Tachometer Installation

jwindbigler · 01-27-2006, 01:34 PM

i have a 5 speed. pretty basic car. due to this, there no tach in the car. i was looking for a distributer, and i dont see one at all. then i went looking for the plug wires, and i didnt see them either. so i am wondering on how in the world i am going to install this thing.

1fastkia · 01-29-2006, 06:55 AM

its a distributar less car. it runs off coils. You cant directly install the tach to the coils as you will get only half a signal. You must tap into the wire behind the gauge cluster that the tach would run off (if your gauge cluster had a tach..)
take cluster out. there are 3 plugs back there. the plug on the left will have a green wire with a yellow strip on it.. tap that one wit hthe wire from the tach that is supposed to go to the distibuter.

Alexxis · 02-23-2006, 09:06 PM

Oh gods don't touch the wires behind the gauge cluster... there's a half dozen with green and yellow happy goodness...
I drive a 5 speed Spectra GS. it's the 1.8 DOHC 4 also with dual coil packs.
You CAN splice off them but you have to get a tachometer designed for reading 2 cylinders. What happened to me was I spent 2 hours ripping apart my dash and installing the tach I had origonally bought. not realizing that the dual coil pack would only send a half signal through. so I was getting a reading... but it was about half what I expected.
This is what I bought the first time around but it only reads for 4,6 and 8 cylinder models:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/pro...D=1140746334373

I went back and they exchanged it for this one (I payed the price difference gladly) I simply recrimped the wires and set it to two cylinder mode. Aside from it shaking at idle (only 100 rpm either way) it's perfect (it stabalizes over 1000 rpm):
http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/pro...D=1140746334295

If you email me I can take a few pictures of my tach and where I mounted it (a good location that's fairly easy to see) I can also take some pictures under the hood of how I crimped to the coil pack.

If you can find something similar for your country (or even the same brand if your in north america) it should work without much hassle.

Truly,
Lexx

1fastkia · 02-26-2006, 08:18 AM

You CAN splice off them my tach is spliced off them.... Hoiw can you say you cant??? I ahve done this 3 times is 2 different 1.8L kias......

and yes there are tons of wires in back of there but there is only 1 of them on the left harness that is green with a yellow strip.... its also much easier than running 10 feet of wire from tach to coils..... its not a good idea to run off the coils.. why do you think even the manufacturer (kia) doesnt run it off the coils (stock cluster with a tach) they run it through the ecu.

Alexxis · 05-25-2006, 09:33 AM

I didn't say you couldn't splice off the back of the cluster... in fact nowhere do I say that you can't do that... all I said was that how I did was off the coil packs. You can definetely do it... I did last AUGUST and my tach runs FINE and the guys at Kia said I did a bang up job on thank you very much. You can definetely splice off the back of the cluster I just decided to go an easier way. and FYI it was NOT ten feet of cable it's a single green wire less than 5 feet in length properly held up and away from anything that could damage or melt it that I check frequently for damage. The area I spliced off off near the coil pack is properly insulated and I have experienced no problems whatsoever. There is more than one way to do things and you don't have to be a complete jerk about things.

Truly happy with his tach,
Lexx

kiario04 · 09-14-2008, 08:24 PM

I Have a 04 kir rio 5spd. It doesnt have a tach and im putting 1 in. so 1fastkia. By what you have said, is that for the 2003-2005 models because I looked at the wiring diagram for the diagnostic plug in and it said for my year its a brown wire with a red strip and its not located their.

kiaracer · 09-14-2008, 08:40 PM

i got an even easier idea. find a cluster with a tach in it and swap it out. no wiring or modification needed. but if you really have to have one of those huge ricey tachs...there's also a tach wire at the ecu. not sure which wire it is off the top of my head but that's where the cluster gets a tach signal from.

kiario04 · 09-15-2008, 04:20 PM

your right about using a cluster with a tach already on it but I just like the look of the tach i have. It gives my interior a nice look at nite and during the day. I would also like to know what rpms im at when i shift. It helps for racing legally (drag strip)