Installing a WB02 (Innovate LC-1)

At some point and time you are probably going to want to install a WB02 sensor to verify your AFR readings. Hopefully this article will shed some light on how to remove the center console, where to wire in your WB02 and where to route the WB02 through the floor.

In this tutorial I am installing an Innovate LC-1 and its associated compents, see below:

The first thing your going to want to do is to install a WB02 bung (not the WBO2 itself!) in your exhaust. If you have a race header, you already have 2 bungs. One for primary and one for the defouled secondary O2. You can remove the secondary O2 from the racer header and install the WB02 there. I relocated my secondary O2 properly, in other words I installed a new bung behind the high flow cat where it belongs. I did this at an exhaust shop, for $20. In total I now have 3 O2 sensors in my exhaust including the WB02.

Here are some pics of my installed bung for the secondary O2.

At this point and time there is a plug (comes with your LC-1) in the second hole in the DCRH where I will be mounting the WB02. You do NOT want to install the WB02 until is connected to the controller and powered up, or Innovate says it will permanently damage the sensor, due to the high EGT's!

If you don't have a race header I would place your WB02 in such a location, that if you add a header, you won't have to relocate it. However if your buying a WBO2, you should have a racer header. So... with that out of the way...

With your LC-1 in hand, the second thing your going to want to do is find a place to install all that hardware. You have the LC-1 WBO2 itself, the LC-1 controller, the gauge, a reset button and LED, and alot of cables! Your probably thinking you want to connected under the dash, to fused slot 8 (switched 12v), add a circuit etc, and you can do it that way. The way I chose to do it, is the path of least resistance. To install it under the center console and run the plugs though the floor where the stock hole is for the secondary 02. I used the secondary outlet in the console box, for power, switched 12v.

To do this the first step is to remove the console. You do this be remove to plastic clips from the front of the console. One is on the driver side visible by the gas pedal. The other is on the passenger side, hidden under the bottom kick panel, which just pulls off. The you want to remove the shifter trim it just pulls up, and then the larger trim and change holder around it, it also pulls up. Then remove the two screws mounting the side panels to the shift mechanism.

Here are some pictures for tab/screw locations for center console removal:

You can see 3/4 things in the below photos, after removal. The stuff is out of the way already, in your case you will still have the side panels on. The passenger side plastic clip is not visible in this photo.

For perspective the gas pedal is in the bottom left hand corner of that picture. Once you taken out the two screws that used to be in the red circles above. You need to take out the 2 screws hidden underneath the carpet piece, INSIDE the arm rest console.

Now to get the console out of there pull the ebrake hard, put the car in 4th gear and lift everything out from the back. As you do this, disconnect power from the 12v outlet. There is only one power connection, just infront of the shifter. The rest you can do from the back seat if possible. Easy if you have a Sedan... *cough *cough... :-)

In this picture the large circle is where I installed my WBO2 controller, wrapped in bubble wrap, under the carpet. The smaller circle is where you can put the O2 through the floor. The hole is big enough to fit it without cutting! The smallest circle is the general area for the 12v Aux power connection.

Do not power on the car during the install of the wiring. You can remove battery terminal if you want etc. 

The LC-1 has 6 output wires. BLUE, WHITE (grounds) RED (12 switched) YELLOW (Narrow band O2 simulator) BROWN (Analog out 2) and BLACK (calibration wire). I wired the LC-1 RED switched power to the 12v Aux connector above on the + Voltage side. Use a volt meter to confirm, hint its not the black side. You should also install a 5A fuse inline with the LC-1, according to the manual. I wired the BLUE and WHITE wires to the GROUND here. My LC-1 came with a gauge that had RED (12v), BLACK (Grn), BLUE (Data) and YELLOW (12v=Dim Display) wires. So... at the time I also wired in the gauge RED and BLACK wires to 12v and ground aux wires respectively...

