[Raccoon]

^^^ Many do! I believe most/all of the new ones with digital consoles have a temperature gauge on the console. And that holds true for even the air cooled ones. Most Indian bikes are anyway air cooled.

[McLaren Rulez]

So what if an air cooled bike overheats? (Treat it as a noob question)
Edit: Sorry Racoon, saw your post now. But for those bikes that don't, it still doesn't seem to be an issue

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

That is because you are talking about air-cooled motorbikes. I think Liquid-cooled motorbikes do come with temp gauges. I remember Yamaha R1 having water temp gauge.

Exactly. The entire engine block / gear box and the silencer unit of an air cooled bike dissipate the heat, in addition to partly being cooled by the oil in the gear box. They almost never over heat, except rarely when the engine is continuously operated at high revs while being stationery.

[ajmat]

The temperature gauge was indispensible in diagnosing my overheating issues

Temp drops at higher speeds = cooling fan issues

Temp rising = water pump issues.

Help me to limp along and stop before any overheating occured

[carfreak]

A big Yes!!!due to many reasons but most importantly somethings are best if kept the old-fashioned way!!

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

So what if an air cooled bike overheats? (Treat it as a noob question)
Edit: Sorry Racoon, saw your post now. But for those bikes that don't, it still doesn't seem to be an issue

Originally Posted by Gansan

Exactly. The entire engine block / gear box and the silencer unit of an air cooled bike dissipate the heat, in addition to partly being cooled by the oil in the gear box. They almost never over heat, except rarely when the engine is continuously operated at high revs while being stationery.

Dudes, air cooled bikes can and do overheat! Try riding double seat in the hot Indian summer, in races, etc., etc. Many bike engines sieze due to overheating. A temp. gauge which gives an accurate estimate of the cylinder temp can surely help. I don't know what temp. the latest bikes with digital temp. show. Does anybody know?

[GTO]

As is clear from the many comments in favour of the temp gauge, this instrument plays a vital role EVEN in modern cars. Examples:

Originally Posted by greenhorn

how fast the engine heats up is an indicator of which fan ( compressor or engine) fan has died. By the time the engine lights up, it might already be too late. Noticing the speed with which temp gauge goes up will let you know if any of the fans might be kaput, and may inform you in advance to change your driving style to keep your engine cool till you make it to a workshop.

Originally Posted by ajmat

The temperature gauge was indispensible in diagnosing my overheating issues

Temp drops at higher speeds = cooling fan issues

Temp rising = water pump issues.

Help me to limp along and stop before any overheating occured

Originally Posted by vipul_singh

(1) Using the temp gauge behavior, I once detected that the fan relay on my GTX was not cutting in at the first speed, and only worked at the second speed. Proactively got the relay changed

The temp gauge did not come down immediately after switching on the A/C. I immediately understood that there is some problem in the connection to the 4-level pressure switch.

Originally Posted by shuvc

Another thing that I also practice is - after a cold start I do not revv beyond 2K rpm, till the temp needle is at it's normal position - once there, the throttle hits the carpet .. Ok that was symbolic, but you get the drift ...

Originally Posted by anupmathur

High revving an engine on a cold start is not recommended. Damage is done, be it small. Gradual rise to steady state temperature is the best way to go.

Spot on! Monitoring the cars temperature, keeping the revvs low when cold, and only hitting the redline once optimum operating temperature has been reached. BTW, the best system till date is that of the E39 M5. Tacho lights progressively climb indicating the max revvs for current temp levels.

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

The prominent temp gauge in the Civic is also the singular component on the dash not wired into the digital CAN bus. It works with the coolant temperature sensor or its own circuit, so the engine temp gauge will still work even if the whole dash computer is down. That is a pretty good engineering decision.

You can say that again. Just one of the smaller things that make a Honda a Honda.

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Why have manufacturers (quite a few of them) started doing away with them?

1. Aesthetics & less cluttered console

2. Cost?

3. They probably think it's irrelevant today. In other countries, sure, but India has its own nuances!

[Turbo Head]

Ofcourse yes, without doubt. It always provide you exact condition of the thermodyamics of the engine. A slightest change is easily detected.

[Shan2nu]

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.

Similar case happened to me yesterday, rat chewed on one of the cooling pipes and the coolant started squirting out. Luckily, i was able to take the car to a nearby garage and get it repaired.

Temp guage is a must. I dont want some digital light popping up when the engine is on the verge of destruction. I need to know the temp in real time.

Shan2nu

[akj53]

When the temperature starts rising, the driver can get an indication from the meter that there is a problem and can take corrective measure well in time.

While the warning light will come on only when the temp. has reached the dangerous level, which may be late to take any corrective measure.

Removing the temp. meter is just a cost cutting method adopted by some greedy manufacturers.

[delhi2009]

I had a Petrol UNO long back and i remember it did'nt had a Gauge either. All it had was a car icon in the console and when the temperature was high, it would simply turn Red indicating that its time to stop. I do remember that during later years, it was troubles at times and did cost me a lot of money due to this for the engine was gone long before it was due, there were other faults including replacement of radiator and several times the recharging of cooling gas which would escape when the AC Was running in overheated car and i owe it all to non-presence of a temperature gauge !

[SLK]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

A 'modern' engine is still subject to the basic laws of Physics!
In certain applications (ocean going ships) control is taken out of the operator's hands; a 'load-up' program slowly brings the engine to normal operating condition. Of course there is always the 'emergency bypass' switch also provided.

Yes, I have a Ritz, No meter!

My everyday purpose of a meter is to check if the engine has warmed up before revving it over 1.5-2k rpm! but can't do it!

Truly modern engines are no exceptions to cold starts, damage will be done if revved hard. One can easily feel the reluctance of the engine to revv hard after a cold start.

How modern is NHC engine? Modern enough I guess; it doesn't have a temp meter, but what it has is a heat and a 'COLD' light, and it functions perfectly.

After a cold start the NHC's cold LED takes almost the same amount of time that a WagonR would take to reach to the 'C' mark on the temp meter.

All I'm saying is, heating is something that is very damaging but rare, in new gen cars. But there is no escaping the cold start in any car any day! and if Honda specifically included a 'cold' LED, it confirms, it's not a joke.

My Ritz is a diesel and takes more time than petrols to warm up completely, and if you very carefully notice, you can feel the engine a bit stiff, till it's not completely warmed up.

Sometimes when in hurry to drive fast, I check using the heater if the engine is warm enough!

[Maruti! is there a why to this?]

[.anshuman]

Scorpio comes with a audio warning along with a temp gauge with a bright warning light. I like this over normal layouts where the meter has chances to go unnoticed at times.

Some years ago my Indica's radiator fan had some problem and the car overheated on a hot summer day, i got to know of it because the a/c tripped otherwise it would have gone unnoticed.

[recshenoy]

BIG yes. In my carb zen though i refer to this rarely, it is useful. Once in a while when radiator fan is On, i check the temperature gauge.




For me an analog meter on board enhances interiors albeit its useful or not

[clevermax]

I voted Yes

But still, analog temp guages also need electronics to operate, I found that when my car's instrument cluster was opened, no mechanical connections go inside. The speedo, fuel guage, temp. guage all are electronically signaled - be it analog voltages or digital signals. If that wire is cut, digital display OR the analog meter whatever it is, will stop working.

Why I voted Yes, is because we are used to looking at the analog gauge and it i much much easier to check the temperature than reading a digital display. I need it every day during a cold start and run!