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You know what I hate about my beautiful 2009 XF Premium Luxury?????? Idiot lights with no gages. I wish it was possible in this tech world of ours to somehow program the touchscreen to link to my bluetooth obd scanner and display all my Torque app presets right in front of me instead of driving around looking at phone. I know I made the purchase choice on the car, but why why why are cars built without temp and oil pressure gages standard? In the old says (1960's) it was common to customize our hot rods with aftermarket pep boys gages that woud bolt on either on top of dash or under the steering wheel for that souped up look. No gages.....dumb.
I remember it too, growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood in the 70s. Every weekend, somebody's father would be working on their carburetor while the other fathers stood around drinking beer and offering unsolicited and often-wrong advice. But in the 80s, fuel injection and computerized engine management started coming out. Totally unintentional I'm sure, but every car was different and you had to take your car to the dealer to be scanned for codes. The dealers began to realize that they were making more money on repairs for these newer cars than they ever had before. Soon after, manufacturers started covering the engine with plastic covers so that when you opened the hood, you couldn't see if there was a hose or something obviously busted. This was another sign to the consumer, just check your fluids and leave everything under the plastic cover to the professionals.
By the time I graduated high school, the simple Novas, Beetles and Pintos were all gone and all the fathers were commuting in high-tech Toyotas, Nissans and Mazdas. The few holdouts that bought newer domestic cars and trucks were convinced to buy "extended warranties" because they wouldn't be able to fix it themselves anymore. Eventually they were compelled by law to standardize some basic codes for emissions purposes, but by then the brainwashing of the average consumer was already done.
Eventually too, the domestic manufacturers had to improve their reliability or they would have been wiped out by the Japanese. Then later the marketing departments got involved and started advertising longer and longer service intervals. Now you're not even supposed to have to do anything except the change the oil before 100K miles, and even the oil change intervals they say you can go 10-15K. Yeah, right, but very few original lessees or second owners are going to keep their car long enough for the engine to blow up even with overextended service intervals. It'll probably be trashed or wrecked long before then anyway.
There's been two whole generations since me that's come of driving age believing their car to be just another appliance like a water heater or refrigerator. Drive it till it breaks, then call a repairman. I'm the last generation to grow up helping a father fix the family car. Today, except for some men over 50 and a handful of younger "enthusiasts", almost nobody has any clue how anything under the hood works. Most people are totally at the mercy of whatever their "service advisor" tells them. Few people will even take their car somewhere else for a second opinion because they are in a hurry to get it fixed. That's the way the dealers and even independent mechanics like it.
But even so, can you imagine the average 30 year old soccer mom with an actual temperature gauge on the dash? She'd be down at the dealership INSISTING that they fix her car because it read 205 degrees yesterday and it's never gone over 204. That's why Jaguar and many others put in "dummy" temp gauges on the X308, to make the older buyers think they were getting a gauge when they're really not. Jaguar would rather risk replacing a motor under warranty once in a while than have to replace a bunch unnecessarily to keep nervous customers calm. Today, no gauges at all just adds to the "mystery" that keeps the average consumer from trying to fix it themselves. Keeps them coming back and paying big repair bills.
Just need to find one of these young enthusiasts who understands the electronics and how to tap into the car's display. Some have integrated Apple Carplay and other stuff already so I bet making it read out engine operating parameters is doable. Maybe even somebody has already done it and will post shortly.
I remember it too, growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood in the 70s. Every weekend, somebody's father would be working on their carburetor while the other fathers stood around drinking beer and offering unsolicited and often-wrong advice. But in the 80s, fuel injection and computerized engine management started coming out. Totally unintentional I'm sure, but every car was different and you had to take your car to the dealer to be scanned for codes. The dealers began to realize that they were making more money on repairs for these newer cars than they ever had before. Soon after, manufacturers started covering the engine with plastic covers so that when you opened the hood, you couldn't see if there was a hose or something obviously busted. This was another sign to the consumer, just check your fluids and leave everything under the plastic cover to the professionals.
