this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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How so? Are you one of those people who don’t check their dipstick before driving? And rely on a gauge that can fail? Do you not look under you vehicle for oil once in a while?
Because what does a gauge tell you that a once over doesn’t? How crappy is your car that you need to stare at an oil gauge instead of being able to tell something is up and pull over and find the information in your cluster? Maybe pay attention to the road instead of staring at superfluous gauges dude.
Per wiki.:
Oil pressure is different than oil level. And a temp gauge and battery gauge tell you what happening.
As you drive your car you get used to what the normal mode is, and when it starts to deviate you get clues to what might be going on in your engine.
I.e. I'd start my truck and as it warmed up before the first traffic light, then on the trip to work it had a normal range for summer and winter. When I started to see temp gauge climb higher than usual, and then stay there a long time then suddenly drop super low , it tells you your thermostat for coolant flow is starting to stick closed, and probably needs replacing.
For oil pressure you see a normal range , but if temp is up and oil pressure drops you are overheating the engine and losing lubrication. Or if pressure suddenly went down it could be blocked d oil filter, or if it suddenly is fine it can mean the bypass has opened and you are no longer filtering oil.
Idiot lights don't tell you any of this, only what has failed when it totally fails
All of that can told by looking at your oil, the gauges are just a lazy half measure lol.
The light is just so you know to check the gauges or your dipstick or whatever since they’re superfluous and always have been.
They put gauges in as the first idiot defence for people who can’t even check their vehicle before starting it. Since if you checked you oil, you would have noticed something was wrong before even starting it or needing the gauge.
And nothing is stopping you from checking the cluster when it’s safe to do so, the information is still there, it’s never needed to be there 24/7.
You also need to ignore the first part of wiki and cherry pick your information to get that take..
From the exact same wiki page, but further up….
It’s telling you check your vehicle since you didn’t check the oil or something else before starting it, you know, like you should be.
People were ignoring the gauges until the light came on anyways, so why have it readily accessible when there other stuff?
Our 96 Sonoma that we just got in April, about a month later ended up having a massive oil leak. It first showed up on the oil pressure gauge.
One day, had to put 3 quarts in it! It wasn't burning the oil, nor would it leave a puddle under the truck. So where the fuck was it going?
There was only one way to find out. Inspect everything with the engine running. Turned out the oil filter was ancient, clogged with what looked almost like tar, and basically pouring oil out from around the seal.
One ~$8 oil filter fixed that right up 👍
Point is, we would have never known just by checking the engine before cranking it, as the oil doesn't pump unless the engine spinny spinny. Bonus points for having an actual oil pressure gauge, as we would have probably drove it bone dry until the engine locked up otherwise.