What is your take on this gauge opinion?

[oasis]

Frightening if true, indeed. It just didn't ring right with me, though. That's why I posted it here.

I didn't and don't know about the dipstick gizmo. My only investigations on Gene Berg dealt with a 1776 they supposedly built on a Type 34 I was going to buy (before the seller was "going to throw in $10k worth of goodies for just an extra $4k to complete the deal"), and their shifter which was recommended over a NOS Hurst shifter I had a line on.

I hear daily of engines being destroyed by people relying on gauges. Engines being destroyed? Daily? Really?

I tested about twenty each of most brands ... and found none without these problems. ... if they provided reliable information I would be selling them to make a profit just like our competition. Twenty of each brand? All bad? That sounds like a reason to offer gauges. What better marketing tool is there than "ours work, theirs don't?"

I am an admitted technoklutz, so if the complaint was on CHT gauges, I'd probably have skimmed over it without any critical thought attached. But oil temperature? My '86 GLI had one, and I can't believe VW put in a $250-300 gauge and sender unit on a model like that. Plus I read, Oil temperature gauge readings would be 212 to 220 degrees on the gauge when the true test temperature was 240 to 260 degrees. Where was the "true test" temp taken? I mean it had to be taken at the same time. Was it taken at the same place, too? If so, how? There seems to be a genuine lack of information.

And how complicated is it to get an oil temp? I know my way around a kitchen a lot better than an engine bay. There are plenty of fancy and cheap oven and meat thermometers in the market place. Many ovens have hot spots. Meat thermometers have to be placed correctly. Bottom line is most are quite accurate (or I guess it is possible they are inaccurate with nearly identical readings).

Oil temp readings can't be that difficult or requiring untold expenditure. Can it? It would seem to me if twenty times however many brands tested gave a certain range of results while the "true test" was giving something different, I would start questioning the "true test."

But, I am a technoklutz. So I will let my intuition be up for review.

[Al B]

Volksworld magazine ran a small temp gauge comparison test in their ‘SUMMER 2001’ issue.

They took a few well known gauges - Autometer, Jaeger and VDO(x2 one made in USA the other Malaysia)
Various senders - pressure relief valve plug, sump plug, T piece from the oil pressure takeoff on the ‘case, and a dipstick sender (VDO).

The ‘Controlled Test’ consisted of having a saucepan of hot oil on a stove.
The senders dipped into the oil.
The gauges wired up to the senders.

The gauges then had their readings checked against a ‘highly accurate’ (their words not mine) industrial thermometer.

This gave them the results of which gauge AND sender unit were the most accurate.

Here ya go…..

TRUE TEMP
80 90 100 110 122 127
VDO 1 (T-PIECE)
79 90 102 110 123 131
VDO 2 (T-PIECE)
80 85 99 105 120 131
VDO (DIPSTICK)
82 85 100 109 120 130
AUTOMETER
79 85 99 109 121 127
JAEGER
81 90 98 120 130 130+

Now….

None of them are 100% accurate,

But then none of them are massively off the mark either, certainly not the huge variation that has been mentioned above.

Just my 2 pence/cents

[oasis]

Aha! (An exclamation, not the band) This confirms my suspicions.

[zen]

remember, they are called gauges and we refer to things as "gauging them" for a reason. its a relative thing. you will never find one 100% accurate and don't need to as long as you know where there is a swing in temp that you need to be concerned or take action. that said, a mostly accurate gauge is nice. where you take the reading is as much a factor as the accuracy of the gauge.