I guess I'd like to have that information. At 200K it might be helpful to know the ending is running slightly hot. Every honda I've ever owned had a temp gauge. I guess I am just used to it being there. My fiat 500 had a temp gauge and instant economy display.

 

That is awesome! Thank you!

 

Have you ever seen a Honda Fit overheat, i'm just curious?

 

I would rather have temperature gauge. In the unlikely or unforeseen circumstance that engine overheats, by the time an idiot light comes on to warn you I'm willing to bet engine damage will already have been done.

One thing never mentioned. What's if the engine is running cold all the time in a situation where the thermostat is stuck open and constantly circulating coolant? How would one ever know? No warning light for that. Thermostats are designed to be fail safe and fail in a stuck open position.

I'll keep the guage.

 

That's exactly why they have the blue "engine isn't warm yet" temperature light.

(In winter, at least, it's very obvious if the thermostat is stuck open; you don't get any heat and perhaps start to worry about dying of exposure while you drive!)

 

The graduation on the real-time MPG meter really pisses me off, as an analyst by trade. You have a min, max and what, ONE other value on the chart? That is among the most useless data visualizations I've ever seen.

On the temp front the hot and cold lights I actually (mostly) approve of. Engine temp is not a figure that any end user needs to be aware of unless it is in one of two conditions too hot, or too cold. Generating an alert only if a critical condition is reached is solid design logic. The one problem I have with this system is that I don't think there's a test-panel feature like in aircraft where before you take off one of your checks is to make sure that all of your warning lights still work. Say the wiring was faulty in your "overheating" indicator, you'd never know. With a guage it's easy to tell if it's defective.

EDIT: I take it back, just tested this and the red "overheating" indicator comes on as part of the start-up test panel. I officially have no problems with this design. If you want to get deeper into vehicle engine diagnostics, purchase a OBDII diagnostic tool.

 

As long as a car has an adequate cooling system for all situations a simple overheat light is sufficient.

My old Chevys had marginal cooling systems and it was sometimes necessary to drive with reference to the temperature gauge when climbing hills. this wasn't fun and gives you an idea of Chevrolet quality.

Modern Hondas have adequate cooling systems and won't overheat. If they do, the light is much more noticable than a gauge.

 

It is also highly likely Honda has incorporated some emergency cooling mechanisms into the ECU. As an example: if it is overheating the 4-cylinder Ford Duratec will start running on three cylinders, then two, and finally one in an overheating situation to attempt to cool the engine by pumping air through the engine. Pretty neat idea. I'm sure it sends emissions all out of whack as the exhaust gets much more oxygen than is ideal but it can save the engine from damage.

Most cars with a temperature gauge these days don't actually show the coolant temperature at all; it is just a glorified idiot light. Too many people would bring their cars in and demand they be "fixed" when they saw the needle rise slightly while in a traffic jam with the A/C on so manufacturers just made the gauges never leave dead center "Normal" range unless things were really bad.

 

Which bluetooth OBDII transmitter did you buy?

(the one I got worked one time, never connected again but did run down my battery... but it was well less than $20, but still not worth what I paid)

Thanks

 

Torque, ScanGauge or UltraGauge. All great solutions.

If information won't help you, then there's just no talking to you. Literally. Nobody wants to convince you that you need a gauge, but lots of people like to have them- and that's at least as understandable as not even wanting to know.

 

Yes, most temp gauges are very granular. Cold, not as cold, normal, a little hot, overheating.

The light does the same thing pretty much: Cold (blue), normal (out), a little hot (blinking), overheating (solid red).

So it doesn't really matter which one you have. Unless you've got a legitimate gauge or OBD reader like has been posted dash needles don't give you that much information. Unless I'm constantly scanning your gauges, I won't see the needle, and if I'm not expecting a problem, i'm not obsessively checking all my gauges. I would easily see a blinking red light in peripheral just from looking at the speedo, which I do all the time.

Also, FWIW, the "90 mpg" or whatever the max reading is on the MPG gauge means the injectors aren't firing. That's good information to have if you're trying to max your fuel economy.

 

My old 2012 Hybrid they replaced the temp gauge with MPG. I was concerned about it since all of my previous Hondas had temp gauge. Now it's an idiot light? nice

 

Hi Bmidd, clearly the bluetooth OBD2 transmitter you bought worked well. If you don't mind, which particular one did you get, from where, and for about how much, and are you still happy with it?
thanks

 

I too am wondering the same questions. That mount looks pretty nice, however, if those A-pillar airbags go off, your phone is most likely going to say "hello" to your face.

 

Is there any extra plugins for the fit to be installed on torque? I had a nissan before and there was a specific pluging for advanced monitoring stuff and sensors not shown by default.

 

Agreed. I would like to have a temp guage so i know whats going on in my engine before a problem occurs. I can see why Honda didnt do it though because most car owners are so detached from the mechanical aspects of their cars that they dont need anything more than an odiot light.

 

This is a very true statement, most people wouldn't care if their car had a temp gauge or not. In fact, I'd wager a bet that if you took a survey, most couldn't answer the question "Do you know if your car has a temp gauge?" I'm not saying that as a negative, I'm just saying most people don't really care what their engine temp is. I'm a numbers guy so I have always had my temp displayed on my ScanGauge.

 

If anyone cares my 1 week old fit never showed a higher coolant temperature than 186F which is lower than my previous car (Mazda Protege5) which never showed higher than 203F. So this is a good thing as the operating temp of the Fit engine is lower than my previous car. I meaured this with the Torque app and a bluetooth OBDII adapter.

 

During normal driving, my temp stays at a very consistent 184deg. Last week I did notice it was at 202deg while in the middle of a 30min gridlock. Not a lot of fun sitting there watching my average mpg plummet.

 

I have an 07 sport that ive abused from day 1 by towing a 4x8' trailer that weighs about 400lbs empty. I call it my pickup. Monroe air suspension in the rear is the bomb. 150,000 miles.

I weight 200, my wife 100, who is often with me, sometimes two 65 dogs and up to 100lbs of tools.

Ive towed 1000lbs of gravel several times, multiple appliances at once, lots of tile/thinset, construction debris, you name it.

Recently i hauled 5000lbs of tree rounds in 4 loads around 1250lbs each. I know because they weigh you in/out of the landfill.

I live in florida and it was probably 95f outside, i had ac on, and a had a few traffic lights between me and the landfill. Never had overheat issues until that day. It was on the way back, with an empty trailer, 3200lbs out of the weigh station.

The red tempnwarning light came on. First time in my life ive seen it. So i hooked up odb2 bt module and using paid dashcommand app (i didnt like torque) saw that coolant temp was 220f, maybe even higher. Intake air temp was 120f.

Turning off ac and blastimg heater eventually got temps down below 200f.

With cooler ambient air temps around 90f, even after flush and replacing thermostat (170), and with just me in the car, no trailer, heat on full, cabin fan on full, fresh air, radiator fan jerry rigged to switch and on, air intake temp 100-105f, im getting 190-195f highway, 200-205f city.

Is it supposed to run that hot? I know this is getting a little off topic, but whatever.

Wondering those of you with odb2 or guages, could you report your coolant temps? With ambient temp, air intake temp, ac status, city/hwy?

Also wondering at what temp your fan kicks on. Even at 205f mine wasnt kicking on. Parts store said no switch. Then does ecu control fan operation? I just rigged mine to a switch in the cabin. If there is a radiator switch, where is it?