**The Oil Pressure Sensor Installation: A Step-by-Step Guide**

As part of our ongoing effort to enhance the functionality of our Miata, we've decided to install an oil pressure sensor. This will provide us with valuable information about the engine's vital signs, allowing us to better maintain and troubleshoot any potential issues.

**Accessing the Oil Pressure Sensor**

The first challenge we faced was accessing the oil pressure sensor itself. Located in a difficult-to-reach area of the engine, we had to carefully remove various components to gain access. We started by removing the oil filter and sandwich plate that runs through the oil cooler, which provided us with enough clearance to work on the sensor.

**Wiring the Oil Pressure Sensor**

With the sensor now exposed, we proceeded to wire it up. The wiring pinout was provided on the Amazon page for the sensor, which made this process much easier. We also consulted the output voltage chart, which showed that 0.5 volts corresponds to zero PSI, 50 PSI is 2.5 volts, and 100 PSI is 4.5 volts.

**Connecting the Oil Pressure Sensor**

We connected the oil pressure sensor's wires to our analog port on the ECU, just like we did with the fuel level sensor. We also used a ground wire to connect it to the chassis. This ensured that the sensor would receive the necessary power and ground signals to function properly.

**Soldering and Heat Shrink**

To complete the wiring process, we soldered the wires together using our soldering gun. It's essential to heat up the joint before applying the solder, as this will prevent any oxidation from forming. We also used heat shrink to protect the wires from any potential damage or corrosion.

**Grounding the Oil Pressure Sensor**

We carefully grounded the oil pressure sensor by connecting it to a five-volt reference wire that we had already spliced off of our fuel level sensor harness. This provided us with a reliable ground connection for the sensor.

**Programming the ECU**

To complete the installation, we entered the necessary data points into the ECU, just like we did with the fuel level sensor. We consulted the output voltage chart to determine the correct analog values for different oil pressures.

**Testing the Oil Pressure Sensor**

With everything now in place, we started up the engine and tested the oil pressure sensor. The sensor provided us with accurate readings of our oil pressure, which will undoubtedly be invaluable when troubleshooting any potential issues in the future.

**The Resulting Dash Layout**

As a final touch, we designed a custom dash layout that incorporates the oil pressure sensor's readings, as well as those from our fuel level sensor and other vital signs. This provides us with a comprehensive view of our Miata's performance, making it easier to maintain and optimize its engine.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, installing an oil pressure sensor has significantly enhanced our Miata's functionality. We've gained valuable insights into the engine's vital signs, which will undoubtedly prove useful in troubleshooting any potential issues in the future. This project demonstrates our dedication to continually improving and optimizing our vehicle's performance, making it a more enjoyable and reliable driving experience.

