Check Engine Light Modification for Vanagon

I followed the instructions from my RMW manual to turn my outdated OXS light (e.g., lower left LED on instrument cluster) into a check engine light for my Subaru engine.  The engine bay is modified to connect the Subaru ENG LIGHT wire into your VW round connector's 7 pin.  That's pretty easy.  For the under-the-dash stuff, though here's the photos of the steps I did for those of you, who are visual learners.

First things, first... get your instrument panel off and accessible - not covered here!

The photo below shows the 14 pin connector that goes into the blue foil on the back of the instrument cluster.  Some are different colors depending on the year of your van, so either reference your Bentley or RMW manual, which has it listed.  The pins read right to left in this photo (1 on far right and 14 on left).  My 14 pin wire color was blue/green.

1986 VW Weekender 14 PIN for Instrument Cluster

If you are still confused about which pin is 1 vs. 14 when doing this mod, look at the connector.  You can see the numbers on it.  Pin 14 is on the top in this photo.

Numbering is on the connector, if you are confused.

Following the RMW instructions, I cut the 12 pin (yellow, high oil pressure light) wire and the 14 pin OXS wire (blue/green on my '86 Weekender). Note where I cut them, to make it easier to connect during the next step.  The yellow wire on pin 12 will be left hanging and the pin 14 blue/green wire that dropped back off the connector will be left hanging.

After cutting each wire

I connected the yellow wire coming from the engine bay to the blue/green wire going to pin 14 with a non-insulated butt-connector and "heat shrinked" it with clear heat shrink.  Then, I used liquid tape to cover the end of the unused pin 12 yellow wire and did the same on the unused end of the blue/green wire that dropped off when I cut it off of pin 14.

Yellow High Oil Pressure wire connected to OXS light

There you have it.  A visual demo of how to make the OXS on your instrument cluster into your CEL light for your Subaru.  Total time: 30 minutes.