temperature readout

[dr012]

2017 Ram Laramie - The temperature readout on my truck is woefully inaccurate. Is there a fix for this?

 

[Hemi395]

Need a little more info, what is it reading vs what it should be?

I'm assuming you mean the display screen on the dash and not the gauge, the gauge is very inaccurate...

 

[kurek]

I read a long time ago that automakers started making deliberately inaccurate gauges for temperature and pressure because it was using up service writer time with weirdo customers asking about the needle pointing at a slightly different angle during normal operation. So they were fixed to hover in one spot after warmup unless an actual problem needs to be reported.

They previously had tried analog gauges with a wide acceptable range but that didn't help.

"My temp needle is sometimes near the O in NORMAL and now it's near the R in NORMAL is that normal to be near the R in NORMAL I just want to know if it's normal"

 

[04fxdwgi]

^^^^^ LOL.... The '04 F150 ( I had one) was infamous for having a "fake" oil pressure gauge. There was just a pressure switch that made it read mid-scale.

There was a hack the had one replace the pressure switch with a sensor and remove a resistor to the gauge in the dash. When I did it it worked, just don't remember the resistor value.

 

[RodeoRam]

I read a long time ago that automakers started making deliberately inaccurate gauges for temperature and pressure because it was using up service writer time with weirdo customers asking about the needle pointing at a slightly different angle during normal operation. So they were fixed to hover in one spot after warmup unless an actual problem needs to be reported.

They previously had tried analog gauges with a wide acceptable range but that didn't help.

View attachment 562947 "My temp needle is sometimes near the O in NORMAL and now it's near the R in NORMAL is that normal to be near the R in NORMAL I just want to know if it's normal"

I wouldn't doubt it. I had an '87 F-150 with a 351 Windsor that had a temp gauge like that. The needle stayed between the N and O. One day near Christmas, I was headed to TN from CO on I-70 when the needle moved to between the O and R. Coolant was already boiling out of the overflow and both head gaskets were blown. For this and other reasons, that was the biggest POS I have ever owned and is the reason I will probably never own another Ford.