Doug's Cobalt SS SC

Hey guys my factory boost gauge stopped working a while ago so I've been meaning to replace it. I picked up the white elite boost vacuum gauge from glow shift. My tech & I followed the instructions we hooked up to the fuse box for power & ran the wiring & vacuum lines through the firewall just as the glow shift instructions told us to do. We used the T fitting that was included & spliced into my supercharger vacuum line. Once we were done with the install we took it out for a spin. The boost vacuum gauge worked great however the 2nd I got out on the rd & shifted into 2nd gear I threw a check engine light & got the dreaded reduced engine power read out. We limped back to the shop & hooked a scanner up to it. For whatever reason by splicing into my SC vacuum line it threw about 5 different codes. Maf sensor air intake codes ect we went ahead & cleared the codes & tried again. Once again the gauge worked fine but the check engine light came back on and she went back into limp home mode. We unhooked the boost gauge vacuum line & T fitting from my SC vacuum line & ran my lines like normal back to how they were & my car is fine now however I have a newly installed boost gauge that doesn't work & is flashing at me. For whatever reason my car did not like having that SC vacuum line spliced into like that. By the way I have a 2005 Chevy Cobalt SS/SC. My tech said the only other option that we have at this point is to pull off the SC & tap into the intake manifold with one of those gold taps. I prefer not to put out another 2-3 hours in labor on this darn boost gauge install so if you guys have any help that you could give me on this it would be greatly appreciated thanks guys & sorry for the long post I was at my techs shop all day today dealing with this boost gauge plus we rebuilt my SC & a few other things

Sl0wbaltSS

You plug it in directly to a vaccum line coming off the intake manifold.

blueLNFftw

iTrader: (16)

Fitting might be cracked.

It should be fine there. Mine was if its the line I'm thinking you are talking about.

Pic.

Doug's Cobalt SS SC

Thanks for the feedback guys. My tech & I were both puzzled we know we hooked it to the right line because the gauge worked beautifully but my cobalt didn't like it. Below are some pics.


This pic shows the white electrical wire that we ran through the firewall & into the fuse box.




This pic shows the red electrical wire that was also ran through the firewall & into the fuse box. Again the power is not the issue my gauge has good power I can cycle through all 10 colors so the powers good it's the vacuum line that we're having the issue with.




This pic shows where we mounted the black box that came with my glow shift gauge that the clear vacuum line comes out of.




Now I could be wrong here guys cause like I said we had to take back off the clear vacuum hose that was running from the black box into my boost line since it was throwing my check engine light & the reduced engine power mode but the line that I have lifted up with my middle finger I think is the line that my tech ran the clear vacuum hose from the black box to. The vacuum line had a filter in it & we used the T connector to splice into the vacuum line.




Again I think this is the boost line that we tapped into. My tech said that it was the only vacuum line that he could find that was connected to my supercharger.

blueLNFftw

iTrader: (16)

It's the right line.

Doug's Cobalt SS SC

Thanks for verifying that we tapped into the right line. So with that being said we hooked everything up right & tapped into the right line I just wish I knew why it threw my check engine light & the reduced engine power limp home mode. At this point would you agree that my only other option for this boost gauge install would be to tap into my intake manifold & run that vacuum hose through there in order to have my boost gauge functional without throwing any codes ?

Doug's Cobalt SS SC

I wanted to add one last post regarding the issue I encountered when installing my new boost/vacuum gauge from glow shift. Blue you were correct we spliced into the correct vacuum line & we did the install correct from the very beginning. It only took us about 90 minutes to complete the install however due to the gauge flashing & not working after the install was complete we spent another 2-3 hrs trying to figure out what we did wrong. We were one second away from tapping into my intake manifold just to get a vacuum reading from this gauge. I'm so happy we didn't do that! We noticed that the wiring that came with the kit from glow shift that plugged into the back of the gauge was faulty!!!! Both wires clicked into the back of the gauge like they should have however one of the wires was faulty. If you took your finger & put pressure on the back of the gauge then the connection was made & the gauge worked however the second you take your finger off the wire the gauge goes back to flashing again. You could also barley wiggle the wiring on the back of the gauge just slightly & the gauge would go from working to not working. So yes 3hrs earlier plus much back & forth with glow shift & us almost drilling a hole through my intake manifold could have all been prevented had glow shift just sent me a properly working gauge from the get! This has costed me a lot of extra time & $ for labor between us trying to figure out what was wrong & now the addition labor for completely removing the faulty gauge & installing the new replacement gauge from glow shift. Now I do want to say that despite all of the issues Glow Shifts customer service has been great! I was able to deal with the same guy by the name of Dennis the entire time. At 1st prior to us discovering that it was a faulty gauge causing all of this mess Dennis told me that normally they would not be able to except a return due to the fact that the gauge had already been installed however Dennis got approval from his supervisor that they would go against their policy & except my return for a full refund if I couldn't get the gauge to work. Then after finding that it was a faulty gauge that caused this Dennis immediately over nighted me out a hole new gauge he also enclosed a return lable in order for me to send the faulty gauge back free of charge & he even went the extra mile to ensure that my replacement gauge was in good working order before sending it out to me. I will still be giving glow shift a good score seeing that the replacement gauge goes in without any issues. So anyhow guys I again just wanted to say thanks & I thought it was important to follow up on this post so that others would see that this was the correct way to install this gauge however just as an FYI check the wiring on the back of the gauge for a poor connection lol

Nate Goeman

will a glow shift boost gauge work on an lnf?
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