Garden Shed

[SierraMikeHotel]

My GT 86 has a touchscreen radio/sat nav.

I'd rather have buttons, but that wasn't an option.

 

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A sat nav with buttons sounds unpleasant. Serious question - how would you make a sat nav without a touchscreen?

[iainrcz]

My 407, 508 and rcz did it.

They worked fine.

 

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[SiC]

A sat nav with buttons sounds unpleasant. Serious question - how would you make a sat nav without a touchscreen?

Badly.

 

My Civic, Laguna II and now Audi TT all have no touchscreen for controlling the Sat Nav. TT by far the worst, then Laguna II (no postcode function FFS) and then the Civic is the best. But still shit.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Badly.

 

My Civic, Laguna II and now Audi TT all have no touchscreen for controlling the Sat Nav. TT by far the worst, then Laguna II (no postcode function FFS) and then the Civic is the best. But still shit.

The telephone dial in the modern Merc is truly terrible. Without a full-size keyboard, which would be silly in a car, I genuinely can't think of a better way.

 

What was the Pug solution?

[iainrcz]

407 was a central screen with keypad and rotary control.

508 was similar but with joystick type thing and buttons down near gearlever, and rcz was flip up screen with keypad and rotary control.

 

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[loserone]

There's a balance to be struck, some things like choosing a destination, browsing internet radio or picking a selection of albums work well on a touchscreen.

 

I'd rather have lights and heater controls connected to the lights and heating, through cables or relays.

 

I'd still drive a Tesla.

[SierraMikeHotel]

There's a balance to be struck, some things like choosing a destination, browsing internet radio or picking a selection of albums work well on a touchscreen.

 

I'd rather have lights and heater controls connected to the lights and heating, through cables or relays.

 

I'd still drive a Tesla.

This exactly, to my mind.

 

I prefer the rotary dials for choosing the temperature in the OldMerc, but using a rotary dial to enter a postcode in the NewMerc does my nut.

[AMC Rebel]

Difference between an aircraft and a car is that looking down at a screen for ten seconds doesn't end up with you hitting a tree. Plus you have dual controls, so your co-pilot can take responsibility for not hitting stuff.

 

Depends what stage of the flight you're at.  

 

In any case there are other differences but the principle is there.  Interestingly (maybe) they tend to be for displays only - not a lot of touch screen stuff on planes, lots of buttons and knobs still. (Except for the iPads the pilots use for planning and logs now).

[Shirley Knott]

As per the title really.

 

The background to this is that after having my head well and truly turned by davehedgehog31's excellent C1 write up (Thanks Dave) I'm sowing the seeds for replacing Mrs Eunos's Lupo SDI at some point in the coming year with one of these, if not then one of its bedfellows (Aygo or 107). I've been scoping them out have been disappointed to find that they don't seem to have a temperature gauge, the more I look around the more cars I find of that era that don't offer one either, not cool...

 

Admittedly the gauges on the cars in the fleet as it stands (Golf/Lupo/940) don't actually show 'real time' temperature, but they do give some indication and are useful for giving an indication of what's actually happening and/or providing an early warning of problems...Without a gauge how would you spot a thermostat was stuck open and robbing the economy/warmth? How would one spot overheating before it's too late? Am I missing something or have things really come to this?

[danthecapriman]

It’s not necessarily a modern car thing...

 

 

My 73 Mercury has no temp gauge, just the little ‘Temp’ light. It comes on red if it’s getting too hot. I’m not sure it’s a good idea tbh. I’ve always thought if the warning light comes on it’s possibly too late to avoid any damage. At least with an old fashioned gauge you can spot the needle rising through the wrong half of the gauge before things get unpleasant.

 

My 66 plate work van (Sprinter) hasnt got one either. There’s a warning message if it gets hot, but you can scroll through the options on the binnacle and find a digital temperature gauge.

[Floatylight]

I share your concerns, my C4GP doesn't have a temp gauge and for quite a while I found it quite unnerving as I always keep an eye on the temp gauge as an indicator that all is well.

 

Last year I invested in a cheapo ELM327 bluetooth code reader and for a while I drove with temperature displayed through that and found that running temp did actually vary (once up to temp) between about 70&83 but never went any higher.

 

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[UltraWomble]

I have a OBD II plug in gauge that shows lots of real time data including actual temp - very very useful.

 

Sadly if I end up with a black box insurance policy in a few weeks for the lad on my car I'll have to unplug it.

[sierraman]

Loads of Vauxhalls don’t have one. Just a light that comes on and tells you it’s overheated. A lot of people now though wouldn’t keep an eye on the gauge like they used to when cars were more prone to overheating.

