Say what?? Does not show the actual condition?? The gauges even if they do not have numerical displays do a good job at being accurate.. I have no idea why you claim otherwise. ( I used scan tools for many years comparing gauges when working on cars, and they are for the most part very accurate). But if you want to believe otherwise, be my guest.

 

....I don't think I'm wrong... but why is it that:

When I drive a new car and it is warmed up all the needles are pegged dead center and never move?

When I drive an older car, I can see the temperature needle move as the thermostat opens and closes. I can see the oil pressure needle swing as I increase/decrease the engine RPM. The voltage guage needle also changes with load and RPM. Hell, even the fuel gauge would fluctuate if I slam on the brakes and the tank is almost empty.

 

I think the same thing...

My old 2.8 '89 RS loved moving every gague all over. Hell, my Z28's gagues move a fair amount...however, the temp gague in the GP never seems to move....hot day, cold day, traffic, whenever. At least the Z tells me what I want to know.

 

Damn............I guess I'll have to watch it next time I pull up next to a Monte or Impy......

 

it's on that canadiandriver.com site...

http://www.canadiandriver.com/news/05la/06monte_gal.htm

 

Thanks.

Kind of disappointing about the lack of full gauges. It's hard to tell if the digital pod under the spedometer is a D.I.C. or just a odometer since it's not on... if it's a D.I.C. , maybe they integrated those gauges digitally... but that's right where the odomoeter and PRND321 readout was on my 02 SS.

EDIT: Just noticed the series of 4 buttons to the right of the cluster in the brushed aluminum area... those could be D.I.C. controls, so perhaps the gauges are digital/selectable now...???

 

On the Coblat it tells you the exact engine temp on the DIC

 

The last couple years of the F-bodies the temp guage was stationary as long as the temp was within normal limits. Ask anyone with an '01 or '02. The reason for that is that people would bring in their cars thinking something was wrong.

 

I poked my head into a Honda V6 Accord and it had all 4 gagues. The SS is supposed to be a performance model so they should have all 4 gauges. Buy a GTP, GTO and CTS-V and these are all performance cars yet they lack the 2 gauages. IMO it says cheap.

You say no need for a ALt gauge the idiot light will tell you waht is wrong? What happens if your belt is slipping or your battery is starting to short. It will be to late to find the probelm. With a gauge you can at least tell if the system is putting out enough volts then you can run a loand tester to see waht the probelm is.

 

why would you have to KNOW exactly what voltage a guage would be showing every moment, unless it's not ENOUGH juice? if the voltage is within the normal range, I don't care what it is EXACTLY. it's only when it's OUT of range do I want to know. and if it's out of range, I'll be getting my trusty tools out, I won't even look at that guage in the cluster. so, lets say if the reading falls below 8v, a light would come on or a message would show up on the digital read out. as long as you know there's a problem, you're going to take care of it. how bad the problem is will be up to you or your mechanic to figure out. the guage won't tell you that anyway.

 

here we go again

The gauge can tell you when a regulator is about to take a $hit, and starts fluctuating.. GM is especially notorious for this. A "dummy" light will not pick this up.

 

I have no idea what you are trying to say? If you gauge goes from 13.5 to 11 then you will obviously start to check things out to see what the problem is. With an idiot light it will not come on at that voltage so when it does come on it may be to late. With a guage it gives you more of a warning to start checking out the problem.

How could you not want a gauge?

 

One thing that strikes me about both of these cars is how clean they look. There's not a lot of creases or moldings on either of them, and that continues in the interior. I like that style on these cars.

 

because I never check it. if you check your volt guage every 5 seconds, then perhaps it's of use to you. I only want to know when there's a problem. wide voltage reading fluctuations could also be used as a trigger and set off the "idiot" light. at least with a light, I know there's a problem, because it's on.

i think you guys just like looking at the bouncy guages when you SHOULD be looking at the road but don't want to admit it.

 

When I glance down at the speedometer (which I do frequently (but not incessantly)), I also do a quick readover of the gauges and odometers. It doesn't take much to see that "all is well" - nothing excessively out of whack. Since I live in the northeast, I always watch the temp gauge for when the thermostat opens - that means I can expect actual heat from the heater. ;p So much the better that it has numbers too. Why aren't modern temp gauges marked with numbers?