today i installed an autometer shift light for my friend Scott or princelybug, as you might know him on the forum. he said he felt the need for it when he was tracking his car. "cant really take your eyes of the road" he said, this should help or assist him when shifting. oh yeah he kinda helped

the shift light gauge was installed in a modified S2K pillar pod, they don't make pods for the TL so i to Scott to get the S2K pod. it was close to our pillar. trimmed it down some used some heat to give it the correct shape of the TL pillar, then wrapped it in headliner material to give it that OEM look.

the gauge has a digital readout of the current rpm's, there are also a few other settings you could dial in. you could set and adjust the rpm shifting points to what ever you like when it reaches that rpm point the gauge lights up a pyramid of yellow lights, indicating when to shift to the next gear. wiring was straight forward, not difficult but time consuming. power, ground, and tach signal. our cars dont have and individual wire for the tachometer reading, rather a signal wire that goes to the gauge cluster with multiple info for the tach, speedo, fuel etc...

to remedy this we had to install a tach adapter to provide us with the correct tach signal readout, this adapter had to be wired in series to each of the six coils on the TL-S. this gave us the the individual tach signal.

overall the gauge light works perfectly i think the install looks really clean and tasteful. but most of all i think it looks cool

here are some pics of the install

here is the shift light gauge in a modified S2K pod


mock up install unwrapped


wrapped pod




drilled a small hole in the a pillar for the wires


tach adapter


power signal for each of the six coils had to be cut to wire the adapter, to reverse this it just a simple matter of soldering and shrink tubing. its only a small wire don't be scared.


crimped connectors for power side and coil side of the wire


coils wired in series to the tach adapter




small push button switch for power to the gauge light


i used some epoxy to mount the pod to the a pillar, looks pretty OEMish to me






outside view of the pod




comments welcome

 

Nice and clean.
That won't interfere with the side airbag would it?

 

not at all! this is how the airbag deploys, i should know this was my 04 AM, Ford Ranger T-boned me going 50mph

 

Whoa! That's pretty bad.

I actually like that setup, never seen one with the digital tach and light combined in one small guage. Very tasteful. How bright is it in the daytime? I like that it could be hidden out of sight. In my other car I have a shift light hidden in an AC vent. The downside is the vent has to be open when racing.

I can't believe you had to take a lead off of 6 different coils. I wonder why one wasn't good enough??

 

yeah, after i finished it i was like DAMN i want one for my car now! LOL! during the day is pretty bright no problem seeing the yellow signal lights at all, unless it is in direct sunlight, then its kinda hard.

i called AutoMeter they recommended it to be installed that way. earlier model cars im sure wouldn't need every coil, the Dodge Hemi for example requires 4 coils wired in series. could be for a more accurate reading, too many wires in these damn later model cars.

 

^ that's what I was bout to ask you... the airbag question... then I figured you were the guy to ask (sorry) but yea... the curtains come out from the top right? So I can put my boost gauges and stuff on the pillar?

 

Wow awesome.. I had just a shift light in my old car.. I hid that in the A/C vent.. I could see it from the corner of my eye..

It is good to see that you CAN get a tach signal in our car. There was another thread saying it was impossible..

 

why would it be impossible? all you gotta do is hack into the tach wiring, and calibrate ur new tach gauge to work off that signal

 

Well, someone in this thread tried and failed.. https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...5#post11208205

That is why I thought you couldnt get the rpm signal...

 

Correct. The side curtain exit along the top. The curtain extends down the top 1/3 of the "A" pillar.

 

^ THank you for clearing that up... I remember you took your out too. Kudos to you guys for getting this to work. S2k pods you say?

 

^ .

jptl04 (Jaime), is the MASTER of customization...did I say, MASTER?

The parts were:

-Auto Meter 20444 (single gauge pillar pod meant for the S2K)

-AUTOMETER SPORT COMP DIGITAL PRO SHIFT LIGHT GAUGE 3387

 

BTW, thanks, Jaime! Think of something other than "pho" to eat, lol!

 

jptl04,

Congratulations on this accomplishment. I am glad to see that you persevered in spite of my discouraging advice in that PM. Damn fine job dude !

 

WOW! Very clean and tasteful! Time to do my car now!

 

Is the autometer tach signal unit unversal? I am looking at a lower profile shift light that just lights up and doesnt have the readout.

 

Yes. It's the Auto Meter Tach Adapter 9117.

 

YES YOU DID!

will do

Thanks Inaccurate! i believe this is a first for the 3Gen TL , when i got your pm i was like shit! Scott's not gonna like this, but i did a little research and found the solution.

whenever i do something i always incorporate my own little touches to make it custom and clean looking. even if it's not my own car. this combo pod and gauge was perfect.

the pod for the S2K must be cut and modified to make it fit like i did. i trimmed it on all sides and use heat, via open stove top flame to heat up one side of it bend and shape it to give the same contour as our pillar.

 

That was me. I only tapped one coil and didn't get a good reading, but tapping ALL of them, I guess that's what must be done!

 

yea that was the only way to get the tach signal, according to the autometer tech i spoke to.

 

Thanks. btw install looks good. I like how you guys didnt leave the plastic exposed unlike most cars I see.

 

yea if you did 1 coil you wouldnt get a precise read... you def got pretty darn close to the oem fabric on that wrapping....

now all you need is an a/f gauge, oil temp, egt... I kid I kid

 

So is there a dual pod mount? Or you just gotta buy each one separately? Like stillhere says... a/f, oil temp, boost gauge, shift light. Buy the way I saw stillhere's video on youtube a while back... didn't you have it mounted in the airvent?

 

I still have that cf dual pod mount... in unused condition never got around to it tho



imma post that shit on the bm now... rofl

 

No more gauges for me. I don't need A/F or Temp gauges because I'm all NA. This gauge is purely functional. For when I go to the track.

 

so is this like the 350z where u can set it blink at whatever rpm u want to let u know when to shift?

 

yes you can. you can set it to light up at any rpm you wish.

 

does it beep as well?

post up a little clip so we can see it in action

 

no beeps. just lights up. as for the video princelybug will have to post one, since it's not my car. i just did the install.

 

That's damn nice Jaime! Great job on the installation.

Scott: supercharge your car so Jaime can install the rest of the gauges!

 

very clean install!

 

maybe u can be the first to install a Auto beeper..haha

but really thats what it's missing..it would be cool if it came with it

 

That is one of the cleanest installs of a pillar pod ive seen.

 

No such thing as a S/C or turbo for my car.

I wish!



Yeah...I didn't really think of that. It, would have to be a loud beep, though, since I'm bumping my tunes normally, and when I'm tracking, I have the windows down.

 

Hi all,
I'm new to this site, but wanted to know how the Shift light is holding up with time?
Also, interested to see if anyone had success with DPSS Gauge, Level 2. I'm looking to have it installed on my 07 TL-S.

What matirial did you use to wrap the pod in?

Thanks

 

The gauge works 100%! I use it for everyday driving, even. The Level 2 gauge'll work fine as well. It's the same wiring, with different functions for the gauge.

The pod was wrapped in something that you'll have wait for Jaime to tell you about.

 

Thanks,

I'll be looking at doing the same on my TL-S

 

I'm interested to! where did u get the fabric to wrap the gauge pod?

 

Send me an email to: scott.k.yun@gmail.com.

 

PM'ed.