one also since we've had it for many many years.

The difference between a mechanical and an electrical boost gauge is that one reads the boost via a mechanical sensor (think like a pressure plate) in the gauge and the other has an electronic sensor that takes the boost, determines the value and then electronically transmits that data to the gauge. Where it gets the boost from is the same.

You have to realize that anytime you are dealing with electrical you have the room to screw up. Ask any professional mechanic (or ask your dad to ask them since he is being pretty naive), electrical work is 95% diagnosis by trial and error and 5% mechanical ability. You have options on how you can go about this.

The easiest is to use spade connectors and plug your power wire into the connector for your cigarette lighter and the switch power into your cigarette lighter's light connector. But you lose the functionality of your lighter, so if that is a problem you can consider pigtail fuses and use either electrical connectors or solder them together, or you can splice into the wire via the same methods. Nothing is better than solder, but then that requires you to know how to solder, which is easy, but I never recommend someone jump right into live wiring with solder, you need to practice on random wire first.

According to Amazon, there is no controller required for the Halo series, which would mean it is a mechanical type boost gauge.

H4G64T said:

The difference between a mechanical and an electrical boost gauge is that one reads the boost via a mechanical sensor (think like a pressure plate) in the gauge and the other has an electronic sensor that takes the boost, determines the value and then electronically transmits that data to the gauge. Where it gets the boost from is the same.

You have to realize that anytime you are dealing with electrical you have the room to screw up. Ask any professional mechanic (or ask your dad to ask them since he is being pretty naive), electrical work is 95% diagnosis by trial and error and 5% mechanical ability. You have options on how you can go about this.

The easiest is to use spade connectors and plug your power wire into the connector for your cigarette lighter and the switch power into your cigarette lighter's light connector. But you lose the functionality of your lighter, so if that is a problem you can consider pigtail fuses and use either electrical connectors or solder them together, or you can splice into the wire via the same methods. Nothing is better than solder, but then that requires you to know how to solder, which is easy, but I never recommend someone jump right into live wiring with solder, you need to practice on random wire first.

According to Amazon, there is no controller required for the Halo series, which would mean it is a mechanical type boost gauge.

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Okay so looks like I'll be using the same spot to tap in then. That clears up the first part which is a relief.

The funny thing is that my dad is a mechanic . I'm sure he knows how to do these things but he's against them and he's very hot headed so I don't like to ask him for help. I like to take my time and get things right whereas he gets impatient and starts taking shortcuts cause of the anger .

I can't lose the functionality of my lighter so I guess that's out. My bro knows how to solder and I do also but this was a long time ago so I think I can get him to help.

Oh I guess I got lucky then since I've read that the boost gauge is the one gauge you want to be mechanical. Sorry I must have confused it with the Defi. I seriously though it was electronic though. I didn't know that all electronic boost gauges need a controller.