Gauges & Instrument Clusters
The main purpose of gauges is to let you know what’s happening inside the engine compartment. Gauges continually monitor your engine’s temperature, oil pressure, speed, and engine RPM’s. Gauges measure a variety of input signals and then display the results so the process variables like pressure, temperature, level, flow, speed can be easily monitored.
When combining several gauges together, they are mounted in place in what is called, the instrument cluster. The most common gauges mounted in the instrument cluster are: speedometer, tachometer, fuel level, water temperature, and oil pressure. Some vehicles may use warning lights instead of gauges for the water temperature and oil pressure.
There are other gauges that are found in high performance vehicles or some enthusiasts choose to install aftermarket gauges that monitor engine oil temperature, transmission temperature, fuel pressure, automatic transmission fluid pressure among others.
Types of Gauges include:
- Mechanical
- Electronic – Analog
- Electronic – Digital
