legacycentral bbs

so i finally got around to doing the wiring on my air/fuel gauge and did a test run just to see how it works, the gauge sits at lean most of the time and never goes above stoich even at WOT. Is it because i wired the guage to the headlights so it only lights up when the headlights are on, or maybe its because my oxygen sensor is soo far down my exhaust, is it because my exhaust is a 3" stainless steel turboback? Any ideas?

Maybe your oxygen sensor isn't up to snuff?

If it's unheated, or if the heater is broken, then having the sensor too far downstream could easily cause readings like that.

It's upstream of the cat, right?

How did you wire it to the headlights?

there are no cats on the exhaust. After driving it for about 7-8 mins it started working like i think it should. I wired it to the same place i had the reverse glo gauges wired to. using the subaru manual to locate the wires, I spliced them into the rear defroster button. then reinstalled the plate after some sodering

Oh. The sensor probably just had to warm up, then. Maybe the sensor's heater is damaged. That happens fairly commonly when they get old, and our ECUs don't bother detecting it.

As long as the gauges' power is run to the positive illumination wire it shouldn't be an issue.