DIY Instrument Cluster W/ Tach installation in Corollas without a Tach.
Alright, now as a bit of background information, there were three types of 7th gen corollas: the EX(base model), the DX, and the LE. The LE was the only one that came standard with a tach which means that most DX's and ALL EX's were not wired to support a tach. If you have an LE you definitly don't need to read this write up, but if you have a DX and your tach doesn't work or if you have the base EX model, read on and i'll show you how to install the OEM Tach Cluster and make the tach work.
Now before you begin i suggest you get one of these books, because without the wiring diagrams inside, there would be no way for me to have done this.
This picture shows the first part of the wiring diagram. In the back of your gauge cluster are three plugs, two white and one blue. The tach wire you will be installing will be starting in the blue plug. If you look closely at the picture you will see a wire that is labelled "TACHO". That designates the tach wire and that wire is labelled 5(A) which means that the wire is in the "A" plug (the blue one) and that it is the 5th pin from the left if you were looking at the plug from the back.
Now what i did was go to a junkyard and rip another blue plug out of a corolla and broke it apart to get one of the little copper pins to put in my plug. I plugged it in the 5th pin hole and ran the wire into the engine bay; you can do this any number of ways, just make sure that you don't pull on the wire or it could mess with your wire or plug. Best to give it some slack, maybe zip tie it to something so if you accidentally pull too hard in the engine bay you dont rip out the pin.
Alright, once in the engine bay, you have to figure out which wire is your distributor coil wire. This works the same way as an aftermarket tach installation. On my corolla, right over the igniter/distributor is a plug with four wires; black, black w/orange, green, and white w/black. The distributor coil wire (DCW) is the black one. I cut the distributor coil wire (the black one!), stripped both sides, connected my wire from the cluster to one of the stripped ends of the DCW, then used a crimp to connect both sides of the DCW back together (i typed all that out instead of saying 'splicing the tach wire to the DCW' because some people might not know what splice means, and if you don't, i suggest you get help and don't attempt this installation on your own). After that it should start up without a problem!
Congratulations! If you have any other questions, lemme know, or if you're having trouble, I'll try and walk you through it better.
more comprehensive pics and info soon...
don't have it all ready yet...
Page 1: Intro and May 2007
Page 2: June 2007
Page 3: July 2007
Page 4: July 2007 cont.
Page 5: Hotties Break
Page 6: Mods List
Page 7: DIY OEM Tach Install Write-Up <--- you are here
Page 8: August 2007
Page 9: Funny Ass Pics Break!!!
Page 10: PAINTING 101! Write-up for painting.
Page 11: A little about myself...