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If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Instagram and like Donut Media while you're there. We appreciate your support and look forward to bringing you more exciting content in the future!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is our brandspanking new digital dash.And it's pretty sweet,except for the fact that installing it,meant that we had topull out our old gauges,which housed our oilpressure and our fuel level.And those are kind of important.So today we're gonna install anaftermarket oil pressure sensorand wire it to our standalone ECU.And we're gonna teach the dashto monitor our fuel level again.I don't think it's gonna be very hard,but I've been wrong before.So let's go find out.(upbeat music)Big thank you to car insurancecomparison site The Zebra,for sponsoring today's episode.Some things in life should always be easy.For me, eating donuts is easy.For Joe, doing donuts is easy,and for The Zebra paringcar insurance is easy.So I figured why not giveyou 52 seconds of that,all combined?The zebra makes it easyto compare car insurance.All you have to do is entersome basic info and boom,you can compare top insurancecompanies side-by-side,including all major carriers,so you guys can see who can offer youthe best value for the coverage you need.Better yet, there's no techie jargonor spam calls you have to deal with.Just honest and to thepoint insurance compares.And The Zebra has experts that can answerthe car insurance questionsthat keep you up at night.Like will my policy beeffected if I mod my car?The best part about The Zebra is they haveno stake in what policy you choose.So whether you're looking to savean average of $440 ayear on your policy or,simply get the most bang for your buck,The Zebra has got your back.So take it from me, aDonut hos, eating a donut,while a car does donuts,then you'll be thankfulyou found a friend like The Zebra.Head on over to the zebra.com/money pit,and start comparing your options today.- And enjoy the last fewseconds of this bizarre,slow motion modernist piece of cinema,while the tagline plays over top.(bright music)- Now, if you've been watchingthis show for a while,you may remember when wereplaced our analog gauges,with that DD-EFI digital dash.Now we bought that thingfor about 700 bucks,which isn't very cheap,but the cool thing about itis that it connects directlyto our MegaSquirt standalone ECU,so we can tell our dashall sorts of engine vitals.And in case you didn't know,engine vitals are kind of important.But that brings us to today.We lost our oil pressure, whichis the ultimate engine vitalwhen we removed our stock gauges.So today we got to get oil pressureback in front of our eyeballs,which means installingan aftermarket sensor,and wiring it into our MegaSquirt ECU,and then making it come up on the dash.But that's gonna be thelast thing we're gonna do,cause I think it's gonnatake the most time.We're gonna knock out afew easier things first.We're gonna fix therefresh rate to get thelag that we're seeing out of there.Then we're gonna getour GPS Speedo working,and then we're gonnawork on our fuel level.And then once we're done with all that,we will install the oil pressure sensor.And then finally the PAs,there was this dance,we're gonna put a bezel over the thing,so it doesn't look half done.I can't wait.That's been bugging me for forever.So let's get into it.Now, as far as difficult is concerned,I don't think this is gonnabe that difficult of a job.There is gonna be a fairamount of work involved,since we're doing a handful of things but,most of it's gonna be easy.I'm sure there's gonna besome head-scratching involved,with actually getting the ECUto read the correct values,but I'm positive we can tackle it,although something doesalways tend to come up.So we'll see.So first I'm gonna start the car up,so we can look at kind of howlaggy the RPMs are right now.So as I blip the throttle,take a look at the revs,and you'll see that they kindof lag, it's a little chunky.(engine revving)You see it's lagging behind.It's not quite in real time.So we need to update that,it's called the lag factor, go figure.And that should look a lot smoother.Let's do that first.All right so to update the lag factor,I'm just gonna go into basic load settingsand general settings.So as we go into fixing this,and see how relatively easy it is,you might be wonderingwhy I didn't do thatthe first time around.And honestly, it's just, causeI didn't know what to do.I emailed the owner of thecompany that makes this dashand he sent me a whole bunch of info,on how to get all thelittle kinks worked out.So that's super helpful,and it's gonna make thisway easier than if Iwas just poking around,trying to figure it out.So, I think we're gonnabe able to make thishappen with little to no drama.Okay, that does seem to bestaying with the RPMs better.Before the TAC was chasingthe actual engine's RPMs.But now with the lag factor bumped up,there's still a touch of alag, but it's a lot quicker.I think this is gonna be usable.So that's one thing done.Now let's get the GPS Speedo working.That should be just as easy.- That shows that you did ayou probably have to keepthe antenna hooked up.- It's a little obstructed.I mean is plastic, toomuch for it to get through?- Possibly. I've run across issueswith that actuallyhappening and everything.A lot of people, even on some of,even on our own test vehicles we do,we put it on the dash sois still can always pointthrough the windshieldup to the sky itself.So you should be good to go.