Keeping you informed

[Spiny Norman]

I was thinking today that apart from my recent re-acquaintance with a Vauxhall Royale, it's years since I've driven anything with what road testers of old would have described as "A full complement of instruments".

Like any self respecting up market car of its day, in the big VX not only were the usual things like rev counter and temperature gauge present, but oil pressure was monitored and amps were counted. I've been in some modern cars that don't even have a temperature gauge, just a warning light.

 

Do any new cars have things like ammeters and oil pressure or temperature gauges or have the manufacturers decided we just don't care anymore?

[cort16]

The Alfa 159 has got a turbo boost gauge, which I thought was cool.

 

I really dislike the habit in modern cars (usually the smaller ones) of not having a temprature gauge. Surely if the littlr light comes on saying you're cooking the engine it's probably too bloody late?

[Cavcraft]

My 406 has a gauge to the left of the fuel one. I have absolutely no idea at all what it does and it's not the temp gauge either.

[hairnet]

pisses me off mightly on bikes

 

ever moreso in cars where they have the room and its costs fk all in the scheme of things cost wise

[wuvvum]

It's not just modern cars. Neither the LNA nor the Renault 6 have temperature gauges. Speedo, fuel, and that's your lot.

[wuvvum]

My 406 has a gauge to the left of the fuel one. I have absolutely no idea at all what it does and it's not the temp gauge either.

Oil temp?

[Cavcraft]

I don't know! When you first start the car it whizzes over to the right for a few seconds then goes back to the left. I didn't notice it move again on a longish run on a busy road on a hot day last weekend.

[Volksy]

Oil Level probably, Renaults have the same gauge I think.

[wuvvum]

That's 'cos it doubles as an oil level gauge for the first few seconds after you turn the ignition on. One of my BX's had the same thing. Oil temp function probably doesn't work any more, hence why it doesn't move subsequently.

[phil_lihp]

I always thought that a temperature gauge was one rung below the rev counter on the list of luxury extras - my Citroen AX Debut didn't have a gauge, just a warning light which would light up just in time to tell you the radiator was ready to explode. I'm surprised it's come back full circle given the mass clutter of controls and buttons on most moderns. Then again, I don't recall seeing an oil pressure gauge on any of the cars I've owned, again just a warning light.

[wuvvum]

My BX TXD estate had the temp warning light come on a couple of times when I was towing the Renault Novaquatre back from Hampshire. It comes on faintly at first, then gets brighter as the engine gets hotter, so you do get a bit of warning before the engine shits itself completely. I can't guarantee that this is the case with all temp-light-equipped cars though - the only other one I've ever boiled up was the Renner Six (when the fanbelt let go) and the warning light on that doesn't work at all.

[Junkman]

The only guage I really don't need is a rev counter. Funnily enough only some of my cars of non-North-American provenance were ever festooned with them.

In over 30 years of continuous car ownership, I haven't managed to figure out what I'm supposed do with the information displayed by this instrument.

 

What merely confuses the hell out of me are digital clocks, hence I avoid cars fitted with them.

If a clock says 21:30 I always think it's still an hour until half past nine.

[panhard65]

My 1952 Hotchkiss doesn't have a temp gauge just a light. No oil pressure gauge either just a light that takes ages to go out, but there again it doesn't even have an ignition key just a couple of switches. So much for french luxury cars they didn't care much about the driver he didn't even get carpet just rubber mats in the front carpet in the back

[dollywobbler]

That's 'cos it doubles as an oil level gauge for the first few seconds after you turn the ignition on. One of my BX's had the same thing. Oil temp function probably doesn't work any more, hence why it doesn't move subsequently.

 

Only on the really posh BXs. On most, it is purely an oil level indicator when you start up. Sounds like the 406 has the same thing. As long as it moved when you start up, then all's probably well! They do occasionally and dramatically under-read but they're pretty accurate most of the time.

[Wilko220]

I also thought the "no temp gauge" thing was a recent development, until I discovered that the C15 doesn't have one - and that's no modern dashboard.

My Sceptre, on the other hand, has lots of dials to tell you about all the things that aren't quite right. I love it. Given how cheap a dial must be compared to all the other toss they put in modern cars, I'm really surprised at the lack of instrumentation you seem to get these days.

[dollywobbler]

Don't forget that the Mini didn't often have a temp gauge. Don't think Morris Minors did either. I do hate it because as well as knowing when the engine is too hot, it's almost as important to know when it's not hot enough.

 

I did fit Cylinder Head Temperature gauges to the 2CV for a time, but it just made me paranoid so I removed them. What you can't see, can't worry you...

[Guest]

The newer my tat gets, the less instrumentation it tends to have.

