No oil warning light on Tundra?!

N Williamson wrote: snip

You can't wire an LED directly to 12V source as it will burn out. It either has to have a current limiting resistor in series or come packaged with the resistor. There are LED's that are made as a package this way so make sure that's what you get when you shop. HTH, davidj92

Why do you need an Oil Warning Light when you have an Oil Warning GUAGE? The guagej is far superior to the light, and you don't need a crappy light to back up what the excellent guage is telling you. Sheesh!

I've never had a car with both a light and a guage, and never one with a buzzer. Watch the guage, and react to what it is doing, and you'll not need either the light or the buzzer.

16 years and counting, all happy!

Both are actually useful. Implementing both is neither difficult or expensive.

All types actually. Some have the chicklet light system (Marconi) - a vertical array of grenn, amber and red lights, others have a simple round (steam as you call it ) gauge. Of the round ones, some are set up so if the needles are at 9 o'clock, all is fine, others are fixed. All have colored range markings.

My assumption is you are referring to FW. I'm FW rated as well and it's definitely 2 different worlds. No judgment here, but in the FW world much time is spent cruising at altitude, unless you're doing aerobatics etc. Just the opposite is true of helos - a major portion of the time is spent near the dirt where attention is focused outside lest you run into something. Especially true of military flying. On major exercises, us helo guys were restricted to 300' and below and the FW were 500' and above. Some helos don't even have gauges - just lights. The other thing to is, at least on the machine I fly a lot now, the oil pressure will fluctuate with power application and it's perfectly normal. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the light is more accurate on the low pressure side than the gauge.

Sorry about getting so far OT.

Nate

Banished forever!!!

Nate

Just pop into your local electronics store and ask for a superbright 10mm LED and bezel and a 550ohm resisitor (if they are pretty cluey ask them for the best value as this depends on the LED but your pretty safe with 550 Ohm.)

Well, you are right enough, but I see no point. I watch my guages as I drive, and I see no use in a light to tell you the guage reads zero, or whatever it takes to turn the light on. Personally, I'd be alarmed long before the light came on.

The warning light isn't there for you, or anyone who actually checks their dashboard gauges on a regular basis.

The light is there for all the Teenagers and Soccer Moms, the Pointy-Haired Bosses and middle managers who will be driving that car

- the people who don't know or care what a gauge is. The people who don't even know how to open the hood and check the oil, the people that pay for Full Serve gas.

All they know is "When the red light comes on, you pull over and stop the engine, and call for help."

Maybe.

You hope.

After the smoke clouds from under the hood get their attention.

If I was engineering a car, they'd have both gauges and lights - and a safety system featuring voice prompt recordings by Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

(Unfortunately Jack Wagner is no longer available to do it. As in "Remain Seated, Please; Permanecer Sentados, Por Favor." Jack Who?

and you'llfind out, you heathen!) ;-P The EFI Computer already monitors several senders on the engine. It would be trivial to add a few more sense points (radiator temp, block coolant temp and pressure, oil level in sump, trans temp and the line pressure at several points) and have a sub-system monitor all critical systems - and warn the clueless when they were out of range, before the trouble starts. And if you ignore the advance warnings, you get:

"Warning: Engine Oil Pressure Failure - Engine Oil Level Critical Low. Engine Shutdown in thirty seconds, pull over to a safe stopping location immediately or push the "Emergency Override" button now to continue." "Engine Shutdown in twenty seconds, pull over to a safe stopping location..." "Engine shutdown in ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."

And the computer records the Override button pushes in NVRAM along with the trip data - because you know that's the person who was late to work and wanted to keep going, and who'll try a warranty claim on the seized motor.

-->--

Sorry. I think the rant is unfounded. I prefer a gauge to the 'idiot light' and buzzer arrangement for this reason: by the time the light comes on, usually at 6-8 PSI, the damage to the engine has been done. The gauge tells you what is going with the pressure, and you can tell a lot about the actual condition of the oil system. The idiot light just tells you the when the engine is done for.

Trust me, learn how to scan the gauges as you drive to monitor the engine. You'll avoid a lot of expensive, truck-killing damage by learning the gauges and avoiding relying on 'idiot lights'.

N Williamson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.newsguy.com:

Perhaps that is true and explains why they put the idiot light in. But the OP seemed to think he had been short changed because he got a guage instead of a light. I see no reason to have both, and I prefer a guage if I get to choose.

Scotty wrote: snip

Sounds like a plan to me. They make indicator lights for autos that are LED and have the resistor packaged in them so all you have to do is wire them in, I used some as added brake lights on my Harley. I just wanted to make sure someone didn't get a plain LED and wire it in direct. :-) davidj92

Perhaps the rant is unfounded in your opinion, but it is my preference.

The gauge has no PSI markings, no red area, no green area...just divided into four equal areas like a fuel gauge...only it has no markings. In fact, it is the only gauge without markings or a backup idiot light or both. The manual indicates range(s) where the gauge should be for various conditions which must then be committed to memory because as I said, the gauge gives no indication of normal range. So I default back to a correctly adjusted sensor and light to let me know when it is considered as in the 'red' zone. I do like having a gauge, but I feel a light (as I'm an idiot of sorts I reckon) is a more critical feature to have.

I don't feel shortchanged really, but given a choice of one or the other, I'd take the light. It's unusual to see the arrangement of gauge and no light these days.

The universal understanding of a red light is undeniable for the most part. So when the wife, daughter, son, friend or whomever borrow the truck and see a red light come on, they pretty much know what to do - pull over.

Now, if the gauge had some range markings of red, or amber, or green, or numbers - *something* to give it relevant reference, that'd be easier to accept and explain to others before lending it out. I consider a lost of oil pressure the worst thing that can happen to the engine, and it's the one system I'm provided the least information about. It just boils down to added protection.

Voltmeter - range markings AND a light Coolant gauge - Red area AND a light Fuel gauge - equal divisions AND a light

It's probably all for not anyway. The vehicles these days are built quite well. Knock on wood, in 34 years of driving I've never had a blow out, a flat while running, oil pressure loss, run out of fuel, an overheated engine....nothing except a clutch cable snapped on a VW I had.

Appreciate al the discussion and tips. It's what Usenet is about I reckon.

Nate