To continue I connected the BROWN LC-1 out to my analog gauge BLUE in. You can hook up the GAUGE YELLOW to the 12v light in the Hazard switch for a dimming feature, but I didn't do this yet at this time so I taped this wire. I also taped the LC-1 YELLOW wire closed as I am not using that wire either. At the point I wrapped the LC-1 controller in bubble wrap and place it under the carpet as in the above photo.

Lastly, you must hook up the toggle switch and LED. These are connected in parrelle, or across each other. One side of the switch goes to ground, the same ground you have been using all along. The BLACK side of the LED wire also goes to ground. The RED side of the LED goes to the small BLACK wire coming out of the LC-1. The other side of the switch also goes to this same location. This means when you push the buttom down the LED goes out due to a short to ground. This black wire is used for calibration which we will get to. This is the LED and switch in discussion:

For better grounding, I ALSO ran a black wire from the black ground of the stock 12v Aux connector, to the bare metal ground of the center shift console under a screw. I used the screw the top red circle is just touching in this pic, it held a wire to the ground, and that wire was solder to the black 12v Aux connector ground, giving the current ultimately two paths to ground:

This is to allow for better grounding as the LC-1 is sensitive to this. The heater for O2 draws ~4A so this allows for not all of that 4A to go back through the stock wire, creating a better ground.

Now its time to calibrate the WBO2. Do not connect the WBO2 to the controller yet. Power on the Car and the LC-1 should power up. You will see the LED flashing as it powers up, your gauge will display 7.4 AFR. After 20 secs... turn the car off. Now plug in the WB02. It should not be in the exhaust yet! The O2 will get warm in the next step so set it down on medal after its hooked up, gently. Now turn on the car and wait 20 secs. Once the LED is on solid, press and hold the calibration button down for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds release. Turn off the car. Now your LC-1 is calibrated to the oxygen content in the air where you live. This is called a free-air calibration. At this point everything was connected so I dropped the WBO2 through the floor, through the stock secondary O2 sensor location in the floor here:

I cut the factory grommet and allowed room for the WBO2 wire as well. I then silicone it and sealed it, after I had threaded the WBO2 into my race header:

I ran the car for a few mins to confirm the LC-1 was operating, watched it cycle around 14.3 on my gauge. In my case the gauge reads 0.3 AFR different then the LC-1 itself. I will calibrate the BROWN analog 2 wire out of the LC-1 with programing, later. If the gauge is working and the LC-1 seems good, its time to clean up.

If you press the calibrate button my accident when the car is on, it will trigger a free-air calibration, with the O2 in the exhaust, so the calibration will be out. So it must be mounted safely.

I chose to mount the switch and LED here:

I drilled two holes in the changed holder, at the top, to hide the switch and LED, this is the same piece of plastic from the back:

Here is a shot of wear the are mounted, they are hidden just above and to the right of the gauge. It is there for reference:

Putting the camera into the change holder you can just see them:

They are hidden and protected, in an hard to get to area, so they are not likely to be hit by accident (not the end of the world) and still accessible.

At this point I cleaned up, put everything back as it was tested and verified working. I installed my serial terminator in the LC-1 box into the serial IN location. I connected the serial out to my laptop, and I installed Log works. I route the longer cables out the front of the console near the gas pedal and zipped tired them like so:

I fired up ATR and connected to by ECU and started datalogging. I fired up Logworks and connected to the LC-1 and overlayed it onto ATR. Then I went for a drive:

Good luck with your install! Be sure to mount the gauge if you have one. A convientient location of your choice is sufficient, there is no right place, but you may need to extend the cable. Keep in mind that your 12v Aux plug now has a ~4A draw on it from the WBO2 heater and LC-1. So you can increase your fuse size by 5A to a 15A total (no issue with stock wiring, especially with the second ground wire you installed) or you can keep in mind to not use that plug for larger accessories.

Happy tuning! 

The AccessTuners Team