So I noticed the front 02 sensor is the almost exact same as my widebands I use..
can I just run an afr gauge off the front 02 sensor to monitor afr or do I need to run an independent sensor and bung ???
If I can run a gauge off the front 02 what # wire is the signal wire ?
if I can't, no biggie because I have am aem wideband enroute but it woukd be nice to return it and save like 200$ because I have a afrg on hand already..
Any help is much appreciated !
thx guys !
sorry to be a bug , I'm an r53 guy and new to these turbo minis..

 

Yes, the OEM sensor is a wide band sensor. If you piggy back off the OEM sensor, the signal will be degraded, which will cause running issues. If you REALLY think you need an AFR gauge, best to install a standalone set up.

In my opinion, an AFR gauge is just eye candy. The only aftermarket gauges needed are mechanical boost, water temp, and maybe oil temp.

 

I am adding decent amount of mods and it's being tuned now actually so I do like to know that it isn't leaning out or going too rich and if it does have something to alert me too then..
Same reason I have boost gauge and the x60 multi gauge ( it's set to read coolant , iat and battery voltage)
good point on the signal degradation. I did it with narrow bands like you said as a light show befor and it didn't cause any issues but with a wideband it's probably a different story.
Best be safe then and just wait for my aem afr gauge and downpipe to get here then I will just install the wideband correctly.
thanks for the info !

 

By the time the gauge shows that the engine is lean or rich, its too late. It only take one really good "Lean" event to toast a piston. At 4500rpm, there are about ~38 ignition events taking place every second. I don't care how good you are, your reaction time to prevent damage isn't that quick. Air/Fuel gauges with a wide band sensor are OK when tuning with a fuel pressure riser on a traditional low pressure fuel injection system or on a carbureted engine. Its pretty useless on a high pressure direct injected system.

 

I never knew that !
thanks again for educating me.. well , maybe I just return the aem afr gauge or resell it...
direct injection is new to me and though Im no noob to a turbo , im still pretty noob when it comes to knowledge on this...
so I really do appreciate your help....
also , if you see my build thread for this r59 and I'm doing something wrong ect , DONT hesitate to tell me.
I absolutely don't mind being told what I did or doing is wrong, id rather know and correct it rather than be a Mr know-it-all..

 

Yup, I'm in that thread too

I've built up a wealth of knowledge on these cars over the past 7 years, and even I still have a small amount compared to some. Its a steep learning curve, but its not difficult.

 

If you haven't address the lower engine mount, i would suggest doing that next. I had a BSH mount, made one of the biggest changes to the car. Power actually being put down to the ground, the biggest drawback was all the creeks inside the cabin. I swear my R55s rattled more than my R53 does, i have replaced 2 of 3 mounts on the R53 with solid ones.

 

But it's pretty eye candy!!!

If you do end up selling that gauge, I may be interested for my other project!

 

Just to add a benefit of the AFR gauge I have. While being tuned last summer, after doing a pull, my car would start to stumble and run very oddly for 30-60 seconds. If I held the rpms up for a good 10-15 seconds, it would be fine. I noticed with the AFR gauge, after doing the pull, my car would run really super rich. Turned out that my methanol nozzles were leaking down into the cylinders even after the pump shut off and everything. So I had to add check valves to all my nozzles. So if I hadn't had that gauge, it might have taken me a little bit longer and more headache to trace that down.