- Sick. Awesome man. I appreciate it.All right, now that we've gotthe Speedo thing figured out,with a little bit of head scratching.It's time to tackle the fuel level.(upbeat music)Oh, Jesus.So the first thing we got to do is findthe factory wire thatgoes to the fuel levelsender in the tank.The thing that tells thegauge how much fuel we got.So one of these four wires was responsiblefor sending the fuellevel to the stock gauges.So now I just got to figure outwhich of the four wires it is.To do that, I'm gonna look atthe stock gauges real quick.(people laughing)Okay. So here we go.So, there are two connectorson the back of these gauges,and conveniently all of the contactson these connectors are labeled.All I got to do is look at all the labelsand find the one that says fuel.And it is right over yonder.Okay, so fuel goes to pin A onthe driver's side connector.Okay, so now that we see that there,we're gonna go check the connector,that's dangling where these gauges were,and we're gonna check for continuitybetween pin A and one of thefour wires on that connector.Easy enough to do that and actually checkto see which wire connectsback to that sensor,we're gonna have to use our multimeter.So I've got it set to our continuityown testing, diode testing, a notch there.And you cycle through untilthe little audio wave shows up.And then any time that theseare effectively connected,you get a beep, like that.So I'm gonna poke around at the connectorand at that sensor, till I hear a beep.Pretty easy.Okay so pin A, from thegauges is for driver's side,so its this guy.we'll just rest our probe in there like soAnd just so you know, pin A is yellow.One of these four wires is yellow.So I'm gonna guess that that's the one.Okay, see that yellow wire?poke the front.Hey we did it.All right, that's great news.So we're gonna use that wire,ultimately to tell ourECU how much fuel we have,but it's not quite that easy.So as the fuel level changes,the voltage to this wire changes,and that determines ourfuel level on the gauge.Five volts as referenceto our fuel level sender,and as the fuel level changes,that voltage gets changed as well.And so the voltage as it's changed,we're gonna run thatback in to our connector,through an analog input.And then in the MegaSquirt, we can go inand set up our resistancesand our values for,what the things thatthis is sending us mean.So there's a few steps to this,but the first thing we gotto do is get it wired up,and then we'll have to plug insome data into the old computer.So the first thing we'regonna do is cut backsome of the sheathing toexpose our yellow wire.Now we're just gonna measure outthe length of our wires roughly.You can always go a littlebit long and trim it later.Now with our wires roughly cut,we can use our vampire clamps,and clip them in to our fuel level wire.Okay, so these vampireclamps are pretty cool,but they can be a little bit trickyto make sure thatthey're in there properlywith good connectionbetween the wires you're trying to splice.So it's always a good idea,to go ahead and checkcontinuity like we did before,just to make sure thateverything's connected.So I'm gonna go into theterminal at the plug up here,and then I'm gonna makesure that is connectedto the end of my new wire.And since it is, we know thatour connection there is goodthat that is actually bridging the gapbetween the two wires.So, spectacular.Always good to check though.Now we'll do the next one check it,and then we're off.(upbeat music)Stupendous.Okay, so now we can goahead and put our resistorin line to the reference wire.Resistors are not polarity sensitive,so they can go in eitherway doesn't matter.(upbeat music)Alrighty. Now for alittle bit of protection,this is some heat shrinkin assorted colors.(upbeat music)Okay, so not only does thathelp protect us from anyelectrical shocks, but it also helps,strengthen this section wherewe've just got one little resistor.So that's great.Now that's ready to wire into the ECU.So is this other wire.So now I just need tostick the correct jumpers,out of my option plugon the back of the ECU.I'm gonna go ahead and puta little bit of sheathingover the pair of these wires,protect them a little moreand cause it looks nice.(upbeat music)Okay, so we've got ouroptions port down here,and I'm on the internet,and I've got the diagramof what these pins are.So I'm looking for ourfive volt reference,and that's gonna be the wirethat has the resistor in it.And then I'm looking foranalog input one or two,I think I've got number two already used.So we can see that fivevolt references is pin Hyonder and analog one or two is C and D.So I'll use one of those.So let's get the fivevolt reference done first,plug that into H and connect itto the one that I know as the resistor.So our fuel level sensor,like many and most sensors,is basically just a variable resistor.Depending on how much fuel is in the tank,that'll put the fuel level sensorat a different level and willcreate a different resistance,for like an oil pressure sensor.Depending on how much pressureis being pushed on the sensor,we'll determine how muchresistance that sensor gives off.So basically all we're doing hereis sending a five voltreference to the sensor,and basically it puts aresistance into that circuit,and then we measure howmuch resistance there is,and then we correlate thatto a fuel level or to an oil pressure.So since we've done the wiring,now all we've got to dois go into the computerand plug in those resistancesto tell the