why manufactures doing away with gauges

[M1Accord]

I want to know everything there is about my cars' condition; oil, battery, coolant, speed, rpm, etc. it seems like most companies (especially japanese makers) rely on idiots lights instead of gauges. i guess they feel the typical drivers are too stupid and/or lazy to understand and/or bother with gauges so warning lights are more appropriate.

well, i want gauges to see the problems coming and modify/correct rather than having to folk out big repair bills. for this reason, i am thinking of getting a jeep instead of japan suv in a distant future.

 

[double vanos]

Put BMW in that group too...they even did away with the dipstick!!!

Shameful.

 

[wapacz]

Yeah I know what you mean. The only reason i caught my alternator being dead was becuase the my truck has a volt meter.

My guess is that most people don't know how to read the gauges. They see not in the red okay. At which point it becomes why even have a gauge when you can go with a cheaper light that will tell you went something is wrong.

The only place that this seems not to be happening is in vehicles that might be used for work such as towing stuff. These vehicles have actually gotten more gauges in some case. Such as a transmission gauge to go with an oil pressure, voltmeter, and water temp gauge.

 

[MGregoir]

My car has a tach, a temperature gauge, a fuel gauge and a spedometer. If I had a voltmeter, I would have noticed right away that my alternator had gone bad and gone to get it fixed, or at least purchased an extra battery to get myself home (it was a holiday weekend and I was 130 miles out of town, probably could have made it as the alternator was making enough current at speed but if I idled all the lights for anything electronic like ABS or airbags were tripping). I guess I did have a clue there but I thought I was having some computer malfunction.

My car I had before that had a voltmeter as well as an oil pressure and temperature gauge. I think at a minimum a voltmeter would be a big help. The oil pressure gauge is nice but not really needed in most cases.

 

[njcruiser]

depends on the application. All of my toyota tundra and toytoa land cruiser had/have gauges. my 4runner has gauges. My smaller toyota 4x4 4cy did not, but I think the same year V6 model did. Usually cheaper, or commuter cars, dont have gauges.

 

[Crashbox]

That is one thing I REALLY appreciate about my '77 Chev C20 pickup: it has gauges! Oil pressure (mechanical) and voltmeter. Sure wish my Civic had them; been thinkin' about possibly doing so...

It would be nice to have a federal mandate for them.

 

[98LSC32V]

I wish I had an oil pressure gauge, all my Mark VIII has is a dummy light when the oil pressure goes below 5psi in which case if it does your motor is probably toast anyway. I don't get it.

 

[Audi Junkie]

No oil temp guage installed in newer Audis with turbos is a bad call. I'd rather OT than WT. OP would be nice.

 

[Carmudgeon]

You (the OP), and I would dare say, most of the drivers here are in the distinct minority.

For the majority of folks, I suspect that two gauges would suffice -- a fuel gauge, and a speedometer. One to prevent the car from running out of fuel and stranding them, and one to prevent impromptu roadside conferences with the constabulary.

Ever come across cars driving in well-lit urban areas with no lights on, or only DRLs? It occurs more than one might think. Those "drivers" obviously have no use for an instrument cluster at all.

 

[Tosh]

Maybe cars could get away without an actual gauge for most things besides speed and fuel level, but it would be really nice to tap into the info the car already knows (OBD) without buying a Scan-Gauge type device.
I'm a bit surprised manfs haven't gone to a user-configurable graphics display screen for the instrument panel. Maybe next year?

 

[Titan]

It's a combination of Cost and lack of Consumer demand.

 

[M1Accord]

the alternator on my corolla died twice in 12 months. first time it was replaced by midas (or so they claimed) and the second time by pep boys. well, i saw that idiot lights (battery and brake) and didn't even know what the heck it was. i drove it to the mall and got stuck there. second time also at the mall and got stuck there after the battery and brake lights stayed on w/ my family. well, i got the alternator from AA and had pep boys put it in so i can rest assure it is good for long time instead of the [censored] 12 months from midas.

but if i had gauges, i could detect that my battery wasn't charging normally and get the problem taken care of. luckily i wasn't on vacation on some distant land.

so i am seriously thinking about getting a jeep grand cherokee (prefer cherokee but they make make them anymore) because it was designed for wrench monkey drivers. and that lifetime warranty take away the worry of having a huge repair bills. also, a long time experience with rental cars (all american) tells me that most cars on the road are very reliable and problems occur either in bad luck, lemon defect, or severely bad design (this is very rare). so i am safe. now i just need to wait 4 years to save enough peso for a ride.