 

Working from recent to old fashioned, the C4 has a temperature and fuel gauge flanking the speedo, with everything else being idiot lights. If you left foot brake in third off the Lymm Roundabout, the SERVICE light comes on for some reason.

 

You can measure LOADSATHINGS in the 460 Turbo when the CEM wants to work. Water and oil temperature, the outside temperature (in Farenheit \ Miles), average and instant fuel consumption, as well as fuel in blobs in the central LED mounted in the binnacle. There's also a boost and oil pressure gauge in the dashboard but they're not scaled, other than for blocks of colour.

 

The Amazon is piss basic. I've added a 123GT revcounter (which is shit and wrong according to the old Volvo pervs) but otherwise fuel and temperature's yer lot. The former tends to dance around when the car's on the move because it runs off a generator - when you brim the car you tend to calculate the range based on how far you've gone as opposed to what the bouncing needle tells you.

 

Other shite is SUPER BROKEN and as such ineligible for this competiton.

[dollywobbler]

Just thought of something else. The Rover 75 (and presumably a lot of other cars) has a temperature gauge, but it doesn't necessarily tell the truth. When it hits the middle of the dial, it could be anywhere within quite a wide range. There is a clever way to get the trip computer to tell you the actual temperature if you get excited about that sort of thing. So, is it better to have no gauge than a gauge that's economical with the truth?

[DSdriver]

The DS does not have a temperature gauge but they seem to be able to overheat without dire things happening to the engine.

The only gauge it does have apart from the rev counter is a fuel gauge that is random to the point of being no use at all. It can vary between empty and half full depending on whether you are going up or downhill - or possibly down and uphill.

It does have THE BIG RED LIGHT OF DOOM. A wonderful Citroen idiosyncrasy.

 

Edited for idiosyncratic spelling.

[Wilko220]

I did wonder why it never seemed to fluctuate on the 75.

What's this clever way then?

[tooSavvy]

is a fuel gauge that is random to the point of being no use at all. It can vary between empty and half full depending on whether you are going up or downhill - or possibly down and uphill.

 

It seems the fast or slow response of the fuel gauge is down to the type of sender/dial arrangement. I think the 'HotWire' is fast - 'BiMetallic/resistor' is slow.

 

My Skoda Estelle/Rapid would act like a clinometer on roundabouts... literally flickering full/empty like a 'G-meter' on F1....

 

Bloody Hilarious*... and the only car I have ever owned that did it.

 

*Other manufacturers may Entertain

 

tooSavvy

[Pillock]

It's just a case of picturing where in the tank the sender is. If it's towards the front, it'll read fuller going downhill. Towards the rear, uphill means fuller. Most cars fluctuate a little bit, my Seat would gain one notch on the dial between uphill and downhill.

 

I like extra dials because I'm a geek. I've added dials to most of my old aircooled stuff just because they look so empty with just the speedo, or the two dials on the Type3. OTOH an oil temp gauge is pretty handy on those because it doesn't take much of an increase to roast the engine.

[dollywobbler]

I did wonder why it never seemed to fluctuate on the 75.

What's this clever way then?

 

I can't remember which forum I found it on, but Google should help you. On board diagnostics I think it's called.

[Wilko220]

Thanks DW. Here it is:

http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s ... ostic+mode

[Lacquer Peel]

I have to smack the Volvo's dash to make the temperature gauge work. The fuel gauge stops above half way.

[Volksy]

The Lancia has a full compliment of gauges, surprisingly, most* of them work. Although you have to lightly tap the fuel gauge to get initially read. Oh, and the clock covers about three hours to 8 mins real time.....

 

The Audi has no rev counter, being poverty spec, which on a car of its class is surprising. The MASSIVE clock in its place doesn't tell the right time either....

[STUNO]

Audi 200 l-right...volts, oil pressure,oil temp, oil pressure, revs with inset clock, computer readout stuck on turbo boost. speedo and the fuel. Also a fault readout which goes through a check routine then reads "OK" of all is right. It also gives out warnings and has done so only once when a coolant pipe burst, that was "coolant" accompanied by bleeping and came on well before the temp rose, of course me being me I stopped when real steam appeared.

[Cavcraft]

Citroen BX and Corsa C fuel gauges are hopeless. You might just as well push some string into the fuel tank and try and guess how much is in there using a tape measure.

[skattrd]

Lots of gauges on the 70-80's Lancias - with French/Italian cars you do need them though ... It's a shame the fuel gauge doesn't work particularly well on either of my Betas, one reads a quarter of tank left when empty the other reads empty when there's nearly half a tank left.

[barefoot]

My old Trabant had a speedometer and an odometer....

 

.. it also had a plastic dipstick clipped onto the fuel tank (which I eventually dropped in)

 

And an amazing digital 'fuel flow meter' which lit up like a tachometer in segments from green through amber to red when you had your foot on the floor!