91-93 Chevrolet Caprice electronic fluid monitor

I'll have more about this later, but for now I'm curious...has anyone ever seen one of these or had a Caprice wagon equipped with one? Seemingly the Roadmaster has it standard. It's a row of indicator lights below the climate controls that reports on coolant, oil level, washer fluid and something else that I don't remember now.

Has anyone ever "added" this to their 91-93 Caprice? What parts did you need to get from the donor car?

I have a new climate control head from a car with this feature and I'm debating whether to try and use it or simply abandon it (and use the faceplate from my existing climate control head). I probably cannot get to the car from which this part was pulled.

It seems that my '92 Caprice sedan had at least some of those indicators, but I'm not sure. Sounds like a lot of screwing around to add this to a car without the warning lights. Just check it all at the gas station when filling up. I hated my low washer fluid light, so I rigged it up so it won't come on.

Mike

Agreed. Who wants MORE idiot lights? Gauges, sure, but not dash lights.

If you want to update the dash then go find you a 9C1 or LTZ cluster. Those look so cool!

uxwbill wrote:

I'll have more about this later, but for now I'm curious...has anyone ever seen one of these or had a Caprice wagon equipped with one? Seemingly the Roadmaster has it standard. It's a row of indicator lights below the climate controls that reports on coolant, oil level, washer fluid and something else that I don't remember now.

Has anyone ever "added" this to their 91-93 Caprice? What parts did you need to get from the donor car?

I have a new climate control head from a car with this feature and I'm debating whether to try and use it or simply abandon it (and use the faceplate from my existing climate control head). I probably cannot get to the car from which this part was pulled.

You couldn't get it on the wagon. One of those weird things that were sedan only. I took apart a JY car once to see what was involved in swapping. Long story short, you'd need to splice all those connections into the dash harness behind the dash and then run everything to the respective place under the hood plus replacing sensors. To me the time money and effort just wasn't there. It was easier to put in the 9C1/LTZ cluster and have an actual gauge for stuff like low oil and volts.

uxwbill wrote:

I'll have more about this later, but for now I'm curious...has anyone ever seen one of these or had a Caprice wagon equipped with one? Seemingly the Roadmaster has it standard. It's a row of indicator lights below the climate controls that reports on coolant, oil level, washer fluid and something else that I don't remember now.

The something else that you couldn't remember is the low fuel light. Just say'n.

Cadet57 wrote:

You couldn't get it on the wagon. One of those weird things that were sedan only. I took apart a JY car once to see what was involved in swapping. Long story short, you'd need to splice all those connections into the dash harness behind the dash and then run everything to the respective place under the hood plus replacing sensors. To me the time money and effort just wasn't there. It was easier to put in the 9C1/LTZ cluster and have an actual gauge for stuff like low oil and volts.

I don't think I'm that dedicated to having it. Basically, I got a climate control center from a junkyard car yesterday to replace my rather burnt one and it has the feature. I was supposed to get a part from a '93 that very clearly did not have the feature, yet they gave me the climate control head from a '91 sedan that did.

But I'm getting ahead of myself and another post that I intend to make. Suffice it to say I was annoyed.

scoffman wrote:

The something else that you couldn't remember is the low fuel light. Just say'n.

Oh, my forgetting that is baaaad! When I first brought my "toy" home, the seller didn't put any gas in it. And little did I know that the fuel gauge reads somewhat inaccurately just like many of the others do. Now I was going to put gasoline in the car, but I had to get to a gas station clear on the other end of town first. So, naturally, the car started to do the whole sputtering engine routine and then the service engine soon light came on! I got that bad sinking feeling--like I was about be pushing a big dead whale down the road. For all the good it would do, I looked at the instrument panel and said "don't even think about it". And somehow, it got me to the gas station!

uxwbill wrote:

I was supposed to get a part from a '93 that very clearly did not have the feature, yet they gave me the climate control head from a '91 sedan that did.

I'm failing to see the issue here? The head units interchange. Only difference is the lights. I doubt you'd find a junkyard worker who would know the difference.

Cadet57 wrote:

I'm failing to see the issue here? The head units interchange. Only difference is the lights. I doubt you'd find a junkyard worker who would know the difference.

I wanted, and expected to be buying, a control from a 1993 car without the lights. I got a 1991 control with lights that I can't use. Maybe whoever actually went and got the part wouldn't know the difference...but the guy answering the phone sure had his questions. It was almost like taking a quiz, and I had this inkling that if my answer was not exactly what they wanted to hear, I wouldn't get the part!

That's not how it works! They have something I definitely need, I want to give them cold hard cash to have it. I've done my homework. I know what fits my car. There are no further questions! (I could give them a break here, because I'm sure Stupid People who have no clue come along asking for "car parts" to give them headaches regularly.) Still...I am giving them money in exchange for a part! Why is there any holdup here?

They also more or less demanded that I pay for the item over the phone, with a credit card. Which I don't have. So I used my debit card. And while I know you're "not supposed" to judge or stereotype people, the reality is that I do, and I couldn't quite shake the possibility that I'd soon find my debit card number being used fraudulently. I needed the part, what was I going to do?

Contrast this to the first junkyard that I went to, which was totally awesome. They let me walk around and look at whatever I wanted, loaned me a box of tools to pull whatever I wanted and when I got back with an item in hand, offered to let me take it and owe them the money with nothing more than my own recognizance (and conscience!) as collateral. They'd never seen me before!

Now it's really not that big of a deal, but back in the real world, I already have enough on my mind and I dare say we all know how lots of little things can stack up to one great big annoyance. I would have been rather less annoyed with getting the "wrong" part if I could have gotten the ancillary goodies to go with it and make the feature useful.

I really wanted to have two complete climate control heads. I can make one good one, configured appropriately, out of what I got. It's just that I didn't really want to do that! Call me picky, but... ...

Okay...

Cadet57 wrote:

Okay...

Well, I thought you did ask and that is the whole explanation.

I had a guy at a salvage yard in Waco Texas ask me if a GTO was a Mercury or Pontiac once. This was in the early 90's, and amazingly, they still had a dark green 68 GTO in the yard....

....it was in the Pontiac section.....