Temperature Gauge a dummy gauge?

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Chenslee

Sure, there are "dummy" gauges out there that have 3 positions: cold, normal, new-engine.
I've been monitoring the coolant temps in my civic via a scan-gauge for over 3 years and the dash gauge is accurate. I get my second "bar" when the temp hits 130°, and it warms up to about 185° within 3 minutes. I've never seen temps higher than 195°. I think that wildly fluctuating coolant temps are a thing of the past and we are confusing poorly designed sensor feedback with rock solid modern cooling systems.

I see higher coolant temps than that on the track in hondas.. the gauge never budges though.

[GregV]

Originally Posted by viper_driver

Dummy gauge, I like it. That's exactly what consumers want. Same as a fuel gauge that stays on Full for a really long time when the tank's not really full so people think the car is getting great mileage, regardless of what is actually happening. That's what consumers want. Car manufacturers will build anything we want to buy.

ha! This would explain why my Jeep is always mysteriously full or <1/2 full only.. in 7 years of ownership I have never seen the gauge at ~3/4.

[AZP Installs]

Originally Posted by Daemione

Thank you for bringing this up - I'm always amazed at how few people realize how useless their temp gauge is.

And basically repeating a recent sentiment of mine, this is another reason I love my old Datsun. The coolant gauge actually follows the coolant temperature, so it's actually worth referencing, and is a usable tuning tool. Any dyno operator worth his/her salt knows that engine temperature has to be consistent from run to run, or a comparison is useless - moreso with modern cars than with older ones. ECU's do a whole lot of tinkering with varying coolant temperatures. And you can't use a stock gauge to tell.

Same here, my ctsV has a digital gauge for the coolant temp which is nice.

-mike


11+ Years Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Subaru Enthusiasts.
Call directly as We carry almost every manufacturer now, so before you buy parts call us.
AIM: AZP Installs | E-mail: sales@azpinstalls.com | 725 Fairfield Ave | Kenilworth, NJ 07033 | 908.248.2971 | T-1 Certified Amsoil Direct Jobber
"Race Tested, Enthusiast Approved!"

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by viper_driver

...Same as a fuel gauge that stays on Full for a really long time when the tank's not really full so people think the car is getting great mileage, regardless of what is actually happening.....

(NOTE: you may know all this, but I'm on a roll and can't stop myself)

Fuel gauges (on the top/full end) I understand can't be 100% accurate without being overly pricey. The reason for that is because the pickup is in the tank, but no one just fills their tank to "full". You have more usable fuel than what is in the tank by itself. Also if its a float system, when the tank is full, in a lot of cases the float is submerged. So for it to register below full, you first have to use the fuel in the filler, then get to where the float can move in the tank.

Capacitance type senders, which don't use a float, are a bit more accurate, but still suffer from the "over full" problem.

Some if not most guages show an Over "F" condition thatrepresents all the stuff I describe above, but most folks don't read an "overfull" gauge as "more than full".

There is, IMHO, no excuse for a fuel gauge not to read accurately "E" once all useable fuel is exhausted however. Same is true for temp gauges. Obviously the general buying public does not agree with me on that one.

[SkullWorks]

coolant temp itself is a bit hard to pin down,


On the dyno I see ~100 degree temp drom across my radiator, the lower hose will be ~95 headed to the waterpump, but closer to 190 coming out of the head,

this causes some very silly readings (with digital AEM serial gauge) and I can imagine your "average consumer" would be distressed if his car was 200 at a stand still unless he free reved the motor to 4-6k a couple times, then temp would drop to 170-180 in seconds, thermostats act strange when the water on both sides varies alot, I can understand isolating "dummy's" from this data.

I would prefer something that took the average of the last minute and a half, or took 2 sensors (in different location) into account, but the bean counters say we get a dummy light...so we get a dummy light, it wouldn't be impossible to simulate a better resistance profile from the ECU's sensor and a converter box to feed the stock gauge good data.

[Draco-REX]

I think the gauges that come with the car are adequate for the majority of the buying public. They do their job well enough.

However, that's not to say they couldn't be better for the enthusiasts that buy these cars.

What I would REALLY like to see is a gauge cluster that's modular, or one that just has separate gauges like the old cars. That way we could replace the simplified gauges for more accurate ones without our dashboards looking like some sort of modern art project.

Hell, I'd love to swap the superfluous analog speedometer for oil temp and pressure.

[Chenslee]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

I see higher coolant temps than that on the track in hondas.. the gauge never budges though.

I'm going to unplug my fans and end this this thread.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Chenslee

I'm going to unplug my fans and end this this thread.

LOL record the results please

[AZP Installs]

On the CTSV, and I've spoken to SOA Engineers about this, they included a small LED panel inside the cluster. You can scroll between oil temp, coolant temp, trans temp, tp (shows all 4 corners), and a lateral g meter. If any one of them operates outside of the specified range, it would immediately flip to that one and show a warning. This is on my 2005 mind you. This made it phenomenal for your average enthusiast without hacking up the car with a million gauges etc.

I would gladly pay $500+ for this feature on a car like this as a "track pack" or something similar. Heck, group it with brembos and charge like 1500 extra!

-mike


11+ Years Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Subaru Enthusiasts.
Call directly as We carry almost every manufacturer now, so before you buy parts call us.
AIM: AZP Installs | E-mail: sales@azpinstalls.com | 725 Fairfield Ave | Kenilworth, NJ 07033 | 908.248.2971 | T-1 Certified Amsoil Direct Jobber
"Race Tested, Enthusiast Approved!"

[MSTiFK8R]

Have somebody tried to install aftermarket coolant temp sender to check if OEM gauge is cheating on you a lot?

I plan to do so

Could any of you lucky BRZ\FRS\GT86 owners let me know the diameter of the coolant hose coming to the radiator?

This is the place where the Defi temp sender will live

[wbradley]

So basically the temp gauge could be replaced by a 3 position light; low, med and high.

Probably eliminates automotive hypochondria. People wouldn't easily accep a 3 position indicator.

[MSTiFK8R]

Originally Posted by wbradley

So basically the temp gauge could be replaced by a 3 position light; low, med and high.

Probably eliminates automotive hypochondria. People wouldn't easily accep a 3 position indicator.

2-position would be easier for the modern driver public

just DRIVE\DON'T DRIVE

like

[Jordo!]

I thought a "dummy" gauge just meant it tells you qualitative, ordinal info like low, medium, high (which can be inferred from the orientation of the needle or other marker), but provides no actual quantitative values, and may not even have clear intervals.

So... if that's the case, most temp gauges are indeed "dummy".

Then there's "idiot" lights, that only come on when something's about to leave you stranded :p