Good 'ol Temperature Gauge : Yes or No?

[GTO]

Many new generation cars have entirely done away with the temperature gauge. Somehow, I'm not comfortable with this line of thought.

Which modern car overheats, right? Well, my Honda City Vtec - a hallmark of old school Japanese reliability - did so recently. A rat chewed the electronic fan's wiring. If it weren't for the temperature gauge (and thus, my switching the car off immediately), I'd have ended up with a roasted engine. Of course, in old school Jeeps, keeping an eye on the temp gauge is as important as pressing the accelerator pedal , that's besides the point.

My point is this : Overheating is an engine's cancer. Driving on an overheating engine will, in all certainty, kill the engine entirely. If we have a gauge / warning for oil pressure in all cars (old and new), why are manufacturers doing away with something that's equally as crucial?

The cooling system is built of mechanical & electronic components which will definitely fail at some point in time. While mechanical parts have a standard life (generally), electronics can fail anytime....in a day or a decade. And then, we can have component failure from the most unexpected of areas (e.g. the rodent!).

Your comments?

YES?


NO?

[bblost]

I am not sure but maybe the CEL does this now.

And If the driver does not heed that warning then the car is automatically pushed into the limp mode.

[WhiteKnight]

Yes

One- It doesn't cost a bomb and it is not rocket science

Two- If you ever have an over-heating problem, the gauge helps you to drag your car to a safer place. Looking at the gauge, you would be able to predict how much you could drive before things heat up

Three- As you said, if the light is gone and you have an over-heating, the damage done is humengous.

[deadguy25]

It is necessary!

Any idea what they trying to prove by doing away with this?

Why cant the manufacturers ask the users if it helps before they do away with such things??

[nishantgandhi]

Along the same line of thought, isnt a Tachometer also more or less a necessity? Along with the temp, dont we also need to monitor engine revvs?

[suman]

Definitely a vehement "Yes"!!

[bharanidharang]

one of the parameters i normally keep checking is the temp gauge. its like the heartbeat of an engine when it is running.

so a BIG YES

[Eddy]

One of the easier polls to answer: Yes

[Raajiv]

ACI in the last month edition placed this as one of the accessory that can be eliminated from a modern car.Horrendous,i would say !!!!

[finneyp]

Yes, it is a necessity!

It is bad that some car makers are cutting corners by eliminating temp gauge!
The buyers should reject cars w/o temp gauge.

[planet_rocker]

the Padmini has one - very important since she has HVAC
the Palio has one - very important since she has a mind of her own.
the M800 had one.

The Getz 1.1 doesn't have one - :( - but there are two temperature lights (blue & red) - haven't driven the getz much.

[ashthedivx]

Nothing to think about.. Definitely YES ..

[muralisk]

Yes.
By taking off the gauge, we are putting too much emphasize on the on board computer to function and display the indicator in line with the real time data from the engine.

Also, I am not sure why is this taken off when the fuel gauge is still provided in the car. Even here, we do depend on the low fuel indicator, which is kind of accurate even when the fuel gauge is not working properly. Am sure many Matiz owners would agree with this.

[star_aqua]

Originally Posted by GTO

Many new generation cars have entirely done away with the temperature gauge. Somehow, I'm not comfortable with this line of thought.


My point is this : Overheating is an engine's cancer. Driving on an overheating engine will, in all certainty, kill the engine entirely. If we have a gauge / warning for oil pressure in all cars (old and new), why are manufacturers doing away with something that's equally as crucial?

GTO, are you sure that this modern car which you have posted doesn't have temp guage / warning lamp for overheating? In the second pic i can see a warning lamp for overheating. check out it is the lamp at the end exactly at marking 200kmph.
And most of the modern cars have temperature data transmitted digitally over CAN. hence the modern cars usually use digital display. I can see a display in the speedo panel. are you sure it didn't display temperature??

nowadays most of the cars uses digital display and since all the display cannot accomodate all the info at the same time, the driver can customise the display setting with the info he needs and can scroll the pages with a toggle switch.

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[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Like a sig around here, life is analog. Digital is a mere approximation.

For digital signals, (like lights) problems are either present, or absent. For meters, even a slight difference (without going into the danger zone) does give an experienced eye some advanced warning.

On my car, I really miss the oil guage I had on our old (err.. ancient) diesel trucks.