I wondered why the transmission on my '08 would heat up so fast even before I drove it.

 

No, I bought a truck that advertised a 5 speed, so I've got no problem with that..

I agree, all you can do is add real gauges. Or buy a chevy. But it still annoys me that I bought a truck that said it had gauges when (except to a anyone but a lawyer) that really wasn't true...

 

There are some inventive people here that do a lot of modifications to their trucks. Has anyone figured out if it's possible to modify the stock gauges so they're accurate. Maybe changing the sending unit or adding a flux capacitor to the blinker fluid reservoir.... anyone?? Buehller....Buehller....Buehller...

 

I seem to remember somewhere on this site - sorry, I can't remember where - were some pictures of a mod that replaced the stock gauges with after market *real* gauges... I'm sure it was her on FTE that I saw this...

 

There are two ways to modify the gauge cluster for aftermarket gauges without having to do pillar mounts or windshield mounts.

1. Take out all the wiring out, re-wire and put your gauge cluster in. The reason you have to do this is because of how intricate the electronics is on these trucks. If it thinks that there should be a connection and it's not there, something isn't going to work properly, so you have to do away with all remnants of the various connections related to the dash.

or

2. You tuck the factory cluster up behind the dash out of sight with all connections still there and then put in your own gauge cluster in it's place. This is probably the cheapest alternative out of the two.


Personally it's cheaper and easier to just run pillar and windshield mounts. There really isn't a way to change the factory gauges themselves to make them more accurate that has to do with how they are calibrated. Now if it was a sensor issue, such as the probes weren't accurate(which if you were to get an OBD-II monitor you'll see that they computer sees temp. fluctations that aren't depicted on the analog gauges), then that would be a different story.

 

Ford gauges work just fine. They have been the same for over 30 years that i have had a ford. If u have a real problem they will let u know. On my O8 350 u can get a full systems check through the DIC. It tells the charging system status and everything else u might need to know. On my wife's 07 expedition it even monitors the status of the air ride system. Something goes wrong and the computer will tell u sooner then u need or want to know. I hate it whenever a check engine lite comes on. Just costs u money most of the time. On my o8 peterbilts with 24 gauges if anything is abnormal the gauge turns red and the Dic tells u the sad news. My O8 corvette is even worse then ford.If anything serious goes wrong a nice lady from on star calls u up and tells u about it. So all gauges just look cool but are worthless in todays computer controlled vehicles. No need to obama rig your truck with more worthless gauges. Just a total waste of money and looks rather trashy to have redundant idiot gauges anyway. If the expy looses all coolant the thing will run on 4 and pump air on 4 at low power too get u back home. Gauges are on their way out. A computer monitor is all there will be someday because all gauges work through the computer anyway. HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

That's just wrong, no other nice way of saying that. I have fried one tranny(wasn't the truck I have now, although they tranny is on it's way out on this one as well) and a friend of mine has fried his tranny by paying attention to stock gauges. So don't try to sell me that bill of goods.

The computer never let me know about my tranny, the injector that was leaking, the loss in cylinder pressure, the total lose of my stock fuel pump(I knew that right away because I had an in cab fuel psi gauge, something that you said I didn't need to have).


My truck isn't a peterbilt so that doesn't do me any good.

Don't have on-star so that doesn't do me much good either.

If they were idiot gauges then I would agree with you, but they aren't. I reference the ability of my being able to know right away that my fuel pump crapped out due to have an in-cab fuel pressure gauge and guess what the truck's computer didn't even let me know about it. Go figure that one huh? Now let's take the fuel psi gauge out of the equation. The only indication that I had of something wrong was loss of power. There are alot of things that could cause a loss of power. No CEL, no codes whatsoever in the computer and I know because I was there when the tech hooked it up because I was levid that a total stock pump failure didn't throw a CEL as in my mind that was a major issue which could lead(and did cause injectors 7 to go bad) to other issues if left untouched. Didn't register a code at all on my truck's computer. If I didn't have that gauge to tell me that I had lost all fuel psi and no codes to work off of, then they would have to have gone thru everything that could have remotely caused a loss of power(and I could think of several things, egr problems, stuck turbo etc, that they would have looked at before the fuel pump), remember we are taking the aftermarket gauge out of the equation. So don't try to sell me that bill of goods about how good the factory computer is letting you know about issues well before you actually need to.

Yes and no, I think gauges will stay have a niche market, but it will be more monitors then gauges eventually, your right there, but your so wrong about ford gauges being sufficient and it being sufficient to just rely on the truck's computer. Too many thing have happened to me to suggest otherwise. Although I will add this as well, your right in the fact that the gauges go thru the computer, however the physical gauges do not change even when the computer registers changes, so that as a driver doesn't do much good for you and knowing if your still able to push it a little further or if you need to cut back, because there are times the computer won't tell you in time to save you from a big nasty bill(I reference my tranny bill on that one). It defies logic how you can say that ford gauges work just fine. The probes do, but it doesn't translate the probes information to the driver accurately and that is still apart of a gauge working correctly and as such as far as I'm concerned they don't work. If I can't see at a glance what's going on because they don't budge, then rather or not their probes are accurate it doesn't do me any good unless I have something external hooked up to the computer(either analog gauges or an aftermarket monitor, your still getting something else to see what's going on with your truck at this point, doesn't do me much good what goes on in the future, it's what is right now that counts the most).

