My 2001 Trans Am has gauges. And a "check gauges" idiot light. And they appear to either be real gauges or very convincing software "clones" - oil pressure starts high at a cold start, varies with RPM and is lower at idle when the engine is warm. It even registers a bit higher when I run 10W30 in it vs 5W30.
Of course, it didn't come with a shift light.
Ray
Unless most of the leaks ended up being at the gauge.
The probability of a rock flying into the condesor coils underneath my fridge and causing a leak is astronomically low. The odds of a rock nicking a tube in my radiator is not nearly as low (lower if the car has A/C because the condensor would take the hit first....). Also there are about 4 to 9 pressurized rubber hoses and 8 to 18 hose clamps all waiting to leak on a car cooling system, not to mention fans that can fail, thermostats that get sticky, and radiator caps that quit holding pressure, etc. etc. And that's just the SUBTLE failures that will first show up by mild overheating, not the disasters like a burst hose or blown head gasket.
A fridge failing is FAR more abnormal (and less expensive when it does happen) than a car running hot.
Yes, I do. The manufacturers build for the majority of nitwits. I just don't necessarily LIKE the way the world works....
Actually, >>I
Anyone who actually uses a shift light should stick to driving automatics.... ;-)
Again, its not MY problem, I'm just commenting on it as a symptom of how ignorant of how a car works the average driver has become.
Besides I have 5 cars that suit my taste beautifully, and there are plenty of others I'd love to have (a Challenger SRT-8 tops the list, but that aint gonna happen unless I were to sell the '69 R/T convertible and that's not bloody likely)
No, it's a symptom of how appliance-like the cars have become--which depends on, and also feeds, the fact that auto transportation has become a necessity--not a hobby, not a luxury.
When the Model T came out, you had to know everything about the car and be your own mechanic. Of course, that was OK back then. Now imagine the Model T being the primary source of transportation today.
Face it: technology starts out in the labs, then hits the early adopters, then eventually becomes mainstream--and appliance-like. I don't have to know how a computer works just to be able to take and send pictures on my cell phone.
You don't like that technology becomes an appliance. Tough shit. That's how life works.
True. But the probability of your $900 fridge being a cheap piece of Chinese junk and leaking coolant and ruining the food in your fridge is MUCH greater today than it ever has been.
Hence, it would be prudent to protect your food investment, if nothing else, by using such a gauge.
And modern refrigerators are Chinese junk made for the sole purpose of making the manufacturer money by appearing JUST ENOUGH to be an actual fridge. The details are different from the car, but the risk of failure is just as great.
The purpose of the shift light is for drag racing. When the nitrous kicks in, it's important that I don't hit the factory rev limiter.
(why? because the factory rev limiter works by dropping a cylinder, and if the nitrous is flowing and I don't get a spark, I'll probably end up blowing the engine sky high.)
And anyone who makes a comment about shift lights and automatics probably doesn't (a) bracket race or (b) have 400+ hp on tap. :)
Ray
no dude, it's the other way around. the engineers doctor the gauge so it only tells you two things - normal and too hot, and only one of those is important. left to their own devices, they'd leave the waste of space out. it's the marketing lizards that insist on a gauge because people like you think they need one and get all amped up about a subject they haven't bothered to analyze or don't understand. even when given the facts.
like the ignorant average driver that thinks the "temp gauge" in his car is actually telling him anything other than "normal" and "too hot"?
An interesting note to the "Godsend" GM shift light is that it was operated by the same circuit (and then slightly modified by vehicle speed rationality logic) as the torque converter lock up circuit used on automatic trans models. Sure miss *that* feature :-)
Toyota MDT in MO
I forgot about that "shift light" - my truck has one... the upshift to save gas nag light. On my old Jimmy I just took the bulb out. On my current truck, where I like the steering wheel it just blocks it.
Ray
Comboverfish!
Stop hanging around in r.a.t (hey, how about that!) and come back to us!!!
As for those lights, I had one in a Jetta, and got WORSE fuel economy using it!
I've got one in my Jeep. I set my steering wheel height so that I just do not see it at all. Tomes
Hell... My ol' '83 Civic FE has a shift light that is controlled by tach speeds. I find it to be generally annoying..
JT
Oh, you mean a REAL shift light that is clearly visible without looking down, looks like an old flashlight, has a cover for when you're not racing... not the dumb little up-arrow on the dashboard that comes on whenever Toyota thinks you should be using less fuel.
OR just didn't understand the kind of light you meant.
Really? The media keep telling us just how unnecessary it is. Live in a high-rise. Take the bus. Ride a bike. Its the new urbanism.
Cars were already appliance-like in 1940, but they still had real instrumentation. And appliances can be either versatile equipment with a good operator interface, or cheap crap from Target too.
IBut it damn sure helps if you have a clue. It lets you do more, do it better, and be more productive than the appliance-user. And knowledge prevents you from being dependent on a sysadmin somewhere.
Fortunately there are still plenty of cars for people who ENJOY cars out there.
Its more important to buy a good fridge, not a piece of crap from made in China. All it takes is a little awareness on the buyer's part. And the ability to read the data plate... but maybe literacy IS too much to ask these days.
That's simply not true. The HISTORY of the situation is that engineers installed gauges for years. Then came idiot lights because designers and stylists liked the "modern, all-electric" look of the dashboards they could create. Then gauges made a comeback. THEN, the automakers started getting complaints from people who'd grown up on idiot lights, and didn't understand normal behavior, most particularly of the oil pressure.
THAT is when the "dummy" gauges that read mid-scale or nothing at all appeared.
Engineers NEVER leave instrumentation out of ANYTHING if left to their own devices. Left to their own devices they'd install an oil pressure gauge before the filter, one after, and one at the last feed off the oil galley. You'd have a water temp gauge before and after the radiator, a transmission oil temperature gauge before and after the cooler, and 8 individual exhaust gas temperature probes.
He says, as if he'd know a fact if it jumped up and bit his ass....
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