I miss my gauges.....

I use older tech in the form of a scangauge II and an even older ultra-gauge. The SG can only show four gauges at a time while the UG can show a few more but both are capable of displaying just about anything available thru the OBD port. The SC is better for a HEV specific readings and developing custom PID’s.

FWIW

 

I use a ScanGauge II, small enough to just sit on top of the steering column, and will display any four PIDs that you choose to have displayed. Many will use a phone app to do the same thing.

For some, you have to look around and find out if anyone has reverse-engineered the PID information that you have to program into the ScanGauge or the phone app. I know there were pretty comprehensive lists that got figured out for gens 1, 2, and 3. I just haven't looked to see how much has been accomplished for Gen 4 yet.

In some things, you're limited by what sensors the car has. I think it might only have a low-oil-pressure switch, not a pressure transducer, for example, so you won't have much you can watch there.

 

I think there are many, many more in use that are hidden from us. Things like the YawRate sensor, the steering sensor, the many temperature sensors, Atmospheric Pressure sensors - are all used by various functions on the car - but of no interest to almost nobody.

I remember when Gen 4 first released, there was someone here ADAMANT that it should have a tachometer. I've not seen it - but I read about one (might have been on another forum) where someone temporarily installed one - and the tacho did such "weird" movements - the person said after a while - it was no point.

 

I use two ScanGauges stacked together on the steering column. the lower one typically is set to read Coolant Temp,12v battery current and voltage, and main battery charge/discharge current. The top one usually is set to display all the tire pressures. Having spent quite a few years in the engineering field, I like to be able to see whats going on with the systems and maybe stay on top of a problem before it gets to the point a "idiot light" comes on.

 

some people monitor battery temps, cooling fan speed and etc.

toyota has a proprietary black box for the stuff they don't want you to see.

 

Still, they aren't spending money on sensors they haven't got a use for as inputs to the algorithms they're using to control the car. Oil pressure switch vs. pressure transducer is a case in point.

 

Think of the Carista app as a firewall, only giving you access to what they want.

The OBD Carista reader can be used with Torque app just fine.

 

HeeHee. I can just picture my younger days, hot-footing up a mountain pass, testing the adhesion limits with different tyre pressures. A Yaw Rate Sensor would have just been the bees knees.

 

Heck you can get one of those (and more) by adding even a cheap aftermarket radio (not as cheap as a SC) nowadays.

 

My old Subaru didn't need a separate sensor for the gauge for the driver. Instead, it displayed a seriously 'massaged' version of the ECU reading. Everything from at least 145F to 210F (maybe even wider, I don't fully explore) was collapsed to a single point on the dashboard temperature display. In normal operation, despite fluctuating coolant temperature, the needle wouldn't budge a bit, thanks to built-in "customer expectation management".

 

Gauges are only useful for people that: 1) actually look at them, and 2) understand what they see.

Temperature and oil pressure gauges used to be (somewhat) linear and accurate on some cars. And the drivers that had them would often come in saying "this gauge reads higher here, and then lower there!" I would have to explain that engine temperature normally goes up after a 5 minute hot soak or that oil pressure is lower at idle after extended highway driving in summer.

Apparently the OEM's got tired of explaining things over and over to buyers that had no clue (and didn't want to have one) about how their car worked. The OEM's began "dumbing down" the gauges and going to idiot lights. Temperature guages were made to read - "none"(cold), "some" (ie normal operating range), and "lots" (overheat). So it's easy to see that going to a blue light/ no light/ red light.

And it's hard to beat Ford's oil pressure guage that was connected to an on/off pressure switch. Under 5-7 psi would show 0 on the dash but anything over that would show a fixed value.

Throw in the "weird" operating conditions of a hybrod ICE and there's no way that they are going to put (useful) gauges on it.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It wouldn't be too hard to install a temperature gauge on the transmission and an oil pressure gauge on the engine.

The transmission drain plug removed and a temperature sensor could be adapter to the M18x1.5 threads into which the drain plug is fitted.

The same kind of adapter could be threaded to the removable M18x1.5 plugs on the oil filter adapter.