autometer lowband Air/fuel gauge question

[99GPGTP]

i installed a air fuel gauge in my pontiac that i had in a box in the building. It gauge and my scanner both reads lean most of the time and the car stays in closed loop for a long time, that car started throwing several codes after i hooked up the gauge. P0171 p0134 p1133 and i couple more, when i unhook the gauge the car runs fine and my scanner shows it to read normal,

Is my gauge bad or do these gauges disrupt the signal to the pcm or is my front o2 sensor going bad

[JoRoW99]

Observer effect...haha

[99GPGTP]

whats that supposed to mean

[Bio248]

that gauge is a light show POS. it tells you nothing.

you also hooked it up to the o2 sensor, lowering the true voltage and signal it is creating thus throwing those codes. that's the only explanation i have.

[taman86]

I used a narrowband o2 in my ta with no problems. I bought an af pigtail adapter from pace performance because it has the extended reference wire. Then hooked it up to a 12v constant, ground, and a switched on power source. I really don't understand why it would be doing that, but I have noticed that these friggin grand prixs literally "lose their minds" if you change any little voltage with that invloves the pcm. So maybe bio is right, the sensor is pulling one volt too many through the pcm on that signal for the O2 so its going hay wire.

[rynoman03]

I had a narrow band once. It never worked and it made my car throw codes when it was hooked up. Unhooked the pigtail and hooked it back up normally and no more codes. Sell it ! I got mine (auto-meter as well ) with a gauge pod so mine went in the trash!

I have a wideband now. Picked this model up for 169.00 shipped.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/1207379...=sbar&_lwgsi=y

[taman86]

So I guess these cars are finicky bastards. No room for adding anything or changes in voltages.

[rynoman03]

Basically. LOL.

[Tw34k]

Wideband or don't bother, narrowband gauges are a joke.

[99GPGTP]

i toook it out yesterday. i had it at the house from about 5 years ago and didnt know it would cause any problems to the gtp. i used one on my riviera and it did fine. thanks for the help guys

[taman86]

The one I used on my ta, I had used with a maf translator as a temp fix to upgrading to larger injectors until I could get it tuned so I can somewhat dial in the af ratio

[Tw34k]

The only thing your going to be able to tune wiht a narrowband is idle and highway cruising and not even very well at that.

The problem is that a narrowband only reads what is essentially 3 states of afr levels. Think of it more as a afr switch rather than a sensor.

I have a better graph somewhere that I cant currently find but google images did produce this one which decently shows my point.



As you see the narrowband has almost no resolution and essentially goes from ~.2 volts to ~.8 volts at 14.7:1

[stealthee]

Think of it this way.

A narrowband measure AFR at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, etc. A wideband measures AFR at 12:00, 12:01, 12:02, 12:03, etc.

As said, narrowbands are pos lightshows and offer no tuning help. Go wideband or go home.

[taman86]

Ya that's all I used it for is just kind of a round abouts tuning just to idle and light cruising, not heavy throttle. A narrowband like you guys are saying, just measures exactly what the computer is reading between 14.2 and 14.7. If the computer is tuned above or beyond that point then the sensor will read full lean or full rich.

[99GPGTP]

i know the difference between a narrowband and a wideband, i know wide band is better and is what i need. i just didnt know that the narrowband gauge would have set ses light and caused my car to run like crap.

[darkhorizon]

Neither a narrowband or a wideband GAUGE do much of anything for anyone...

I have one and rarely ever look at it on my 500+whp cars...