 

U can have all the gauges in the world but if u don't watch them rather closely u will never see that your 44000 pound front rear end that is low on lub and is getting way to hot at 2 in the morning. But when the lights and bells go off and gauge turns red u wake up and smell the coffee. Older trucks just had the warnings on water temp and oil pressure and air pressure. The newer trucks and pickups have a warning lights for ever gauge and for dozens of other things for which there is no gauge. Hence the warning light is way more important than the gauge itself. Most mechanical disasters like blown turbos, dropped injectors and imploded tranies and rear end can never be forwarned by any gauge. Buick went to all light displays years ago and they do as good as any gauge when u blow that radiator hose or lose oil pressure. I luv my gauges on my O8 350 because they look cool and i don't need a gauge anyway with the computer monitoring everything.Its under warenity and if it burns up ford will fix it anyway. Not my problem.

 

KSCRUDE - If it's all going computer generated warnings, so be it. As long as the system is reliable and gets you the info you need in a timely fashion I could live with that. But putting in fake gauges that appear to give you data, but really don't, is worse than nothing at all...

 

is this just in the 08 SD's ???

cuz the gauges in my 03 seem pretty dam accurate..

esp. the trans gauge.. which def. wont come up to operating temp. just sitting in teh driveway idling.. esp on a cold morn. i have to drive for at least a little while before the needle even begins to move up..

for what its worth im happy with my stock gauge cluster..be nice to have a Battery voltage gauge thou..

 

My 08 tran and water temp gauge start out low when cold and gradually go up for a few miles at slow speeds to there normal mid position. They just don't jump to normal as some would have u believe. On a hot day they will even creep up a little. Don't need the stupid amp or volt gauge because my DIC tells me it is all right. Listen to your DICS they know it all. If alternator fails i am sure my DIC will let me know also. Gm always used numbered gauges and ford uses the normal cold to hot low to high and one tells u just as much as the other. Rest assured they all have that great idiot light back up for all of us idiots so don't sweat the small things in life

 

^^^
I 2nd that. Must be the newer ones. Both my current 1999 F350 and my old 1994 F150 guages move all over the place. Summertime towing I see just below 1/2 way on the temp, this winter with subzero NE winds it was just barely in the normal range.
My SD doesn't have a trans temp, planning on adding one as soon as I get some time.

 

The computer on my truck will never see that either




Did you not read my last post? I had several issues that the truck's computer never once even acknowledge that there was issues going on. My truck isn't that old not to have something that would shoot warnings off if it was as reliable as you say it is.

Ok, so if the warning light is more important then the gauge, then what your practically saying is run your truck into the ground until the warning lights come on(which if they do go on, something bad has already happened). What logic are you using? I go once more to my fuel pump issue. If I just continued to run my truck since no warnings, bells, whistles etc came on, I would have one helluva repair bill, especially considering as quickly as I had spotted it I still lost one injector. I fail to see your logic here.

Fried trannies, turbo overboost, high egt's(which can be indicating an egr problem for example depending on the individual circumstance), and my fuel pump issue can all be indicated by gauges.

Also think about this, if you have EOT and ECT gauges and they are running alot more then the normal 15 degree difference, but before they hit critical temps, that could be telling you that something bad is in the works and it's better to get it fixed before your out of a truck for a good long time with a potentially high bill expecially if you don't have warranty anymore. Your truck's computer hasn't been programmed with this type of connection in mind(the relation of EOT and ECT temps) and as such according to the truck everything is status quo when it might be the exact opposite even though you may not have been running the truck long enough or hard enough to have those troublesome issues hit critical temps.

The only way that I can think you would be so cavalier about this is if you really don't need your truck for a living and it's more of just a toy. I lose money if my truck is in the shop for an extended amount of time, so I can't afford to be so cavalier, besides that I'm long out of warranty. Also even if you kept the truck totally stock and you have warranty left, they won't fix everything especially if you do something like run the truck any way you like without worry because your truck's computer hasn't told you different.

I might also mention is that you never really explained away how my and my friends experiances with ford factory monitoring systems could be like this if ford did such a bang up job in the first place with both their gauges(which you have said that they are both good and haven't changed in 30 yrs, and our vehicles are a helluva lot younger then 30 yrs, so our gauges should be one of the good ones) and their computers. Next you'll be saying that the mpg calculations that the truck's computer gives you are 100% accurate, since their computers are so good. You are perhaps one of the few that has kept the faith that factory monitoring devices are sufficient.

 

Numbers are priceless as far as guages go.

If that DIC is so awesome, why can't it give a quantitative readout of oil pressure, engine temp, fuel pressure, trans. temp, fuel level, voltage, amps, and tire pressure?

The gauges might move slightly, but they have no reference on them. At what temperature does the engine temp dummy light come on? How much pressure is that oil system normally running at?

...it's nice to be able to tell that your oil pump is starting to lose it, rather than just knowing when it fails... the former way, you can buy a new pump, replace it when you have time, and not damage anything or get stranded somewhere. The latter, leaves you on on the side of I-35 a few hours before a 4 day weekend... a weekend in which the parts houses won't be open.

 

Oh and imagine when it's around the parts of I-35 under construction round waco. Not good.