In defense of idiot lights

"Old-Busted-Hotness" (old-busted-hotness)
08/23/2019 at 06:03 • Filed to: None

So I’ve been spending a lot of time in here:

Not an unpleasant place, if I do say so. One thing that I thought I’d miss from the Ranger is the full instrumentation. The Love Boat only has speed (only to 85 mph) and fuel gauges. Idiot lights for oil/temp, amps and low fuel and low oil. Plus the seatbelt and brake warning lights .

So I’m being deprived of information. I no longer know engine rpm, temp, oil pressure (which on the Ranger and other modern Fords is really just a phony gauge that reads mid-range if it’s over 7 psi) or volts.

All I have is no light or “hey there’s a problem here.” And you know what? It’s fine. It’s liberating. If I fill up before a long trip and set the cruise, I never even have to look at the IP. If something comes up that I need to know, a nice bright light will tell me so.

I am no longer a slave to my gauges.

For more than 40 years, auto journos have derided the idiot light, favoring instruments. But instruments demand constant attention. If you’re not watching them and something goes awry, there’s nothing to alert you to the problem. I had an alternator fail in heavy high-speed traffic and didn’t check the gauge until it was too late and I got stranded. Yes it was my fault. But if I’d had an idiot light I’d have been alerted as soon as it happened, rather than 45 minutes later when I sputtered to a stop.

With that said, I wouldn’t mind a real temp gauge, and more on the top end of the speedo. Keeping my eyes open for a police-package speedo, but those aren’t as easy to find as they were 20 years ago.

Idiot lights are luxury, in that they make life easier for you. And isn’t that the point of a luxury car?

DISCUSSION (9)

Alfalfa > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 06:29

I like having a gauge and an idiot light. It's nice to know where you stand sometimes, without having to watch carefully.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 06:29

I have no qualms with idiot lights....the issue with a lot of them though (oil pressure for example ), is they often come on TOO LATE after damage is already starting to be done...

Old-Busted-Hotness > Alfalfa
08/23/2019 at 06:34

That’s an ideal solution. Choice is luxury, too.

jimz > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 06:47

But instruments demand constant attention

No, they don’t, you need instruments when your car demands constant attention. i.e. when it’s a piece of junk which is always on the verge of breaking down. Which describes older cars pretty well.

Modern cars don’t need instruments because you don’t need to worry about that stuff.

phenotyp > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 07:15

Mostly agree with you, except for the engine temp gauge. My E60’s water pump sprung a leak (as they do) while cruising in the left lane of a super-busy highway on a super hot Texas day. Warning screen came on just as it went into limp mode, stranding me in the inside shoulder.

That was a fun experience.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 08:13

I like gauges for things that get worse before they become an actual problem (temperatures and fuel level) and idiot lights for everything else.

And systems that people will turn on and then just leave on forever don’t need an idiot light indicating that they are on. Blind Spot Monitoring doesn’t need an always on light telling me it’s active Toyota.

While I’m ranting if you have a LCD information display one of the things it should be able to display is a digital speed readout. *Cough cough* Toyota *cough cough* And no, the vast nothingness known as digital mode isn’t good enough, I should be able to have both the analog gauge and the digital readout.

If you can't tell the gauge cluster is the thing that provides the most annoyance for me in my Corolla.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 09:19

As others have said: why not both? Not telling me the RPM is just cheap.

Urambo Tauro > Alfalfa
08/23/2019 at 10:46

Both would be ideal!

I like having gauges, so that I can have a heads-up if the temperature even STARTS to climb higher than normal. That way, I have time to get over to the shoulder before re aching actua l overheat. I try t o do a gauge check at least once or twice per minute, but it’s conceivable that if a hose blew off or something, that temps could climb in under 30 seconds. So yeah, a sudden warning light in my periphery might catch my attention better than a slow ly-moving needle . Or even better: have the chime sound too.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Old-Busted-Hotness
08/23/2019 at 19:20

I know the low coolant light in my Jaguar works, I tried it out twice before I got around to replacing all the hoses. Probably saved me from destroying the engine at least one of those times.