Most likely if they put an accurate 'virtual' gauge somewhere on the dash people would complain they dont match. Kinda like whats happening now

 

That was a warm-up situation Glen. I'm sure when everything is up to temp (as seen in your pic) the actual is closer to the fake as you showed..Not to say it doesn't Skew on the high end as well.

 

Yeah, or freak out when the gauge varies under load conditions. One of the BIGGEST mistakes Nissan ever did was to put an accurate oil temp gauge on the 370Z. The car did run hot oil temps, but having it in your face all the time resulted in a lot of interweb consternation, complaints and hand wringing as you would imagine..

 

Conversely, BMW dumped the water temp gauge because of people complaining, about what exactly I dont know. My old '11 M3 had no water temp gauge, just a big oil temp gauge and an idiot light if it overheated. If I remember you could scroll through the little dispay between the speedo/tach and see the coolant temp - maybe.

Someone mentioned the new Z06 didnt have the analog water temp gauge, maybe its 'virtual' or maybe they dropped it like BMW.

The M3 also had no engine oil dipstick, had to wait for the car to think the 'conditions' were correct and then would tell you the oil level.

 

The 5th gen Camaro has the same "dummy/idiot light" analog coolant temp guage system. When I was changing the coolant the guage never moved from the mid level. Suddenly the there's a loud chime and the DIC starts blinking the engine is overheating! I was monitoring the analog temp guage and it never moved up until the warning's started.
There is a digital guage in the DIC which of course I'll use next time, but if you don't know you're relying on a 21st century idiot light you're no better off than back in the bad old days.....

 

Same here, when I put the blower on my '11 Mustang I had to drain the radiator. When filling it up the analog temp gauge never moved off the middle even though the cooling fans were in hyper speed and the water temp light came on, I had to use the SCT programmer to watch the 'real' temps which were getting up there pretty good.

Wonder how hot the engine has to get before the C7 gauge moves off of 220..

 

most gauges like this just quickly move up to the red zone when its hot enough to be overheating

 

Sure, but I wonder what the threshold is. 230* on the Mustang and the C-H gauge was still in the 'safe' zone and the engine temp light just came on - I didnt wait to see if the gauge was going to follow.

 

I have driven the car over 2000 mi and read the owners manual...CAN SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO ACCESS THIS SCREEN???

 

5th gen Camaro didn't. Hope that's not the same "technology" used in the C7.

 

go to instrument cluster options (press left arrow and choose bottom icon), switch display mode to Touring
then go to the Performance icon (second from top).

i had a 5th gen but it never overheated.....

 

I've owned a lot of cars over the years and whenever they present an indexed gauge, you know, a gauge with NUMBERS on it, they are expected be accurate to withing 2%. None of my Porsche's worked that way but shame on me for expecting something as simple as an indexed gauge to be accurate....... AND, since it can't be selected in the pocket gauges on Sport or Track there's no way to accurately assess the water temp when pushing the car hard, you just get to watch it sit there at 220.

While in the grand scheme of things this is very minor, it's an annoyance and a letdown considering just how good the rest of the car is. I guess I just haven't drunk enough of the Corvette Kool Aid to give GM a pass on this.......

 

Guess you haven't been following along? You can see your exact coolant temp on the Touring --> Performance screen. That doesn't mean you have to be in Touring mode.......better break out the old owners manual.

 

This is one of the more informative threads I've seen lately.

We were promised by the Corvette Team that everything in the interior would be "real". They obviously thought they could slip in a bogus coolant temperature gauge and no one would notice. I think it is awful that a sports car would have an "idiot light with a needle" for coolant temperature. I don't think I have ever owned a car without a real, working gauge.

What's next, a tachometer that stays at 3000 unless you are over-revving the engine? Dumb.

Michael

 

I hope it isn't a trend for the "new GM" to go gauge-less. I picked up a 2014 ATS recently and I really like it but it has neither an oil pressure gauge nor a digital reading of oil pressure. There are three user configurable information zones but none of them provide a choice of oil pressure although I can choose various useless bits of info including one that displays turn signal on or off in case for some strange reason I can read the info area but I can't see a green blinking arrow.

My 2006 GMC pickup has accurate gauges that track actual readings for coolant temperature, oil pressure, and transmission temperature. More and accurate information is far better than less and inaccurate. If the future is directing designers to be hell bent on not worrying consumers then all we need is a speedometer and a big LCD that displays either a happy face or frowning face to indicate whether the car is happy or not. That should be simple enough if the target market is morons.

It would be better to have a second configurable LCD panel in place of the two analog gauges (actually stepper motor driven needles) that is user configurable to show multiple smaller gauges as needed by the owner. Maybe that will be part of a 2016 or 2017 refresh.

 

I have been following, I even posted a pic with that screen up, I know how the display is configured.

Digital numbers 1/8" high are worthless in the heat of battle. A needle on a gauge with the gauge indexed so at normal operating range all needles point in the same direction, usually level in the horizontal axis or straight up in the verticle axis is how a performance car's dash should be set up.

I haven't gotten the water temp up over 220 so I have no idea if the gauge will move in response but I suspect it will. If it does then it's just a minor annoyance and as you say, using the digital gauges will give me the exact number.

My point all along is the gauge should be accurate, there is no technical reason for it not to be but it's obvious someone at GM programmed it to work this way. If enough of us complain maybe, just maybe they will change the programming. Stranger things have happened.

 

pretty much every gauge is a dummy, hate to break it to you. car manufacturers, especially domestics, use the cheapest crap they can get their hands on. you pay 100 dollars for an accurate gauge like an autometer. you think you have that in your car, you craaaaazy.

the only ones that move in real time/function is the tach and speedo. even the volt meter is smoothed. all they have ever indicated is "ok here" not exact temp/pressure. they would be moving all over the place constantly....people would crash.

 

Thanx for the help but it doesn't work on my C7...can't pull up this screen no matter what I do. I will go see dealer

 

I guess I don't understand your complaint. Are you going to trade your car in for a new one if GM reads this thread and makes the temp gauge real? Is it worth a 10-20 grand haircut? Man, I say, who cares....if you are really in the heat of a real battle, you are going to take gauge cluster and radio out and install real gauges. Track days are not battles. Nothing on the street warrants anything else, IMO.

The point is, the coolant gauge is a dummy gauge and if you want to know your exact coolant temp, look at the digital screen version. That is reality. Accept it and move on with life. Or install this:

 

you can do it. don't waste time with the dealer. tell you what, PM me your number or i can send you mine and call me. i'll walk you through it.