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#28563 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [bpizzuti]
by ateixeira
Nov 14, 2012 (10:16 am)
From 1990-1994 the Miata had a real temp gauge.
I think it was model year 1995, but they started using a "dummy" guage, which merely reported a lack or presence of oil pressure. Problem is you had no way to tell oil pressure was too high, from a clogged filter for instance.
If you ever see an NA Miata in the junk yard, odds are that part was scavenged already.
So an idiot light may actually be better than a dummy gauge.
#28564 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [andre1969]
by dieselone
Nov 14, 2012 (10:24 am)
It's since been fixed, although I forget what the mechanic did to it, but it really did have a low pressure problem.
Oil pressure gauges aren't fool proof as they usually only give the oil pressure at the mains. My wife had a '92 Saturn SL2 that burned quite a bit of oil back when we were dating. She drove that car 100 miles to see me one time. She showed up and mentioned the engine was clattering. Curious, I go out and start it up. Sure enough it was making a lot of noise at the top of the engine. The oil pressure gauge was reading in the normal area. I checked the oil and nothing on the dipstick. I ended up putting nearly 4 quarts of oil in it. It had enough oil for the pressure sending unit, but not enough flow to keep the valvetrain quiet. It took about 30 minutes of running to quiet back down.
A few years ago in our old boat that had a 305 chevy motor. I was running WOT a 5k rpm when I just happened to notice the oil pressure gauge was reading 20 psi (way to low at that rpm). I immediately slowed to idle, when the gauge went under 10 and a warning beep started going off. I shut it down and checked the engine compartment to find an oil line running from the remote oil filter had failed at the connection. All was okay, besides having to get towed in and having one hell of a mess in the bilge area. The ECM would have put it in limp home mode had the pressure dropped anymore when I was at WOT. I just happened to check the gauge at the right time.
I think most engines only need about 10psi of oil pressure per 1000rpm.
#28565 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [ateixeira]
by bpizzuti
Nov 14, 2012 (10:49 am)
I'm pretty sure most temperature gauges these days are dummy gauges. I never see mine slowly rise to operating temperature, it's always at the bottom or just to the left of dead center. Same with my 04 Mazda3. I think my old Corsica was the last one to have a real temp gague...but that one didn't have a tach.
#28566 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [bpizzuti]
by lemko
Nov 14, 2012 (10:51 am)
By that standard, the temp gauge in my Grand Marquis has to be real as I can see it slowly rise on my way to work in the morning.
#28567 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [lemko]
by ateixeira
Nov 14, 2012 (10:54 am)
Thankfully Mazda put a real one in my 08 Miata (guessing enthusiasts cried foul?). Almost seems low at idle but rises with RPM, significantly too.
#28568 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [lemko]
by bpizzuti
Nov 14, 2012 (10:56 am)
Depends on how slowly, but maybe yours is a real gauge, yeah. The Grand Marquis is an old enough design to harken back to when they actually used real gauges that represented real temperatures.
Mine rises "slowly" but not so slow that it's going up as the car warms up, which argues that the bottom mark on the gauge represents a relatively high temperature. But once it hits that near-middle "normal" point it never budges, which would indicate that that one spot covers a relatively wide range of temperature variation. Hence me being convinced it's not a real gauge.
#28569 of 32000 Re: Toyota Recall [lemko]
by dieselone
Nov 14, 2012 (11:03 am)
By that standard, the temp gauge in my Grand Marquis has to be real as I can see it slowly rise on my way to work in the morning.
That's how the temp gauge is in my Expedition and the wife's Taurus. But in general ford gauges for temp, oil, and voltage are pretty lame IMO. I've never seen them budge other than the temp gauge from cold to warm.
OTOH, the gauges in the Suburban would move and actually gave a value for each item. It wasn't unusual for the temp gauge to rise 10-15 degrees when I was towing our boat in high heat. Same with the oil pressure gauge. It would indicate an oil pressure increase between idle and acceleration. Same with voltage.
I am convinced the temp gauge in my 07 Expedition is at least based on reality. Now that it's cold out, the temp gauge doesn't climb as quickly and it will stay about a 1/16 of inch for a while before moving to where it always sits when at normal operating temp. Plus the torque converter won't fully lock up until the gauge is well into the normal band, any lower and it doesn't go into lockup mode.
#28572 of 32000 Re: Small XTS recall [ateixeira]
by andre1969
Nov 14, 2012 (11:43 am)
I think that's one reason why recalls are so common these days...there's just so much to cover, and they'll go after the most minute detail! A few years back...well, okay, maybe more than a few...cars didn't even have headrests in the back.