I was wondering about this. I read an article a while back that a kid and his father developed and patented a torque guage. They were in the process of marketing it to the big 3. I wonder if it was dropped by legal due to possible patent violations? I know Chrysler has a similar guage and I don think they license with these people either.

 

Yes there was an article in MOTOR TREND about it. Kid was tired of the expense of having to dyno his car to see what improvements his mods/tuning/etc, made so he with his dads help came up with it.

",,,,they commissioned a machine shop to grind down the U-joint pins that mount to the driveshaft yoke, so they could wrap them with paper-thin (8/1000 inch) Powertech pressure sensors. Their leads connect to a battery-powered signal conditioning unit and wireless transmitter located in a two-piece, weight-balanced plastic collar that bolts onto the driveshaft about halfway between the yoke and the center bearing. Several iterations of this design over a period of two years have yielded sensors that can withstand the torque of his now supercharged V-8 without being crushed, and a collar that doesn't fly apart under the extreme centrifugal forces experienced on the driveshaft. He's even been granted a provisional patent for the concept."

http://www.motortrend.com/features/e...gue/index.html

 

I'd rather have a tranny temp gauge then a torque gauge. If you're sitting in traffic in traffic on a hot day you can see if your tranny is getting too hot.

Also when you go to the track you can see when your trans is getting too hot and you can stop hot lapping and give the car a chance to cool down.

 

Is that really a problem? The only reason I ever overheated a tranny was because I used to back to back street race in my Grand National back when it was new. But that was hardly daily driver duty. And like I said, 90% of the Camaros on the road won't see track duty, or even street race duty. How about tire air temp gauge? Seems just as useful as a tranny temp gauge.

 

You know, as silly as it sounds, a tire pressure sensor would be pretty sweet. It would have to have 4 little needles in the guage, but w/ all these MPG worries, folks actually care about that (as they should).

 

Hopefully eventually there will be a boost gauge there:-) for my car. I could care less about transmission temp, I don't drive at the drag strip and I don't plan on towing a horse trailer with my Camaro. If GM is having a tough time filling the 4th spot lets get real creative. How about a chick detector? Or for the global warming nuts an CO2 emissions gauge?

 

Why so much hate for the torque gauge?

 

Maybe they could build in a scale in the driver's seat and that gauge could tell you how fat you are.

 

So then...all the threads and posts with negative remarks about it were possibly all for nothing now that some production facts are trickling out? Imagine that!

Hey, I am glad it is gone as well.

That should be on the Driver Information Center between the speedo and tach. It was on the cars we played with at the last focus group.

Some saw is as more of a gimmick than something even cool or useful. Maybe nothing to hate anymore anyway.

 

The number 1 cause of transmission failure is overheating. It is a good idea.

 

Perhaps all the negative remarks led to this becoming a production fact... Either way, glad to see something a bit more beneficial in place.

 

Perhaps.

 

I can see the usefulness for a transmission temp gauge on an automatic, but for a manual slushbox?

Replace mine with a "boost" gauge please... I'll need it to monitor the LSA.

 

the manuals should get a differential temp gauge or something. it would atleast make more sense.

 

I don't have an hour to explain.