Quote:
Originally Posted by ttoyoda
Amps absolutely, and here is why.
Eventually, the battery will start to fail. Often, it will fail by shorting out one cell out of the 6. That means it is now a nominal 10 volt battery instead of a nominal 12 volt battery, BUT the fully charged voltage might be 11.8 or 11.9 so you will not notice it on the voltmeter.
When the battery cell fails, the alternator is going to try REAL hard to charge the battery,
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Meh, if/when that happens your battery completely dies overnight and you get another battery. No ammeter is needed.
I'm really not a big fan of a thousand and one gauges. I tune cars for a living and see an endless procession of cars with pillar pods full of crap information I could do without. Oil pressure so I can verify engine condition (oil pressure switch set to kill ignition if it drops too low at WOT), boost/vac, and maybe wideband AFR. Or maybe not.
Honestly, all of the cars I've tuned that made it on TV or ran notoriously strong, and reliably, have no wideband. It's a great diagnostic or tuning tool, but in the hands of someone less than an experienced technician it's too much information and a distraction.