Well as I have been discovering the guages on my 2006 (oil pres, tranny temp, and eng temp) are close to useless for real accurate readings. correct me if i am wrong but those threes guages are programmed to show "normal operating" range for a variety of temps and pressures, so where you oi pressure may go between 20-60 psi, the guage doesnt budge.........

this is why unlike the chevy guages that display actual numbers on the guage ford just has lines that have no scale to them what so ever.

so where you engine may be running just a little cold or your tranny may be heating up slighty, there is no way to tell until the trucks gets out if its "comfort zone" by which time it may be too late to notice there is a problem..


so short of installing all aftermarket guages, is there a way to re program the ford guages to display actual data rather than just normal data?

 

No. Unfortunately.

Ford gauges have been that way for decades. Mostly because you had clueless owners not wanting gauges to move, back in the 70's, when that's what they were SUPPOSED to do. They complained to Ford, and so Ford made the gauges not move.

So all we have now is idiot lights with pointers.

(I'm also a former chevy guy, who liked having REAL gauges on the dash.)

-blaine

 

There probably is, because the PCM sees actual values, and the cluster gets a data value for these. The cluster can see either 0-255 or some other scholars. Now how to tell the cluster to sweep to different degrees of arc for each scholars is beyond me.

 

What test's have you performed to give you the indication that they only show "normal" and not "actual" readings? Don't get me wrong i am not saying that they are overly acurate by any means but the information or statements you have made tell us that you "know" they don't display acurately just because there are no numbers indicated on the gauges. I agree in order to make a proper assumption of the gauges it would be usefull to attach a number to the increments.

You could look at this in a couple of different ways, say compared to the Chevy. Just because the chevy gauges display a numeric value to the increments doesn't in it self make it more accurate. All it does for the user is to provide an applied value to it. If the chevy gauge vs the Ford gauge were connected to the same or similar sensor it may very well have the same physical amount of deflection on the meter. Most gauges are to be considered with a +/-10% accuracy. The actual accuracy is more dependent on the sensors location and sensitivity among other parameters.

I drive one of my company vehicle's (GMC Envoy) which is loaded with every gauge under the sun. Although these meters are very well detailed and "pretty" i notice that these meters tend to read average results as well. For example the oil gauge deflects mid way once started and doesn't move more than maybe one small increment from that time to full throttle on the highway. The gas gauge if you count the increments (and there's about 20) would translate into 20 gals of gas? or there abouts. This doesnt acurately drop for every gallon you use at all.

I agree that it would be nice to have a number associated with the gauges in these vehicles but in reality they mean very little to the majority of people that drive them or even know how to interpert them correctly. Maybe the GM's just like to add bling or think their drivers are not as educated as us Ford drivers so they need to be able to interput them better. LOL

 

Frankenbiker hit the nail on the head. Too many clueless people would bring in there vehicle because of overtemp issues when there was no concern. So Ford decided to simply fy the gauges, and warranty costs feel dramatically.

 

Yep, some sort of aftermarket solution is about your only option at this point. Someone would be a real hero if they could invent the black box that connects just before the gauges to convert them to actual gauges. They would sell like hotcakes!

The oil pressure really is just an on/off switch that reads "normal" for anything above something like 10psi.

The trans temp gauge does show a few different temperature ranges but it is heavily de-sensitized. Here's a pic I found on the web somewhere a while back...


You can obviously just put in aftermarket gauges, but you could also install something like the ScanGauge II that plugs into your OBDII port and can display quite a few things. I chose to install gauges but I would still like to play around with a ScanGauge or similar one of these days.....

ScanGaugeII - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool

 

My trans temp show more sweep than that. It will move slowly up from the off position and sit just under the top of the gear. I usually notice it at 0, just below the gear, a cord of the gear and then where it rest. I haven't gotten mine warm since moving the cooler, but at least the trans temp seems to act as a normal sweep rather than an idiot switch.

 

ReAX, what year is your truck?

 

2002. Most of the gauges sweep up very slowly to their normal mark. I did replace the cluster a few years ago, and Ford programmed the HEC module with new as built data. Perhaps there is an update available.

 

Key word there, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. If you really want to know what kind of sweep you have use an OBD-II monitor with TFT on it and an analog gauge, you would be surprised what kind of crap we have in the dash as far as range of display goes.


If that's true then it must be for either a true 2006(I have a 2006, but the build is 2005 that's why I say true 2006) or later, because it sure doesn't seem that way with mine using the method that I outlined in my first paragraph.

 

Get the Edge Insight! I have one for my '08 and it really is a great product.

Edge Products: Home

 

RUSCHEJJ:
the insight doesnt look like it can be used for the 06 250 sd with the 3v triton?!?! it can do the powerstrokes and the 150's but it does not specificly list my truck.

DAVE67FD:
in response to you first i noticed when puling a 26ft camper in the summer months on the highway my tranny would never even show signs of warming up a little. it was the same reading as it was in the cold winter months just driving around town. so thats when i started poking around and relizing that something wasnt right. I have a mac tools full read out task master that gives you every single parameter and readout from every sensor you can think of. so where as the read outs i was getting were super accurate (numbers for temp for done to one decmal place) the guages showed no change at all over a variety of temps. so in real life the guages did not move but you saw the actual data from sensors change all the time significantly, im not just saying by 3-5 degress, they jumped.


i think there should be a patch to make your guages accurate if you wanted. The computer filters out way to much that we as SD owners need. I just dont see how they can prooduce such a heay truck the we obviously are going to work hard day in and day out with out giving us real time drive train data that could help us not reck our trucks

 

Get the DashDAQ, that will give you even more parameters then the Insight.


No, it's not a simple patch. You would have to change the calibration of the analogs to where their range of display was more and adjust incremental movements as well. Either get something like autoenginuity to run off the OBD-II port, the dashdaq like I suggest above, or get some other type of analog gauges. The next solution would be to totally rip out all the wires and re-wire for a custom gauge cluster, or if you could hide the factory ford cluster still hooked up and do a custom cluster that might work.

The likely hood of it being a simple patch and that simple patch being in existance is extremely low, as probable the demand pool for it for Ford to even justify having such a service to perform. While we may all on these boards want the gauges to be more accurate, we are by far a small small part of Ford's customer base and not everyone on here would want it done for whatever reason.

 

Since I'm in the same boat as you with the inaccurate gauges, my plan was/is to install A-Pillar gauge pods with a engine temp, trans temp, and oil pressure gauge.

 

Tractor/tex, I agree. The sensors should in reality put out relative logrithmic data and is it in fact either the lack of sensitivity of the gauge and/or a buffering or filtering component that limits it's range of motion. Obviously the fuel/temp gauges read more usable data than say the oil pressure or battery gauges. I can see filtering to eliminate erratic movement but in the advent of todays electronic design they should be able to make these systems more usable. Many of the components used in my buisness use simple Analog technology (4-20ma) controls to display realtime data like temperature, pressure and level among many others and the precision is incredibly accurate. Of coarse these instruments are not cheap but i have seen many affordable manufacturers that supply similar accuracy.

Again i belive the majority (90-95% or even higher) of consumers buying automobiles could care less or even know what their looking at other than maybe the fuel gauge.