Useful Gauges - Background

I never fully trust my instrument cluster because I don't know which gauges are real, and which ones are disguised as gauges but really only indicate some sort of on/off value.

As you can see I am in the lifted/offroad category, so the 2 sets of temperatures that seem to be the most important are coolant (water) and transmission oil. When out on the trail you want to make sure neither of these gets too high, if they do, its time to stop and let everything cool off. Particularly if wheeling in hot climates.

I haven't installed gauges for a while (since my 1997 Grand Prix GTP) so I was pleased to see that Autometer has expanded their selection of gauges. And I was really pleased to see that they have continued to release full sweep electronic gauges.

Why "full sweep"? Well, they indicate a temperature range over 270 degrees (angle not temp) vs. only 90 degrees in the old style electronic gauges. With this you get much more precise readings.

Several years back, to achieve this, the gauges came with pretty big external electronic boxes that interpreted the temperature sender's signals and allowed an accurate number to be displayed. They were a pain to install because there were several wires and you had to find a place to hide those boxes.

The new generation of gauges have all the electronics built right into the gauge. And for wiring there are only 5 leads - 2 to the sender, and 3 for the gauge itself - power, ground, dimmer power.