My point about gauges in general. Unless you watch them like a hawk (and I
went over two red lights in France doing that to temp and coolant level
instruments when I had a cooling system problem), or are very lucky to
glance at it just as it suddenly drops/rises, they are not as much use as an
audible and visual warning. It's true that you can see gradual changes in
average oil pressure or increase in running temps over time, but mostly they
are just for appearance and things for people to get paranoid about.
However you don't need to pull over to avert engine damage of course, just
dip the clutch and switch off. At a hill climb a few years ago I watched a
much modified Scimitar GTE pull off the line with smoking tyres and wondered
what that big orange light (a Mini indicator light) on top of his dashboard
signified. Then looked back at the start line to see a large and spreading
pool of oil. He travelled at least a couple of hundred yards at full chat
like that before either noticing or being flagged. He got it back to the
pits, fitted another oil filter (the other one had blown off), filled up
with oil, and went on to win his class. There was also the case of the
journos testing an MGF in the very early days noticing the engine
compartment temperature light come on but left it until they got to the next
services (probably a few miles). They wrecked the engine. More modern cars
(like the RV8) didn't even have an oil gauge (had a voltmeter instead,
another pointless instrument, as well as an ignition warning light), and the
temp gauge was controlled via the ECU so the owner couldn't see the normal
ups and downs and get panicky about them, making that gauge completely
pointless.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
> My beef with
> oil pressure is that in case of a serious leak (loosing oil faster than
> you're checking your dipstick), the oil pressure will go from fine to zero
> in the blink of an eye. I've never heard of anyone pulling over fast
enough
> to avert engine damage based on the oil pressure gauge.
|