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Help Question on Volt Meter

bruce nash

Active Member
Hi, I'm having an incorrect reading on the volt meter. It reads 8-13-18. The volt hand barely makes it out of the yellow low voltage range but checking outside at the battery with my gauges it shows 14.2. Is this a known problem or is it just me? Second question. On the left hand side just forward of the front tire there are 3 chrome air scoops. Is this factory for the air intake or is this something someone added on? Thanks Bruce
 
Since I just made an aftermarket instrument cluster for the GTA, I'll share what I think may be your problem. First off the voltmeter is probably the most reliable gauge of the 26 year old gauges. Tying in to the dash connectors is the printed circuit on the back of the gauge(s) housing, it's a press fit deal and you can see that it could easily suffer from a poor connection, secondly the factory uses some measly 22 gauge wire for most of the gauge feeds and since the gauges are at the end of the line one could assume it can only be inaccurate from age and design.
That being said, the voltmeter is past the gauges fuse so it really only measures the alternator's output in V when the car is running,,, not running, it's reading battery voltage on the "key on" position. Remember the battery is still just storage reserve load, so I would check at the battery voltage key on/engine off, then check the gauge reading at the same time. I would chalk up any difference as line loss and poor connections with a second concern to be a faulty gauge. That is if the battery is considerably higher in voltage.

If this still bugs you, and it would me too, I'd pull the instrument cluster out(white housing) and check the C1-# pin connection with key on/engine off to see if a higher battery voltage is present. Next I'd clean the printed circuit's bare copper trace with a pencil eraser to clean off oxidation and see if that brings the gauge back up to a closer reading . Also if you go that far into it, there are 2-3 grounds used on that printed circuit and there not divided up as you'd think, one may be for speedo/tach lighting and some of the GI lighting while another is for voltmeter/gas gauge and different GI bulbs. But a factory service manual has the pin outs and test voltage needed to be present. So check the ground connections too.
 
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Second question. On the left hand side just forward of the front tire there are 3 chrome air scoops. Is this factory for the air intake or is this something someone added on? Thanks Bruce
This sounds like something added on, there is nothing chrome on these cars from the factory. Do you have a pic you can post of it for clarification?
 
Thanks WS6 for the heads up on the volt meter and which direction I need to go to fix the problem. I didn't know if anyone else had run into this before. You're right, it does bug me, just like a clock with the incorrect time. As far as these air intake scoops, there are 3 of them, all chrome and all matching. I took a picture but for the life of me can't figure out how to load it up. Any help with that problem? Thanks, Bruce
 
Here's what it looks like behind the instrument housing, you'll be checking voltage at one of the C1 connector's pins, and that's the lower one. I "believe" it's #9. Don't be the least bit intimidated by pulling it out.
Just lower the steering column a bit,pull the front bezel held by a bunch of 7MM screws and then the cluster housing comes out and is also held by a bunch of 7MM screws.

All in all it's a 20 min job.
102_6151_zpsougstnsp.jpg
 
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