Why doesn't every car have this very important feature?

E92

Its not airconditioing(though it is fantastic on cold morning like these for clearing off the fog on a windscreen), its not even a rev counter, no its actually something cars had for ages and ages but now not so many cars seem to have them.

Its not a carburettor either.

It is a really simple, but very important device.

Its called the engine temperature guage. It that thing that tells you how hot the coolant in the engine is.

It is perhaps the most important dial after a fuel guage and speedo in a car.

So why do so few cars have it? It really bugs me why the engine temperature guage is fast becoming as outdated as CDs are.

It is very important for too many reasons to mention, but here are a few:

you know what level of performance you can get from the engine. If the temperature guage is at the cold section you know that you have to drive the car gently.

It is a very important guide as to whether the engine is in good health. If the engine temperature guage goes higher than the normal position, then there is a very string chance that the engine has something wrong with it.

On cars without an analogue temp guage, they often have a blue light for a cold engine and a red one for a hot engine.

That is no substitute for a proper guage.

You have no idea if the engine is warming up more than necessary, all you see is a red engfine temp light, and by then its probably too late.

Engines overheating are often liable to cause a lot of other damage too.

Anan1

It's probably too expensive to fit 200 gauges to 200 cars so that one conscientious driver can benefit from it.;)

mike65

My old Citroen BX had two lights for coolant temp, yellow and red. The latter flashed at first and then stayed on when you were in danger of cooking the head gasket.

Mike.

Wishbone Ash

E92 wrote:

It that thing that tells you hot hot the coolant in the engine is.

On a serious note, I used to consider such things but I was wasting my time. It's easier just to get another car!

colm_mcm

I have water and oil temp on mine, water temp can be misleading soon after starting as it leads you to believe your car is fully warmed up very quickly.

Guy:Incognito

My 2 safranes (think the old laguna has aswell, dont no about the new one) had real time guages, it rose in traffic and when it hit a certain temp, the fan kicks in to level it, on motorway driving it went fairly low as there was a lot of cold air rushing through the engine bay.

They had an oil pressure guage too (rev it and the pressure rises, low revs and it drops)

CrowdedHouse

I thought most cars actually had a temp gauge,at least the ones I've owned did.

Oddly enough I was test driving a BMW at the weekend and I noticed it didn't seem to have one, although it had one of those silly 'econometers' I last saw in 1980's VW/Audis

EDIT: Also drove a Lexus and it definitely had one.

johnnyrotten

Any car I've ever owned ( 9 i think) all had a temp gauge. Are they that uncommon?

Wishbone Ash

johnnyrotten wrote:

Any car I've ever owned ( 9 i think) all had a temp gauge. Are they that uncommon?

I've never had a car that didn't have one either!

maidhc

colm_mcm wrote:

I have water and oil temp on mine, water temp can be misleading soon after starting as it leads you to believe your car is fully warmed up very quickly.

Humm.... my car takes about 15 miles for the needle to hit the halfway mark. You freeze for the first 5 miles. I think the fan has only come on once and when it did I pulled over because I though something was wrong.

I have never been in a car without a water temp guage. I would consider it vital!

E92

Well its only a recent trend, and its a trend I'm not at all happy with. Its not as if engines don't overheat anymore .

But most Opels(apart from the Vectra, none of them bother with a temperature guage), BMWs(only the X3 and Z4(apart from the Z4M) are blessed with this), Mercs(only the S/A/B class AFAIK has one), some VAG cars(like the Golf GT), some Nissans(like the Micra) and Toyotas(like the Yaris, well certainly the old Yaris) don't bother with them anymore.

BrianD3

It is often said that temp gauges can cause unnecessary worry among owners who don't know much about cars. The owner sees the needle move and assumes somethingmust be wrong.

The gauge needle in my Focus does not seem to move at all once the car warms up. You can drive up or down a steep hill, hear the fan kicking on and off in traffic etc. and it doesn't budge. It also seems to reach half way suspiciously quickly after a cold start. No cooling system can keep the temp that constant so I assume it is a "fake gauge" i.e it will only be seen to move if something's wrong.

In contrast my Laguna's gauge can be seen moving. If I study it carefully I know when the thermostat has opened fully.

What I want to know is how come every car doesn't come with an oil level gauge aka "electronic dipstick" Most of our Renaults have had this. Simple device which works well and results in the oil level being displayed every time the car is started.

colm_mcm

AFAIK the only Toyotas without a water temp gauge are the Aygo, Yaris, Prius and Corolla Verso.

Atomic Pineapple

i dont think the majority of people pass any remarks of the temp gauge and only see a problem if a warning light comes on, something along the same lines as brian3d is saying, car manufacturers see them as an unnessecary addition for the majority of car owners

JHMEG

Green "all ok" light, and everyone's happy. OTOH, a needle that doesn't go to half way, a needle that's a bit above half way, or needle that doesn't stay where it's supposed to, etc, and people are in contact with the garage wondering what's wrong. IMHO getting rid of temp gauges is a good idea for 99.99% of car owners.

