Fitted some gauges. These:

XyberAutos

I was very careful with the wiring and went by the book and through what I had read on here and in guides. I connected the red power wire to the ignition wire for the radio. The white illumination wire is connected to the 'bright' switch below the heater controls (the car is a MY00 UK) and the black wire is earthed to the chassis. The gauges are being powered in series.
Before plugging the power into the gauges I checked each wire with an electrical tester. With the ignition turned on, only the power wire was live. With the ignition and the lights turned on, the power wire and the illumination wire where both live.
So I stuck the connector into the back of the gauge. Turned on the ignition and started the car, nothing happened. With the car still running I turned on the lights. The gauges started their opening ceremony and illuminated. Turned off the lights and the gauges turned off also.
I can't see what I've done wrong. Should I have connected to the radios permanent 12v feed?? Surely this would cause the gauges to be on all the time??

I'm so lost.

 

Sounds like you might have the illumination connected to the power feed instead. Try swapping the connections.

 

lve just finished fitting 3 prosport gauges and had the same problem, to get round this l connected the red live and accessory wire from the gauges together then wired to the cigarette lighter live, nice gauges until the sun comes out and you cant see the needles.

 

the instructions aren't great, you need a little electrics experience to figure it out. Or at least wiring gauges up.

IIRC there are four wiring options, depending on whether you want illumination white all the time, amber all the time, or white day-amber night or vice versa.

When it says you need a permanent 12v for one of the connections it really means it - a permanent 12v, not switched, because that is the memory function. It also IIRC needs a switched 12v which turns the gauges on and off, and depending where you put this it varies the lighting scheme. Then you need a ground wire as well. And if you want the fancy colour changing lighting as well, you need the illumination feed. TBH I'd keep it simple and just have it as white/white, then you don't use the illumination wire at all.

 

Thanks for the help.

In the end I took a permanent live feed from the radio for the power and the illumination wire was attached to the ignition wire on the radio.