I completely agree.
I'd also add that there's a bit of a philosophical choice involved. Some people feel the idiot lights on their dash are enough, with perhaps the addition water temperature. Getting some people to even look at the fuel gage is a stretch.
Others, like myself, have intimate knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the engine. Knowing things like boost, egt, oil pressure, oil temperature, and rpm, I know how hard the engine is working as well as how hard I can push it. With my experience and that feedback, I can do things like pull a horse trailer over a mountain pass with a 4 cylinder diesel engine. If I didn't know the engine's state of health, I wouldn't dare.
Sure, you can get away with just the stock temperature gage - but remember this: The Toyota MGR was merely intended for supplemental power in the Highlander. If the control system detected the motor was getting too warm, it would be very easy to simply turn it off at some very conservative temperature. This isn't such an easy option when the motor is the *only* power source.
In addition, the oil flow is critical for lubrication. In the OE setup, since the vehicle is **mostly** going forward, that is a safe setup. If the system relies on an external pump, then that pump must **always** work. By the time we've learned that the motor is overheating at freeway speeds, the galling would already have happened to the unlubricated bearings and gears.
I guess I'm a fan of information overload. It's a lot easier to ignore a gage than to accurately guess what's happening when your car is making funny noises.
- E*clipse
Quote:
Originally Posted by thingstodo
The oil flow, oil pressure, pump turning and pump current are all warnings that you should get before the temperature goes up. A signal that the car should not get out onto the freeway, or signal that there has been a failure while you are driving and let you know to get to somewhere safe before the car stops. They're kinda nice to have.
To protect the motor from damage, I agree that the motor temperature is all that you really need. Depending on how fast the temperature rises, you can likely do at least some of the warnings with temperature only.
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