Hero in a half shell said:
Jedi-Hunter4 said:
I should have mentioned in the original post that I do drive a manual, but as well as the rev meter my car has a gear indicator which shows the optimal gear for the engine to be in at that moment, so you know when it is best to change up or down, and has an up or down arrow beside the number to show whether you are in too high or low a gear.
I was a bit obtuse when I described it as never moving, it does of course move properly, and I know that the lower it is the less strain on the engine and less fuel you are consuming, but is there anything that the rev meter is vital for to tell me that my simple number and arrow indicator cannot?
Ah thanks for sharing that, that's really interesting, can I ask what car you have? I'm an automotive engineer. I've actually not heard of that before. Would be really interesting to know how it works tbh. Depending on whether the engine itself is being monitored or whether it's just a preset map that looks at the engine speed and the car speed, it could vary in how useful it actually is quite significantly. Because as I stated before, a system that does it accurately would cost allot to implement.
But yer like I said in the previous post I would personally still want a rev meter. I used to have a bike that actually didn't have one, didn't like it at all meant having to constantly listen to the engine.
"- Driving in cold weather, can be used as a good indicator for when the engine is up to temperature having reached the normal idle engine speed.
- Optimizing your fuel consumption ie I know my motorcycle is most efficient on the fuel at 8000revs @ around 65mph
- If you have a manual you should be attempting to change gear within a certain rev range (if you want your gear box and engine to last).
- In depth knowledge of your car, either by sticking it on a rolling road, or just extensive driving of it should allow you to in general optimize your driving.
- Knowing whether your vehicle is in the correct gear for a specific task ie over/under revving while going up a hill
- Most importantly you should never be hitting the rev limiter or going in the red for any real amount of time."
All of my points from my previous post still stand up as you can drive better and more efficient with a combination of the rev meter and the knowledge of your vehicle. I occasionally have to analyse driver patterns and performance (although I'm primarily a bike guy 1st cars 2nd) an in all honesty it's kind of hard to describe if your not utilizing it just how much information is being missed.
In essence taking note of the revs lets you drive with a lower mpg, gain more power, accelerate far faster and depending on the severity of the driving could allow you to extend the life of the vehicle far far longer than it would other wise operate before requiring repairs. In essence if I had to pick the main factor each time you change gear there is a sweat spot of rpm for the gear engagement.
I was probably a little overtly harsh in the damamgae it does, there's no reason you can't be just driving the car naturally well. But it is a reference tool, like a wing mirror, you can technically drive with out one, hell if your very careful you might not even have an accident, but you can drive better with one. Same with the rev meter, if you take the information, learn about your car and it's performance you can drive better with one. Drive a small capacity car like an original mini where you don't have the same amount of power an you would see how much performance is lost.
Admittedly allot of people don't do this, but that is because people are lazy I mean people waste £100's a year in fuel by not bothering to check their tires regually for pressure. People who's car's require extensive work because they never check the oil. The modern average car is built to be idiot proof for the most part, just find it a little sad as people could get allot more out of their vehicles if they put a little more in. But I know engines aren't for everyone! different strokes an all.
yeti585 said:
Revolutions per minute are that important. The cars continued source of power relies on revolutions per minute.
And, from a diagnostic stand point, Sensors suck. The stupid things not only malfunction, but only give you general information. Error codes are annoying, too. Without a make specific scanner you can't even read half of them.
Your right that rev's are important. But rev's are not where the power of a car come's from, "power" ie bhp is actually a calculated figure an not that important (it's more a buzz word for the masses) Torque is what is important and it always comes before the rev limit, it's not a linear curve.
Would disagree with you on sensor's, sensors are incredibly accurate these days, but their also incredibly expensive.
Just look at F1 gear boxes
http://www.xtrac.com/sectors/motorsport/single-seater/product/78
The gears are hydraulically fired into each other during gear change, so the car does not have to drop it's revs, it does that by having sensors around the gears which calculate when to do this so the tip of a tooth does not strike another and destroy the gear box, so your talking a fraction of a second.
There's also sensors for almost every possible need really, hall effect, throttle position, MAP, Temprature.
Those very simple reliable sensor could allow you to manage an engine in numerous ways. Also why would you need what ever a "scanner" is? all the information in any automotive engine management system is routed to either the ECU (i'm yet to see one that cannot be connected simply to a computer for diagnostics) or an Ignition Control Pack.
