Why?
 

Non-political, please.
1. Why don't cars have oil and transmission fluid level gauges?
2. Why don't modern commercial airplanes have fuel flow gauges?

And why no pre-lube pump?

Oil level does not matter too much until it gets WAY low and starts sucking air at the pickup tube which will trigger a low oil pressure check engine light, so in a way, most cars already have a warning system.

Don't know about all commercial aircraft, but in smaller aircraft most pilots lean the mixture based on EGT temps and or by watching the rpm start to fall off, then pushing mixture back in slightly. All aircraft have fuel gages and most pilots are capable of managing their fuel.

A lot of commercial passenger aircraft do in fact have fuel flow gauges. At least the Be99's I used to fly did and those were converted passenger liners.

Quite a smaller aircraft have them too, I guess I just don't see the importance what with all the other factors involved choosing power settings along with published fuel burn rates in the manuals.

1. Why do people buy cars and never read the owner's manual?
2. Why, even when there are warning lights, do people drive around with cars when
the dash looks like a christmas tree light display?
3. Why do people buy cars with no service history, records, books, second key,
radio code, the locking wheel nut socket or all of those?
4. Why is it raining in Seattle in August?

Barak Obama hates unecessary guages...

(sorry...had to do it)... :)

3. Why are roof racks rounded? For warped sheets of drywall?
4. Why can't fuel/ignition go through an oil pressure switch? (referencing red-beard)
5. Why do windshield wipers park below the defrost outlet?

(Wayne, good to know some things are changing)

My 911 has an oil level gauge.

My RX7 has a low oil level sensor that will alert me if I am a quart low. It will go off when I am Autocrossing and getting all the oil to one side of the pan its a light and a very loud buzzer.

It also has a coolant level sensor that triggers a light and the same loud buzzer if my coolant is more than 1/2" from the top of the radiator.

This car was built in 1987.

My sons E30 has the same deal for the oil, it will tell you if your a quart low. I am not sure about the coolant and suspect it does not because right after he bought it and we got it home we pulled the radiator and in only had a liter of water in it.

As far as a gauge goes I think that would be overkill and sensor that indicates your at your low limit seems to work just fine.

So if your oil pressure drops then your ignition cuts out? Is this what you are suggesting? I don't think that would be a good idea. Having your power cut when you are in the fast lane of your free way would be a major safetly thing, also your power assist on your brakes would be gone. I wouldn't want that to happen to me out of the blue.

As for modern aircraft, they have all sorts of computers and software managing the fuel. If you look at the major incidents behind aircraft running out of fuel there were reasons. 1) Gimli glider: They knew their fuel monitoring computer was not working but took off, someone made a mistake converting imperial to metric. Not enough fuel on board. 2) Avianco flight: They knew exactly how much fuel they had and they knew they were in trouble. Decided not to declare a fuel emergency. 3) Air transat: Fuel leak, didn't follow procedures exactly either. By the time they realized what had happened it was too late.

As for transmission fluid. Well transmissions don't 'burn' oil/fluid like a car does. Automatic transmissions have a dipstick just like for the oil and a leak in a manual gear box is a very rare thing so the manufacturers probably don't want to spend the money. Think about it; if you, as an engineer, find away to save $10 off the manufacturing of each transmission you have probably earned your salary for the next decade.

-matt

Barack Obama only wants us to have tire pressure gauges.

Oh wait. That was political, wasn't it? ;)

I used to own an Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais that had an ignition cutoff for low oil pressure.

Transport category aircraft have fuel flow gauges.

Why do people launder washcloths?

Why do people use washcloths when they harness 10X the bacteria of what it is washing?

Speedy:)

Someone had to ask. I don't know about you, but mine gets soap build up that only detergent removes. :D

Trans gauges? Well, automatics have to be checked warm and running like the oil on a 911. Not many understand that anymore, I suppose. But the trick would be to have the whole series of sensors that would tell the gauge when it can read and report. Too much trouble and expense as Wayne suggests.

Manuals? Well, when was the last time you checked the diff on your RWD? They just don't require that much attention and neither do manual trannies.

My BMW has a low windshield fluid light. My Porsches don't. Funny thing is in all 3 cars, it works the same when low...just stops spraying.

I do a terrible job of checking things on the daily driver. The Porsches I'm either flogging or scared they are going to break down on me so I look a little more often.

I have an old BMW motorcycle....many of the guys in the club have much newer ones with all kinds of warning lights and stuff. When something breaks on mine, it just stops running. That's how I know it needs attention...every component is important. :)

My airplane has a fuel totalizer that tells me:
-Fuel used
-Fuel remaining
-Endurance at current fuel flow
-Current consumption
-Fuel needed to destination
-Fuel remaining at destination
-Yada yada.....
Plus the back-up analog gallons-per-hour guage, and the separate gas guages for each of the tanks.

If I EVER run my airplane out of gas, I have no business ever flying it again.

My airplane has no tranny fluid level guage at all. I guess that's because it has no transmission.

My 81 Rx-7 has these features also. Of course it does pump oil into the carburetor and by design uses a quart every thousand miles.

Overheat will instantly kill them also.

the car runs fine until past warranty - nothing more is wanted
EPA sets a 50k and then a 100k requiremed warranty on motors (pollution systems) - thank them that our (US) cars run as long as they do...

also, more gauges or lights means more customer inquiries, each of which costs a few pennies.

at least at GM, the financial side of the company runs the place - engineers are low life to do what they are told by the money people.

Accurately and succinctly describes the state of American business. Turn a company over to the marketing/finance types and the end is in sight.

Not true on the overheat, I ran mine with a stuck closed thermostat at a 2 day DE, the car was slightly overheating on day 1 running in the 230° range and it ran like a champ all day. I did not think there was anything wrong and figured the temp gauge was going. On day 2 the temps soared to 280° and again the car was running strong, at one point I had let a driving instructor drive my car and he was pushing a Ferrari Challenge car around the track, we were not suffering from loss of power.

I was not until I got it home and looked at the warranty slugs on the side of the motor and saw they were melted, they were made of lead. Lead melts at 270°.

Then I looked my data logs and confirmed 280° all afternoon. The funny part was I drove the car around for a week after that and it would still turn sideways in second gear. When we did a compression test on it she only had 1/2 the compression at 50-60 PSI. We tore it down and everything was warped I basically tossed the entire engine out, BUT it never stopped running.


As yes, the carb injected oil was probably the last good way to pre-mix the gasoline. When they switched over to FI they had little oil injectors (think direct port injection) that were on the top of the rotor housings. They were useless.

I took mine off and premix my gas at the gas station in the same manner you would with a 2 cycle motor. So my car does not use any engine oil plus I get to premix oil designed for burning which is much cleaner. <--- thats is almost funny when you consider a rotary motor.

$$