Most and least important dash gauges
 

IMO, the most important is the oil pressure gauge - not the tach, since by sound and feel of the engine one is able to roughly measure its RPM. Oil pressure is another matter: when that goes south, the engine isn't far behind.

The oil level gauge is least important, since the dipstick is generally regarded as more accurate.

Other opinions as to what the most and least important dash gauges are?

I think the gas gauge is important, unless you like getting stranded. :D
The clock is worthless...peedo is too if you can do the rpm to speed conversion in your head.

Most important- Oil temp
Least important- Odometer
Least important Honorable mention- speedo :D

Agree about oil temp being important. I equate it with the tach. But I think it is still better to have oil pumping through the engine, regardless of it being an acceptable temperature or hot. That's why I rank pressure as first.

YMMV.

Oil Pressure -> Oil temp -> Oil level -> Tach -> Gas -> Speedo -> Odo -> clock

Re: Most and least important dash gauges
 

alternator light most imp demanding immediate reaction

oil level is least imp

all the others are for routine monitoring

Oil Pressure - Oil Temp - Tach - Oil Level - Gas Level - Speedo - Clock

Oil temp Most important.
Oil level for me is the least important. Yet I watch the d-thing all the time!

gas guage doesn't mean much to me. I reset the trip odo at each fill, and know that after I hit 200 miles, I should start thinking about filling up.

What about this red light. I can't ever seem to get it to come on.... :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071262637.jpg

Oh yeah- I keep an eagle-eye on that one. If that comes on you're in BIIIIIG trouble. ;)

Speedo is kind of important if you want to hang on to your driver's licence, tach is trivial w/ rev limiter and sound to rely on. These are pretty low-revving motors anyways, in the big scheme of motors out there. :cool:

By far the most important is a working alt. Light. If it comes on PULL OVER NOW! you've lost your fan belt. Don't ask me how I know. Next is the pressure and temp guages IMHo

And a fanbelt breaking doesn't always include an audible noise.:rolleyes:

What DOES that light mean? I borrowed a friend of mine's SC for the weekend and he has one...

Oil Pressure, alt light, oil temp, tach, voltmeter, gas gauge, speedo, oil level.

I'd say the oil level is the least important, mine is completely accurate, but since I am only a quart or two low when it stops registering it's not really a big deal.

The most important gauges are the gauges that tell you the health of the motor instantly when it is running, oil pressure, temp, and alt light/volts (I added a voltmeter), then things that you can use/control gas, tach, speedo.

Who needs a tach when you have a rev limiter :)

Most important Oil Pressure
Least Important Oil Level

WHAT DOES THE OXS RED LIGHT DO!!!

The OXS light is somehow connected to the odo & lights up every 30000 miles which is the replacement interval for the O2 sensor. There is some procedure to reset the light. My o2 sensor is approaching 30 000 miles of service so I think I'll have a party when that crrrrraaaazy light does its wonderful thing :)

It's for the Oxygen Sensor.

Back in the 80's lots of cars had some sort of notification set for preset intervals that they thought you should go by to replace the O2 sensor. I am guessing that the OXS light is on one of those preset intervals, but i suppose it could also come on when the O2 sensor is returning no signal or a wildly out of range signal.

It must be related to the ticking/clicking sound - how it knows to go off that is. I had an Altima and the "Check Engine" light went off (I think it's the modern day equivalent - if there was a real problem the engine usually stops ;) ). So I'm out in the "country" and I freakin panicked. It ended up being a $10 labor item with $90 of labor. :mad: