Not even a coolant temp gauge

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Astro14

Astro14

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Just rented a 2012 Subaru Outback - nice car, leather, heated seats, Harmon-Kardon sound system...but as I looked at the instrument cluster...let's see: Tach, Speedo, fuel quantity...and that's it!

Not even a coolant temp gauge - just an idiot light in the shape of a thermometer that is blue until the engine warms (I suppose it turns red if the engine overheats). In the place where a coolant temp gauge would be, is a stupid vacuum gauge (they call it an economy gauge...yeah, whatever).

I prefer knowing all the operating parameters of the engine, I even put a transmission temp gauge in the 4 Runner so I could see that (in addition to factory oil pressure, voltage, coolant temp, etc...). The Packard has them all, oil pressure, ammeter, coolant temp, fuel level, but it's from from the days when you had to know how to operate a motor car, not just put a key in an appliance.

So, according to Subaru, we are such morons now that we don't even need to know the operating temperature of the engine...
 
This is also found on the Toyota Yaris and related Scion models.

This is fine by me, because OEM Temperature gauges were so inaccurate, that having one served almost no purpose except to tell you if the engine is too cold or too hot.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Not even a coolant temp gauge - just an idiot light in the shape of a thermometer that is blue until the engine warms (I suppose it turns red if the engine overheats). In the place where a coolant temp gauge would be, is a stupid vacuum gauge (they call it an economy gauge...yeah, whatever).

Sadly, that's where the industry is going. BMW has done it on some of their cars, too. Come to think of it, many cars today have coolant temp gauges, but they are dummy gauges to a large extent. Another words, the gauge is programmed to sit at exactly 12 o'clock position in a fairly wide range of temps. By the time it starts moving to the right, you're usually in some deep doodoo. So from that perspective, it is not much different from an idiot light.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
..
So, according to Subaru, we are such morons now that we don't even need to know the operating temperature of the engine...

Yes most operators ARE morons. You are of the 1 percent cognescenti. You only see gauges in trucks and sports cars - even my ford ranger lost a few gauges in its cluster from the early 90's. Plug in your scangauge and have a party
smile.gif
 
I am disappointed...but not surprised...

When I learned to drive (in the 70s), my Dad would have me check the gauges as part of my "scan"...back then, you needed to...and you needed to know how they worked in order to even start a car with a choke, or glowplugs, or whatever.

Now, cars are like iPhones - I don't need to know how it works, just turn it on and push the pedal to go faster, push this other one to slow down...

And Arco - how did you know I just ordered a scan gauge for my iPhone? I was going to rip out the factory stereo in the Volvo and re-do the dash to include boost, oil pressure, oil temp and trans temp...but hey, if the information is already there via OBD II...
 
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This is where a ScanGauge or UltraGauge come in handy. The first two gauges I set my ScanGauge to were coolant temp and battery voltage.
 
This was a fad in the 1980s as well on cars like the buick skylark and chevy cavalier. Just a 4" gas gauge and a same size 85 mph speedo. Lights for the rest.

My work's stripped 1999 XJ cherokee also had only an idiot light for temp. They never maintained it and the rad was full of rusty sludge.
 
Some mfgs allow you to access various parameters such as coolant/oil/trans temp and display them through OBC, even though there is no dedicated analog gauge for it. I'd expect this to become more common as your traditional analog instrument cluster turns into a one big fancy LCD screen.

qnx_digital_cluster_night_n.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
So, according to Subaru, we are such morons now that we don't even need to know the operating temperature of the engine...

I think they just understand the vast majority of their customers.
 
Are you aware that almost all of the newer cars which do have analog coolant temperature gauge, often they are nothing but glorious idiot light in disguise. They have only two or three real positions on the needle regardless of the actual coolant temperature.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
This was a fad in the 1980s as well on cars like the buick skylark and chevy cavalier. Just a 4" gas gauge and a same size 85 mph speedo. Lights for the rest.


They did that on the Camaro. Not just the pitiful 2.5 Camaro either.
Even if you optioned the L69 305 in a Camaro Sport Coupe (the one with the slots above the "grill"), you got the big two sided needle fuel gauge that "read" in liters and gallons instead of a tach, a similar speedometer that read in mph and kmph, and a bunch of idiot lights. And I say "read in liters and gallons" because you had to stop for 30 seconds or so on level ground to get the needle to stop moving.

They did this to the Camaro.

Maybe so dealers could "upsell" to the VFD digital display on the Berlinetta when someone asked where the coolant gauge was.

I had the most base model Mustang "L" from that time frame and I had an ammeter (that as far as I know never worked...the needle never moved but it had one) rudimentary coolant gauge, fuel, oil pressure, speedometer and tach.
 
so I've heard...but look at my sig...I wouldn't say that I own anything "newer"...
 
This is not a new concept... even my '89 Crown Vic did not have a temperature gauge, just a combined idiot light for oil pressure AND temperature.

Most people don't know and don't care about having a temperature gauge. We're in the minority that does care. I'm willing to bet most wouldn't stop the engine if the idiot light came on or the gauge is pegged at H, and will keep driving until the engine blows.

Thankfully, a ScanGauge can give detailed readings on a lot of things to those of us who want to know.

However, there's still no good excuse for not having a REAL temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, etc. Putting a fuel economy gauge in place of these is completely ridiculous. Those who don't care will just ignore the other gauges anyways.
 
Originally Posted By: jim302

Most people don't know and don't care about having a temperature gauge. We're in the minority that does care. I'm willing to bet most wouldn't stop the engine if the idiot light came on or the gauge is pegged at H, and will keep driving until the engine blows.


This^^^^

A gauge really isn't needed for Joe Six Pack or Sally Airhead... Virtually all modern vehicles have a no coolant fail-safe mode that disables alternate cylinders by shutting down the fuel injector(s) and just letting some cylinders pump air to prevent catastrophic overheating...
 
Nothing new. My '89 Cavalier had an 85 mph speedo and fuel guage. Everything else was idiot lights. (The 85 mph speedo was appropriate - with a 3 speed auto and 96 hp when new out of that 4 cylinder she was not a speed demon... Reliable though!)
 
Originally Posted By: TFB1
Originally Posted By: jim302

Most people don't know and don't care about having a temperature gauge. We're in the minority that does care. I'm willing to bet most wouldn't stop the engine if the idiot light came on or the gauge is pegged at H, and will keep driving until the engine blows.


This^^^^

A gauge really isn't needed for Joe Six Pack or Sally Airhead... Virtually all modern vehicles have a no coolant fail-safe mode that disables alternate cylinders by shutting down the fuel injector(s) and just letting some cylinders pump air to prevent catastrophic overheating...


+1

Also, a lot of cars didnt have tachs.

We are a bit spoiled, what, with oil pressure gauges and such.
smile.gif
 
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