 

[M1Accord]

but i am sure my cleaning lady would upgrade to hummer h2 by then. lol

 

[M1Accord]

the reason i didn't know how to respond to the ido lights because my buddy has a truck where all hte lights stay on constantly due to electrical glitches and i sure heck can't tell what light means what as it is not like i get to see the lights on daily basis. also, when the light is one, we're talking about problem already occured, especially oil light.

so i am researching ways to install gauge for my cars. i know where the sending unit for oil is located on both personal cars but i haven't figured out how to run the wires through the firewall and into the passenger cabin. for my corolla, i probably drill holes out of the dash and have a instrument panel of battery, oil, and coolant gauges right there.

well, time to head to dealership to gawk at the new jeep commander, grand cherokee, and some big ford pickup.

 

[Challenger71]

Originally Posted By: Carmudgeon

Ever come across cars driving in well-lit urban areas with no lights on, or only DRLs? It occurs more than one might think. Those "drivers" obviously have no use for an instrument cluster at all.


You and I must live in the same town. LOL

 

[brianl703]

One day I was driving my 1988 Mustang GT and the voltage gauge seemed to be reading low. I happened to have a digital multimeter and a cigarette lighter cord with stripped ends on it so I connected the multimeter to the cord and sure enough the voltage was down to 12.5 volts.

Obviously an alternator problem. When I got to my destination I shut the car off and it started OK later, then I drove it home and installed the alternator the next day.

The old alternator was warm to the touch despite the engine having been off all night. I think it was draining power from the battery all night and that's why it was warm.

I put the new alternator in and it started right up.

Had I not had a voltage guage, I would not have known there was a problem until the battery either wouldn't start the car anymore or the car just died in the middle of traffic. Then I probably would've been out a battery AND an alternator.

 

[Buffman]

my 95 RM only came with speed, water temp, and fuel. Odd that the 92-93s had full gauges.

One good thing is if you have a FSM (or found online guide), you can use the Climate Control to access a tach, and other digital readouts for various things. Of course, it now has a tach, oil temp gauge I can switch between oil and trans temp, oil pressure, volts, and vacuum.

I think it would be [censored] cool if newer cars would have some sort of read out screen that could tell you what DTCs you had or ABS codes, so if something goes wrong you have an indication of what's wrong. But with consumers who don't pay attention to anything else, they could care less.

 

[eljefino]

LOL at the ford trucks where the oil "gauge" is just a dummy light sender that sends the gauge to midrange as long as pressure is >5 psi.

Actually it's tragic, like how many coolant temp gauges are deadened between 180-215'F so normal swings don't alarm drivers.

The odometer area is becoming something of a readout; have seen tire pressure monitoring there and I understand some but not all dodges read OBD-II codes there with the key on-off-on-off-on command.

Volts are the easiest gauge to install as one need not penetrate the firewall; just hook up two wires and they're done! The typical battery dummy light (horrible idiogram- sells lots of needless batteries) charges the field current of an alternator a certain way and only certain alt failures light that light. I had a ford blow the dummy light fuse, which ceased excitation of the alt, which caused it to not charge, with no apparant symptoms to the driver. Again, a simple volt gauge would have shown this.

As far as cost, it depends on if the computer already knows the data. It won't know oil pressure as it has no need so there is the $15 cost of the sensor. It does know RPM which is why we see a tach in my mother in laws buick lesabre.

GM whim, with the new--old gauge!

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: wapacz
My guess is that most people don't know how to read the gauges. They see not in the red okay.

I agree, a lot of people just don't care. I'm guessing the next technical evolutionary step will be two hands that come out of the dash board. One grabs your shirt, and the other slaps you across the face telling you that something is wrong with the car, and that you should be checking the dash gauges.

 

[artificialist]

This makes me think of the "Check gauges" light that was in some GM cars during the 80s and 90s. It would light up whenever one of the gauge needles was in the danger zone.

That in mind, most people are better off with idiot lights.