Know Your Dashboard - A Beginners Guide To Gauges And Metres

Not just beginners but even veterans can find it tricky to understand the gauges and meters on the dashboard. Sure, the speedometer and the fuel gauge are simple to read and are the only extremely important readings you need in order to keep driving but that doesn't mean that the other units are not crucial. Knowing what they mean and how they work can be the difference between having a well-maintained car and a poorly maintained one. Here´s a crash course on every little gauge and metre present on your dashboard.

Speedometer

As you know, the basic function of the speedometer is to tell the driver how fast the car is moving and allows one to stay within the given speed limit. Analog speedometers indicate speed with circular dials while digital ones have numbers flashing on them. One more thing you need to know about this gauge is that it does not only get impacted by the speed of the vehicle. Larger tires rotate at a slower rate so if a car has been fitted with larger tyres than the ones designated for it, the speedometer will register a slower speed than the actual speed of the car.

Fuel gauge

Another really important gauge in the dashboard of your car is the one that indicates the amount of fuel remaining in the tank. Again, this one can be digital or analogue, but the standard rule is that F means full and E means empty. This way, depending on where the indicator is in between these two alphabets, you can guess how much fuel is left in your car. As you keep using the car more and more, you'll be able to discern the approximate distance your vehicle can cover with the amount of fuel left in the tank.

Temperature gauge

The car's temperature gauge tells you whether the coolant in your car is working or not. The dial on this gauge must ideally stay halfway between cold and hot (C or H). If it tilts too much on either side, there is definitely an issue with the car's internal setup.

Oil pressure gauge

This gauge keeps an eye on the engine oil pressure in pounds per square inch. Driving a car with low oil pressure is dangerous for the engine's health. Luckily, most cars have a separate indicator that lights up every time it's time to introduce more oil to the engine.

Tachometer

The tachometer is meant to measure the car engine's revolutions per minute (RPM). It usually has numbers 1 through 8 but to find out the actual RPM, you can just multiply those numbers by 1000. The tachometer can come in very handy to shift gears at the ideal time. It is typically colour coded to let you know the ideal RPM to change the gear at.

These are all the important dashboard gauges and metres that you should be aware of while driving your car.