computerwhat to correlate, an empty fuel tank to,and a full fuel tank andthen everything in between.So we're basicallygonna go in the computerand mimic the stock fuel level setupwith our wiring here.We've got our values ready.So, first I ran come upinto the MegaSquirt softwareadvanced engine,we're gonna go to thegeneric sensor inputs.So I'm gonna go aheadand use analog in oneas our source for the sensor.That's where we have the fuellevel sensor running backinto the ECU.So analog in one,we will also name it fuelzero volt is negative 11negative 11, and five volts is 380.That should be all the doingwe need to do in there.Now on my gauges here, I'mgonna set this guy right hereup to be my fuel level gauge, right click.And we're gonna go up here,to our generic sensor inputsand hit fuel level baby.And then look at that.Okay, now that we got ourfuel level sensor handled,it's time to work onour oil pressure sensor.So our oil pressuresensor is very similar,to our fuel level sensor,in that it's a five volt sensor.It's resistance changes withchanges in oil pressure,and we correlate that toactual oil pressure numberson the dash.It's gonna be similar in wiring.We just got to wire up that away.So first I'm gonna puttwo wires in the carfrom the ECU area up to the frontthrough the firewall and intothe oil pressure sensor area.(upbeat music)Okay, so wires are runthrough the firewall.That was pretty easy.now for the part that I'mconcerned might be a little trickywhich is getting to theoil pressure sensor area.So we'll see if I can get to it.It may be difficult.All right, there's no easy pathto this thing from the top or the bottom.So I'm gonna have to take,get some stuff out of the way.I'm hoping that if Itake off the oil filter,and the sandwich plate thatruns through the oil coolerthat that'll give me enough accessto get to this puppy from down here.Oil everywhere, not as badas the coolant recently.(upbeat music)Okay, there's that guyand then direct the oil.Ah, okay. Oh, now I can see it.I think we might just be able to do it.(upbeat music)No problem.Okay, so this is obviously alot smaller than the old one.This is an NPT thread, which is differentthan the thread that's inthe block of the Miata.They are different by one thread per inch,not much but enough to matterand know enough to leak.So I have an adapter tobe our little go between,and that's cool.The threads are alsoresponsible for sealing,whatever you're measuring.So for us that's oil.So on taper thread,you're gonna wanna add thread sealant.Then we'll jam this thing in,then we've got this pigtail.And what we got going on here.One of these things is gonnabe a ground to the chassis.One is gonna go to ouranalog port on the ECUjust like the fuel level sensor did,and the other is gonna goto our five volt referenceon the ECU, just like our fuel sensor did.And then we'll basicallyhave to do the same stuffin the ECU that we had to doto get our fuel level sensor working.So, you know, all these fivevolt sensors kind of similar.(upbeat music)Now it's important when you're solderingto just heat up the joint.Heat up the wires that you'retrying to solder together,and poke the solder just into the wires.And once the wires are hotenough from the soldering gun,the wires themselves will melt the solder.If the solder doesn't get hot enough,it'll be even more brittlethan if it was correctly up to temp.So always heat up your jointand then plow the solderjust into the joint,down the line a little bit.(upbeat music)Alright, let's get thatheat shrink in place.Okay, so our soldering is done.Our harness is on.Now. We just need to findsomewhere to ground this guy.Then we can pull the rest ofour wire through the firewall.Luckily, this is gonna be pretty easycause I was doing a littlebit of thinking ahead,and I already a splicedus a five volt referenceoff of the one we use for the fuel level.So all I gotta do is hook upour five volt reference wireto the five volt.Red wire is going to beour analog signal back into the old standalone.(upbeat music)All right. So there we have it.The wiring is done.For now let's hop into the ECUand see if we can getthis puppy sensoring.Actually just on theAmazon page for the sensor.So basically this gives useverything that we need.It tells you the wiring pinout, which is what I usedto wire the thing up.And then it also givesyou the output voltagefor different PSIs.So 0.5 volts, zero PSI,50 PSI is 2.5 volts.100 PSI is 4.5 volts.So I basically just needto input those data pointsinto the ECU like we didwith the fuel level sensor.Analog in one oilpressure, linear sensors,zero to a hundred, burnt.All right, so let's fire this thing upand see if we have any oil pressure.(engine revving)And so with that, we have madethis car a lot more useful.I can tell how much fuel in the tank.I can tell how much oilpressures in the engine.I can tell how fast I'm going.So here's just one thing left to do.Just take a look at this dash like this.(upbeat music)Wow, that looks pretty good.It actually looks completeand I'm happy about it.And it actually is useful witha lot of useful information.So the Miata just got alot better in my opinion.I'm very excited about this.So thanks again for watching.I hope you guys liked it andI hope you learned something.This episode was maybe a little bit morein the weeds than normal.You know, I'm doing somepretty in-depth stuff,so I hope you liked it.Let us know if you did.And if you did like the video.And go follow me on Instagramand follow donut media while you're there.See you guys next Wednesday.