Not very aware of details

General Discussion
21

For some years, I worked in a contract defense factory. Our equipment had to be extensively tested at very hot and very cold temps before shipping.

We had large chambers, technically called environmental chambers, though we normally called them Burn-in Chambers. They were capable of running from 100 degrees C. to -50 C. perhaps colder, but out tests were usually no colder than -50, and seldom more hot than +70. The controllers on the machines ran the temps per the unit specifications.

They had large very expensive 440 volt compressors probably somewhat bigger than most car engines, and probably cost more, too.

The temperature had to change very fast, to properly prove the parts quality. There was a recorder on each machine. I watched mine very closely, and at any deviation no matter how small in the cooling or heating curve, i would call in a trouble report. Someone told me I was initiating half of the service calls in our entire department.

Ole’ Burt, one of the last of the great men of another generation would look at it and usually found a relay gone intermittent. And, he could tell which one, because by the recorder, he knew at a glance what the machine was doing.

I got transferred to another department and after the first month also had half the service calls in the new department. There were some angry people. Burt told them, “Please shut up and leave him alone. He calls in; I go out and replace a ten dollar relay and go back to the shop. The other half of the service calls each involve many hours replacing out a horribly expensive compressor, and that would not happen if everyone kept an eye on the recorder as he does. I have never had to replace one of his compressors. He is doing what everyone should be doing.”

He once told me that he was convinced if he adjusted the span on all the recorders so they just showed a straight line down the middle of the chart, half the techs would never notice. And, these were some of the best electronic technicians in the world. The problem was, they were electronic technicians, not heating and cooling technicians.

So, I do believe most folks don’t pay much attention to their car gauges. I, ahem, do, and thus resent not having gauges.

22

I prefer gauges in my vehicles. I don’t care if they are electrically controlled, but I want a gauge.
I don’t look at mine as much as I should…I doubt many people do. I always check my gauges before I get to the interstate (about 4 miles) and I think I check them at least twice a day after that.

But that said, It’s always nice to be able to glance over at the gauges because you heard a odd noise. It may just have been road debris, but if all the gauges are reading good and there are no more noises, and no steam or smoke is billowing out…I presume I’m good to go.

I like TSMs idea of an over ride switch too.

I’ll add that besides limp mode…if you keep pushing it…a loud voice should exclaim “You should be riding a unicycle…idiot” !!!

Yosemite

23

I developed a habit a long time ago of looking at the engine temperature gauge and warning lights every 4 or 5 miles. That might be considered excessive but it’s never been an issue for me anyway.

One of the few complaints I have about my Lincoln Mark is the location of most of the idiot lights. They’re in a message center located top center of the dashboard and out of the instrument cluster. Looking in that direction requires eyeballs towards the A pillar on the passenger side and off the road in front of the car. The message center info is not an issue but warning lights (small ones in this case) should be in front of you; not around the corner… :frowning:

24

It seems like not a lot of deep thought goes into designing those warning lights. In this day & age, there’s no reason whatsoever that a row of blinking red LEDs couldn’t be incorporated into the steering wheel, or the top edge of the dash. Gages could ten provide the details. Of, as I mentioned earlier, a readout of what the fault codes indicate.

25

Irlandes, we used to call our environmental test department the “shake & bake” department.
I wrote the qualification programs, and supervised the performance of the environmental and life tests for product called “light off detectors” that went on the afterburners of the engines for F15 and F16 aircraft. We made them for both Pratt & Whitney engines and GE engines. The designs were entirely different for GE than for P&W engines. I wrote the final qualification and reliability reports. I was the Senior Quality Engineer for both projects.

I also wrote and oversaw testing for radar altimetry systems for the Cruise and Harpoon missile programs. And for high frequency switching matrices for submarines. And a few other things. That was all many years ago, in the '70s and '80s. But I enjoyed that function, and have a lot of good memories of shake & bake testing.

Now, all these years later, it feels like I’m talking about someone else’s life instead of my own. I went into academia some 19 years ago. The transition took years. Actually, I’m not sure it ever “took” at all… {:stuck_out_tongue:

26

A common drag racing “trick” is to set up your gauges so they all point in the same direction when everything is “normal”. That way, at a quick glance you can tell if anything is awry. Although a lot tougher to accomplish in a commuter car, I have a truck that is more or less set up this way with the oil pressure, temp and other more critical gauges pointing to 12 o’clock when they are in the normal range. Like OK4450, I glance at gauges regularly and this certainly helps to spot anomalies.

That being said, as long as you’re not deaf, IMO nothing beats an audible alarm as a back up…

TSM, there are people who have never eaten from the apple but once you do, it cannot be UN-eaten… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

27

I’d like to see the warning lights, all in a row across the top edge of the dash like TSM mentioned.
At least one, that says to “Check Gauges”.
Then they would be more in line to where you are normally looking.
I have a light that says “Check gauges” with a warning chime. I once left the radiator cap loose and it went off. It only chimed once and had the driver been listening to "Pink Floyd’s, Time, you’d never notice the chime. And the light is not where you’re looking.

Yosemite

28

Tthough I too would like more, I would think that one of the biggest profit makers in most cars is the interior and option packages they can throw together and charge a new car buyer for. A package that includes the guages you want, will often include the features you don’t. We all would like to see oil pressure, ampere guages etc, but if I it means we have to accept leather and a bundle of electronic features we don’t want and then pay an extra $2k for it, it isn’t worth it. It appears to be a profit thing…as if we would never have guessed. I don’t think also, that having these guages is as cost effective for a car makers as a standard feature and they seem more expensive to include compared to the demand for them.

29

Perhaps when large array in-dash displays are more common, the gauge package will be a software option you have to pay to have “enabled”. Select which soft gauges you want displayed on the home screen…

30

Interesting thought, TT. With flat-screen displays becoming the norm, and the large multitude of sensor inputs now being entered into the ECU, perhaps simple software options to change what we see will become the norm. If it doesn’t its should. It’s one heck of a good idea. Perhaps they’ll even be aftermarket software purchases. “APs”, I guess the kids call them.

31

With modern technology it should not be difficult to incorporate a feature that would get attention when a car begins to overheat, oil pressure starts going away, or the oil level is excessively low.

Say a device to kill the radio, shut down all entertainment systems, and jam cell phones while activating the windshield wipers to intermittent in clear weather; with the latter being disabled on rainy days.

That should cause someone to snap out of a stupor in a heartbeat… :wink:

32

I might even start liking this technology stuff… {:slight_smile:

33

What about plugging into the OBD-II port and monitor everything on your phone? :slight_smile:

34

My phone is an old clamshell… but it makes and takes calls, and that’s all I care about.

35

MB, Now you have a reason to upgrade! There’s a lot of data available from the OBD-II.