Settled: Your Oil Pressure Gauge is Fake

[fox]

A concerned driver can learn a vehicles personality by watching the gauges. You can learn, by watching the pressure gauge, that you have , either a plugged filter, or hot oil.

On my first car, an old chevy, I could tell when it was a quart low on oil, the pressure dropped by about 10-15 lbs. at idle.

Rather than fix an internal problem , someone at Dodge or Cummins has allowed this farce to happen, or delay it till the end of warantee.



Ford has done this for more than 10 years according to a ford site I was on.

I own a 2001 Ranger, once when we changed the oil, an employee started it with out oil. After about 5 seconds the gauge read but the check engine light stayed on. I yelled to him to shut it off, and found the drain plug was still on the floor!!!!

 

[67guzzler]

As a boat owner with twins I have to say that I wouldn't dare go out on the open seas without gauges for both. If I found out that one of the gauges was fooling me and really was nothing more than a dummy light WITH A DELAY I'd trash that sucker in a heartbeat and get the real thing. I learn / monitor my gauges like the back of my hand. I probably subconsciously monitor them every minute or more. I'd like to think my $40k truck would have gauges that do something valuable and not pacify me as a simulator. Out on the open water it could be a matter of life and death. I guess burning up an engine on the open road isn't the same. Still, it's pretty amazing when you think of it. A dummy light that emulates a gauge AND has a delay. How sad.

 

[cyborg]

Out on the open water it could be a matter of life and death. I guess burning up an engine on the open road isn't the same. .

WHEN YOUR OUT OF WARRANTY IT IS!!!

 

[67guzzler]

WHEN YOUR OUT OF WARRANTY IT IS!!!

You're right there!!!

 

[brods]

Ryan, good post. Never figured anybody would put numbers on an idiot light. Does that mean the coolant temp is make believe too? Volts too?



Hopefully the aftermarket can come up with a way to make the factory gauges real. Maybe by using different senders wired directly to the gauge?

 

[Kirwin]

Gauges and the story they tell

Well I told MY story a while back about my loss of oil pressure at speed incident. If I knew how I'd post a link to it. Its some sobering reading. Don't be too quick to say you would notice if your gauge went to zero and the oil can icon on the dash lit up, I consider my self a very observant driver, but on my 97 if I hadn't saw the oil on the front of the travel trailer I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong. On the 03 and later Rams it might be easier to detect a change in engine noise but I didn't notice any change on my 12 valve. I was lucky. I subsequently installed a dash eyebrow mounted Cyberdyne digital gauge the flashes if oil pressure falls below my programmed setpoint. Its nearly in the line of sight on the dash so very visible. I wouldn't mind if Dodge put an idiot light on the dash just call a spade a spade and don't put something there that will give me a FALSE sense of security. Ken Irwin

 

[rbattelle]

Does that mean the coolant temp is make believe too? Volts too?

No, the other gauges are real. However, the volt gauge is heavily damped. For instance, in cold weather when the intake heaters run the volt gauge will hold down around 12v or something until the end of the heater cycle. If it were not damped that way, it would be bouncing all over the place (I think).



-Ryan

 

[67guzzler]

No, the other gauges are real. However, the volt gauge is heavily damped. For instance, in cold weather when the intake heaters run the volt gauge will hold down around 12v or something until the end of the heater cycle. If it were not damped that way, it would be bouncing all over the place (I think).



-Ryan

That I don't mind. Cleaning up the signal is fine. Just so the resulting signal is accurate and real-time. Making a fake signal out of a dummy light should be illegal.

 

[DLettau]

Volt gauge is not real time.

I did some voltmeter readings in the cigarette lighter to see what's happening with the air heaters and their loading, connected and dis-connected, and was surprised to find that the dash gauge can read 12 volts, well below the normal mark, minutes after the Fluke digital in the cigarette lighter was registering 14. 5 volts. There is a big delay on the voltage gauge. It's probably the same "computer" issue as the overhead outdoor temperature indication. I notice that it takes minutes to get around to the correct outdoor temperature indication when first started up. Those computers don't always talk to each other very quickly.

Anyway, I was just starting to think about an aftermarket volt gauge, when I stumbled on your fake oil pressure gauge thread. Great, what's next?

 

[Matt400]

True. . I think the ECM reads actual voltage, analyzes it, buffers it for customer satisfaction and then outputs a signal to place the needle where someone figured we would expect to see it. Sweeeet!

 

[cyborg]

They could have just painted the needle on.

Wait. Don't give them any ideas.

 

[Matt400]

They could have just painted the needle on.

Wait. Don't give them any ideas.

:-laf :-laf :-laf

 

[darkhorse]

My oil pressure gauge just started acting goofy tonight after an oil change. It jumped from 40 psi to the next tick mark, whatever that's supposed to be, after I had been driving a few miles. now it goes to that mark when I turn the switch on without starting the motor. #@$%! I used my Smarty to check for codes & got a P 1693 that won't clear. I came in and found this thread. What an eye opener. Placebo gauges don't belong in expensive trucks. Now that I've lost faith in the factory gauge I'm not sure what the best solution is.

 

[cyborg]

My oil pressure gauge just started acting goofy tonight after an oil change. It jumped from 40 psi to the next tick mark, whatever that's supposed to be, after I had been driving a few miles. now it goes to that mark when I turn the switch on without starting the motor. #@$%! I used my Smarty to check for codes & got a P 1693 that won't clear. I came in and found this thread. What an eye opener. Placebo gauges don't belong in expensive trucks. Now that I've lost faith in the factory gauge I'm not sure what the best solution is.

You and I have real gauges. It's the 3rd gen guys that have the "idiot gauge".

 

[darkhorse]

You and I have real gauges. It's the 3rd gen guys that have the "idiot gauge".

I thought it acted like it was showing real pressure but that all stopped this afternoon. Perhaps my sender just went on vacation.

 

[Schlickenmeyer]

Quote: You and I have real gauges. It's the 3rd gen guys that have the "idiot gauge".



The 2001 shop manual reads the same as the 3rd gen quoted earlier in this thread. I do not know for a fact, But I believe this has been going on for years.

I am looking into the Road Relay now. I want unfiltered data. I do not trust DC.