BostonB

All cars should have a battery level indicator and a warning when its low or not being charged.

HungryJoey

E92 wrote:

Well its only a recent trend, and its a trend I'm not at all happy with. Its not as if engines don't overheat anymore .

But most Opels(apart from the Vectra, none of them bother with a temperature guage), BMWs(only the X3 and Z4(apart from the Z4M) are blessed with this), Mercs(only the S/A/B class AFAIK has one), some VAG cars(like the Golf GT), some Nissans(like the Micra) and Toyotas(like the Yaris, well certainly the old Yaris) don't bother with them anymore.

I know our Merc E class has one, or a "Digitally" displayed one.

EDIT: Infact here's a video I put up on youtube. Look to the right of the dash display and you'll see it. Doesn't move at all in the video though. ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=m7JbGKpkC9s )

Hj

JohnCleary

My E46 has a coolant temp sensor

Also has an oil temp sensor retrofited by me. I'm tempted to fit a boost gauge but still looking into how to fit the gauge without ruining the dash, and without looking like a d1ckhead with a big guage along my pillar

Masada

colm_mcm wrote:

AFAIK the only Toyotas without a water temp gauge are the Aygo, Yaris, Prius and Corolla Verso.

dunno about the rest but the corolla verso has got a temp gauge,,
a lot of the 95-99 punto's dont have a temp gauge either, they just have that "its too late" light.,

Esel

BostonB wrote:

All cars should have a battery level indicator and a warning when its low or not being charged.

Don't all cars have this warning light already?

Interesting about the oil taking much longer to warm up. Am I right in thinking this should not be too much of a worry with multigrade oils though?

Jip

Add me to the list where every car I've ever owned and driven has a engine temp gauge.

colm_mcm

vtec wrote:

dunno about the rest but the corolla verso has got a temp gauge,,
,

Corolla Versos have a blue and red indicator light instead of a temp gauge. the only dials it has are rpm speed and fuel.

the previous generation 5 seat Corolla Verso would have had an analogue dial as it used a dash based on the old Corolla's.

maidhc

E92 wrote:

Well its only a recent trend, and its a trend I'm not at all happy with. Its not as if engines don't overheat anymore .

Not as much as before though! Although when they do the results are more catastrophic since they use so much aluminum and so forth.

The 2.0 in my pinto runs at different temps during the day and night, and at times a little warmer than I am happy with!

Senna

noticed this on the missus new Beetle, there is no temp gauge but there is a little blue light that stayed on for about 200meters after i started the car from cold. Now there is no way that the engine was up to temp in less than a minute, so basically that light is just a complete waste of a bulb.

But i do agree that a big red light coming on when the car over heats will be of more benefit to 95% of drivers than never look at the temp gauge anyway.

Capt'n Midnight

BostonB wrote:

All cars should have a battery level indicator and a warning when its low or not being charged.

I liked the way they did it on the old tractors, an Ammeter tells you how much current is flowing in or out of the battery.

econometer sounds like a good idea though in addition to the temp gague

maybe they should change the labels on the gauge ?

a sweating tired face when too hot
a smiley face at optimum temp
a waking up, needing a cup of coffee type face when too cold

or some people running
when too hot - a heart attack / struggling
when optimum running smiley face
when too cold a little person doing warm ups

peasant

Senna wrote:

But i do agree that a big red light coming on when the car over heats will be of more benefit to 95% of drivers than never look at the temp gauge anyway.

How about a temperature gauge WITH a warning light ?

Like in my ancient van ....:D

daedalus2097

My Golf has a temp warning light and a temp gauge. It sits pretty much at half way from 5-10 mins after starting, but I think that's a characteristic of the VW thermostats - good temperature control. The oil temperature sits between 88 and 92 degrees when it's warmed up too so I'd say the temp gauge is accurate when it doesn't budge from the centre...

fletch

I remember how accurate the temperature gauge was in my old Escort, I could actually lower the temp by opening the windows and turning the heat on full blast and watch the gauge drop in real-time. My new car (a Skoda) once heated up, the temp needle never moves.

MercMad

Mercs(only the S/A/B class AFAIK has one),

..........yeah the E-Class and CLK have this display. I believe the C-Class doesn't !

To be honest I dont see the point anyway, cars are designed to be warmed up as soon as possible nowdays, so a red light to tell you to stop is enough !

What amazes me is the amount of people who tell me "Oh yeah I have this red light on my dash, dunno what its for, but it seems to drive fine"

RED = STOP the car immediately and get someone who knows what they are talking about to check it !!

Hagar

AFAIK the A class doesn't have a temp guage.

E92

The dials I would like every car to feature are : speedo, rev counter, fuel guage(actually the need for a fuel guage isn't as much as before, because most cars these days have a range guage which tells you how many miles you have till the car is empty on fuel), engine temperature guage, oil temperature guage if its a high performance car(a normal car doesn't need one, although in the absence of an engine temperature guage, an oil temperature guage should be there), and an mpg guage(though I can live without that, its not one of those essential things like a water temperature guage).