By the time I graduated high school, the simple Novas, Beetles and Pintos were all gone and all the fathers were commuting in high-tech Toyotas, Nissans and Mazdas. The few holdouts that bought newer domestic cars and trucks were convinced to buy "extended warranties" because they wouldn't be able to fix it themselves anymore. Eventually they were compelled by law to standardize some basic codes for emissions purposes, but by then the brainwashing of the average consumer was already done.
Eventually too, the domestic manufacturers had to improve their reliability or they would have been wiped out by the Japanese. Then later the marketing departments got involved and started advertising longer and longer service intervals. Now you're not even supposed to have to do anything except the change the oil before 100K miles, and even the oil change intervals they say you can go 10-15K. Yeah, right, but very few original lessees or second owners are going to keep their car long enough for the engine to blow up even with overextended service intervals. It'll probably be trashed or wrecked long before then anyway.
There's been two whole generations since me that's come of driving age believing their car to be just another appliance like a water heater or refrigerator. Drive it till it breaks, then call a repairman. I'm the last generation to grow up helping a father fix the family car. Today, except for some men over 50 and a handful of younger "enthusiasts", almost nobody has any clue how anything under the hood works. Most people are totally at the mercy of whatever their "service advisor" tells them. Few people will even take their car somewhere else for a second opinion because they are in a hurry to get it fixed. That's the way the dealers and even independent mechanics like it.
But even so, can you imagine the average 30 year old soccer mom with an actual temperature gauge on the dash? She'd be down at the dealership INSISTING that they fix her car because it read 205 degrees yesterday and it's never gone over 204. That's why Jaguar and many others put in "dummy" temp gauges on the X308, to make the older buyers think they were getting a gauge when they're really not. Jaguar would rather risk replacing a motor under warranty once in a while than have to replace a bunch unnecessarily to keep nervous customers calm. Today, no gauges at all just adds to the "mystery" that keeps the average consumer from trying to fix it themselves. Keeps them coming back and paying big repair bills.
Just need to find one of these young enthusiasts who understands the electronics and how to tap into the car's display. Some have integrated Apple Carplay and other stuff already so I bet making it read out engine operating parameters is doable. Maybe even somebody has already done it and will post shortly.
Please please please....who knows how to do this? It's preposterous not to know engine temp or even oil pressure.
A forum member "whitexkr" has accessories to make the fake gauges actually work on the XK8/R & XJ older models. He even has kits to convert the useless video screen on those models to the 3-gauge setup. His website TheJagWrangler - Home - About Us is worth a look if you have an older XK or XJ. I used his RealGauge kit to wake up the gauges on my 2001 XK8 and it was some of the best money I ever spent.
I keep hoping he will buy an XF so he will have one to tinker with. Our XF's could use some help in that department.
@jakesdad you might want to check out the recent threads detailing the aftermarket Android units that are available to replace the XF's screen - these appear to be... in their infancy, so there's a little confusion about which years they support or even how well they work, but honestly this is going to be your best bet, short of actual physical gauges which is the route I ended up taking, which wasn't easy or cheap, but I'm happy with the end result.
Last edited by davetibbs; Feb 22, 2021 at 08:50 PM.
Plenty of odb powered configurable gauges on Amazon. Very inexpensive. This one is set to speed but can be set to coolant or oil temp. Modern race car instrumentation relies on alarm systems also, no point in looking at gauges that are reading normal.
Last edited by kansanbrit; Feb 26, 2021 at 08:19 AM.
Plenty of odb powered configurable gauges on Amazon. Very inexpensive. This one is set to speed but can be set to coolant or oil temp. Modern race car instrumentation relies on alarm systems also, no point in looking at gauges that are reading normal.
now that's pretty cool. Didn't know existed. I will look but is this your car? How is it mounted? How to search? Any help appreciated. Thanks
wishful thinking