[bigfella2]

I have had a similar problem with a Citroen c3, last weekend, changed cambelt and water pump so I had to change the coolant. Put some fresh in and after running it for three or four minutes got the temp too high alarm, guessing I airlocked it.

 

So second attempt I followed the 'official' method of bleeding it beforehand, but this time I plugged in my Bluetooth obd reader and installed torque lite on my phone.

 

After a lot of arsing about I got them to communicate and monitored the temp on my phone till the fan cut in. Think the obd dongle is only about three quid.

[HillmanImp]

My 1987 Visa doesn't have one either.

[SiC]

My 1972 1100 out of the factory doesn't have a temperature gauge nor anyway of knowing if it's overheated. So not a new thing.

 

However admittedly changing the headgasket on it is simple enough to be able to do it by the side of the road.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Loads of Vauxhalls don’t have one. Just a light that comes on and tells you it’s overheated. A lot of people now though wouldn’t keep an eye on the gauge like they used to when cars were more prone to overheating.

My youngest, who has been driving the family bike Fiat 500 for about a year now, was complaining the heater wasn't very good. First thought is always, oh shit has it got any water in it. So I asked her what was showing on the temperature guage...

" The what?" Was her reply and even when one of her sisters explained where it was ( on a500 it's sort of around the speedo and rev counter , not that clear to be fair) she had no idea what it was or what it's for.

 

Turned out there was no problem , she'd just expected full heat on a 1 mile journey from an overnight -3 start.

[Timewaster]

How many people have a clue what they are looking at or know what to do with the information it gives them?

 

Sadly very few I fear.

[castros_bro]

 Pug 106 et al don't have temp indication just a fault light which illuminates when you've melted the engine and all is and is up-g-fucked but for one a half of your British Pounds you can get one of these things below from China which run on 12v and stick the sensor some where suitable, can prog the board to operate the relay at a preset temp if you want to  -say - a fan to start.

 

 

 

 

[Marm Toastsmith]

One less thing to worry about... The 205 doesn't have one.

[sierraman]

The wife gets in the car, turns the heat to max and expects a furnace within no more than 30 seconds.

[Datsuncog]

No temp gauge in the Mk1 Toyota Yaris either (or at least, the 1.0 digidash version familiar to me) - just a blue temp light on startup for 'cold' that goes out after a few miles, and a red light for 'OMGFUKD' which sometimes comes on during a hot start on a warm day, providing lots o' laffs.

[Sir Snipes]

My 99 Fiesta didn't have one and it drove me crazy. I fancy an Astra Estate but them not having one bothers me too much so Vectra it is.

 

Do the Astra's have some means to display the engine temp at all?

[holdyerhandout]

I'd rather an oil temp gauge, at least with water temp the heater is a good guide to what's going on. Oil pressure also a good one to have... Now cars have electronic displays most of this data could be displayed on the screen -- it exists as an input to the Engine Control Unit to read on the OBD as others have said. 

[bramz7]

I've had three AXs without temperature gauges and one with, which was actually worse as it ran a bit warmer (per design I suspect) so I always kept a nervous eye on it.

[mercrocker]

If it is a modern car lacking a temp gauge, fear not.   The bloody thing would probably lie and shut something down for no good reason.   My Minor has nothing other than a fuel gauge and speedometer and it never overheats.   If I were to fit one I would probably be watching it like a hawk....

[Lacquer Peel]

The posh Xantia's outside temperature gauge doubles as an engine temperature gauge with the ignition on and the engine off, pretty cool.

I don't think I've ever had a car without a temperature gauge and it's something I value with 15 year old water pump impellers detaching, borderline radiators and thermostats.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

VW Polo 6R doesn't have a temp gauge either

[Shirley Knott]

I totally accept that old stuff often didn't have gauges, but things moved on! The idea of making coolant temperature gauges obsolete whilst simultaneously introducing stuff like tyre pressure sensors etc just seems incredibly backwards, that's the point I'm making really..

 

For those who mentioned it I think you've hit the nail on the head RE most people probably wouldn't bother looking at them these days none the less I draw a great deal of comfort from being able to see a gauge and it feels like lots of you feel the same. The prospect of a red light that pings up on the dash once overheating has occurred is very depressing proposition indeed, perhaps it could be wired to play 'Burning down the house' or Sylvester's 'Burning up' rather than just flashing a bulb, at least that way there'd be some comedy value?

 

Thanks to those who've posted links for OBD/ELM327 plug ins, it looks like they're the only answer really.

[myglaren]

I'd say that at least half of my cars have been without a temperature gauge.

Not sure if the Imps had but they were very proficient at blowing the HG either way.

 

I do recall, rather vaguely, my dad fitting temperature, voltage, amperage and oil pressure gauges to at least one of his Morris Minors.