Coolant temp monitoring solution

It would be nice to see a comprehensive vehicle information display with an aftermarket head unit. Like the Maestro iDatalink with a deck like the Alpine ILX-309. It says the RR2 has programmable outputs, wondering what kind of sensor you would need

https://maestro.idatalink.com/searc...14&vehicle_model_id=159&vehicle_audio_id=9565

 

How accurate do you guys think the OEM temp gauge is? I have not heard to many good things about them they seem to be pointless.

 

I’ve got the idatalink system. Like it a lot.

 

I thought that was an odd statement myself.

 

It is my understanding that the water temp gauge in the Tacoma is a "buffered" gauge. The gauge is controlled by the IPC. The ECU does read actual water temps, available through the OBD port, but the IPC buffers the signal to the OEM gauge.....Cold < 90F (needle pointing at C) operating temp (needle in the middle) 120F - 230F, Hot 230F - 260F (needle moves to H). Under some driving conditions, it is prudent to actually know what water, oil and trans temps are to avoid catastrophic damage.

 

fwiw I use OBD fusion and a $10 obd2 reader from Amazon to check up on my f250 diesel temps and I like it. This is towing a load, ect should be around 190f unloaded.

 

...how? Coolant temp/water temp = engine temp. An overheating engine can go all kinds of damage

 

Yeah, it’s that brief moment in time when coolant temp rises abnormally that might let you know to shut it down before permanent damage is done.

 

I have the Ultragauge and I love it.

 

Other than 2005/2006 models with head gasket leaks, stock 2nd gen cooling system isn't prone to problems. @Tacomasandsalsa's attention would be better focused on known problem areas, like transmission fluid temps and power steering fluid temps.

Other mfrs like Subaru have deleted the coolant temp gauge altogether, replacing it with two lights in the instrument cluster: blue light when the coolant is cold, red light when it's overheating, and no light at normal operating temperature.

 

Fine, but that isn't what you said:

 

I stand by what I said. Coolant temp isn't going to be the thing that'll hurt his truck. It'll be transmission temp, power steering temp, rear diff temp (on the undersized 8" e-locker diff)..

 

I'm glad your crystal ball is working.

It is ludicrous that you think engine/coolant temperature doesn't need to be monitored.

But do carry on.

 

Rear diff temp??? Your credibility just evaporated.

 

I miss having complete gauge clusters. Coolant temp is a critical indicator of whether a vehicle is operating normally or not and an indicator light has no nuance of information, it’s just a logic gate. Even being accustomed to how quickly it comes up to temp allows changes in that to inform me. The data is being collected so it would be nice to have it available through instrumentation. The entune system could easily handle the display.

 

Here's what I did.

How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

 

Toyota kept the same size e-locker diff between 1st gen and 2nd gen while upping the weight and power significantly, so its durability is marginal. Why do you think Toyota went to a 8.75" e-locker diff on 3rd gens? Unfortunately there's no OBD2 data PID, so it just does its thing silently until it blows and strands you, while you stare at coolant temp numbers that don't change much.

 

ScanGauge II for sure. You can program trans temps in there as well if you wont to monitor those

 

Except Toyota differentials are very durable and you rarely hear of failures that weren’t caused by tomfoolery.