How to make your 79-98 oil pressure & temp gauges accurate

[mwolson]

After working on it for years with nothing but software headaches, another guy has developed the product I needed to make the oil pressure and temperature gauges in my Mustang accurate. It's a product called MeterMatch from a company called TechnoVersions. I installed them in my 96 Cobra this week and couldn't be happier. The oil pressure gauge actually works as an oil pressure gauge should and the temp gauge is pretty accurate too. I mapped specific pressures and temperatures to the marks on each gauge and it works great. I also tested the circuits on an 89 Fox Body cluster and it worked there well too. So we know it will work for Mustangs from 1979 to 1998. I am sure it will work for you guys with other Ford cars of those generations as well. It cost me about $150 to make both gauges accurate, including two MeterMatch units for $50 each and an Autometer 2242 oil pressure sensor for $30, plus some misc bits. I did a writeup here:

http://www.accutach.com/Documents/MeterMatchMustangHowToR1-2.pdf

 

[GCZ]

Amazing write-up on a very useful topic. Thanks for this contribution - this is why forums are so great!

 

[wvragtop]

holy tech tech !!whats your oucupation? nice work must have long process.

 

[Sagittaria]

Hmm. Wonder if you can do this on the new edges. Maybe pull the gauges out of an sn95 and throw them into a new edge cluster.

 

[mwolson]

I am now working on a similar circuit for the 99-04 cars. They use different gauge technology, but it can also be done for them.

The 2005+ cars use stepper motors to drive the needles. I think we will have to hack the microprocessor in the cluster to make them accurate...

Oh, and wvragtop, I am a retired electrical engineer.

 

[Sagittaria]

I am now working on a similar circuit for the 99-04 cars. They use different gauge technology, but it can also be done for them.

The 2005+ cars use stepper motors to drive the needles. I think we will have to hack the microprocessor in the cluster to make them accurate...

Oh, and wvragtop, I am a retired electrical engineer.

Yes! This has always bugged me to no end!

 

[04DeadShort]

Good job Mark. Ive been following you with this issue for years, mainly over on corral. I knew you would finally get it.

 

[mustangmanjeff]

nice writeup, but holy alot of work batman just to get a correct reading lol


to much work but thanks for shareing better you then me lol

 

[mwolson]

It isn't that hard. I just wrote down every littlr step. And the stock temp gsuge isn't that bad, so the OP gauge is really the one that needs this mod.

 

[mwolson]

After driving with the MeterMatch circuits installed for a few months, I am super happy with the way the oil pressure gauge is working. And the temperature gauge works very well up to 195*F as well.

However, I was a little too conservative with the hot calibration. We had a couple of 95 degree days last week and I was driving my car a little hard with the AC on and the temperature went up to 212*F on my PLX DM200 OBD2 gauge. But my instrument cluster temp gauge went up above Hot and the alarm idiot light was flashing. So clearly, I need to do some more work on the hot calibration of the MeterMatch unit before the temperature gauge mod is ready for prime time.

I have added a note to this effect to the write-up. Until I get more calibration work done, I recommend that you only do the oil pressure gauge upgrade, and hold off on the temperature gauge upgrade.

Keep an eye on this thread for an update when I get it figured out.

Sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused.