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#1
Adax

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A thread from a few months ago reminded me of a recent near disastrous overheating event. The video is the out lap of the first session of test day. If you watch closely all is good until turn 7 when the Alternator warning light comes on (yellow).  in turn 10 the red water temp light comes on (240 F) and the water temp gauge (far left) turns red (gauge and warning light change at the same time).

 

Cause was loss of the accessory drive belt. First indicator of this is the alternator stops functioning. Fortunately engine was fine.

 

https://youtu.be/aQ6v83adTVY

 

Lessons learned.

  • LED warning lights in the center stack are worthless. You could train yourself to check them in the straights but you will not notice them in your peripheral vision.
  • LongAcre water pressure warning light is worthless (never lit up). Water pressure is maintained even if the pump is not turning.
  • All warning light need to be high and center. I did not see the red warning light but did see the gauge turn red immediately.
  • An alternator (charge) warning light is more valuable than you might think. It should go front-center.

 

Alan

 


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Alan Cross

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#2
Jim Drago

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A thread from a few months ago reminded me of a recent near disastrous overheating event. The video is the out lap of the first session of test day. If you watch closely all is good until turn 7 when the Alternator warning light comes on (yellow).  in turn 10 the red water temp light comes on (240 F) and the water temp gauge (far left) turns red (gauge and warning light change at the same time).

 

Cause was loss of the accessory drive belt. First indicator of this is the alternator stops functioning. Fortunately engine was fine.

 

https://youtu.be/aQ6v83adTVY

 

Lessons learned.

  • LED warning lights in the center stack are worthless. You could train yourself to check them in the straights but you will not notice them in your peripheral vision.

  • LongAcre water pressure warning light is worthless (never lit up). Water pressure is maintained even if the pump is not turning.

  • All warning light need to be high and center. I did not see the red warning light but did see the gauge turn red immediately.

  • An alternator (charge) warning light is more valuable than you might think. It should go front-center.

 

Alan

 

Alan

IMO, not accurate on longacre water pressure warning kit. It is not worthless, it just did its job in this situation, you didn't lose water pressure. Had you had a piece of debris go through your radiator like one of the other cars did last weekend, you would have been glad you had one. They work great, just no reason for them to come on in this situation.  They have saved a few engines in our camp and I use on all cars.. 

 

I started putting warning lights here as I found that is the only place drivers look. I can ask all my guys what oil pressure they ran, what was water temp, what was a:f.. The answer is almost always I forgot to look..  but ask what lap time they ran..  They rattle off six laptimes and tell me I had another lap .3 faster but so and so screwed me. :)

c3e725c6-993f-4cc7-8066-8554a0350c17_zps


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#3
Bench Racer

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OEM instrument cluster right hand corner area, very interesting, very clever. :bigsquaregrin:


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#4
Adax

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Good point Jim. I stand corrected.


Alan Cross

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#5
Richard Astacio

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I have my aim dash flash red under certain conditions. There are several alarms you can program in aim dash. 


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#6
steveracer

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I have my TraqMate set to trip an alert light if battery voltage falls below 12.9 volts for that exact reason.


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