Oil temps

[garthd]

What's the general rule of thumb for warming the car up in this cold weather? I'm sure like everyone, I struggle to get the temp above 45 when going over 50mph and keeping the revs below 2,500. If I slow down / stop the temp will quickly hit 60 but then falls as soon as I get going again.

So what do you do??? Asked my dealer about this and was told that as long as the car has been running for 10/15 mins it will be as warm as it's going to get, and so not to worry about hitting the magic 60.

This doesn't make sense to me and I am not very happy about following this advice. What rules do the rest of you follow?

Thanks in advance

[tail slide]

You can either put up with cold oil until Spring, or spend a few minutes blanking off the airflow to the oil tank;

www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=253251&f=7&h=0

>> Edited by tail slide on Monday 20th March 22:55

[DJC]

garthd said:

What's the general rule of thumb for warming the car up in this cold weather? I'm sure like everyone, I struggle to get the temp above 45 when going over 50mph and keeping the revs below 2,500. If I slow down / stop the temp will quickly hit 60 but then falls as soon as I get going again. So what do you do??? Asked my dealer about this and was told that as long as the car has been running for 10/15 mins it will be as warm as it's going to get, and so not to worry about hitting the magic 60. This doesn't make sense to me and I am not very happy about following this advice. What rules do the rest of you follow? Thanks in advance

Use a little common sense, your dealer is of course correct. In this sort of weather if you hit 50+mph before you have spent 10-15mins running around and got your temps upto 40/50, then your indicated temps will never get that high. They will stay low purely because of cold air hitting the sensor at high pressure...fast moving air hitting stationary oject = high pressure. Unless you drown an engine in liquid nitrogen, after 15mins of running it is not going to be cold.

Now a little owner advice. If you slow down again after a 60mph run watching your temps at around 40 degrees, say traffic jam or service station stop, and the temps climb to 50 or 60. Now speed up again to 60mph and the temps will go back to about 40. Now push on upto 80 or so and your temps will start to climb upto mid-high 40s as the engine temps start to overcome the ram air effect on the temp sensor.

[alt]

Agree with the other posts but want to add that labouring the engine when it's cold is also harmful so I always try to avoid 5th and stay in 4th (50mph) until the oil temp gets to 40C. Can be really annoying and difficult if you get to a dual-carriageway before up to 40C!

[tail slide]

DJC said:

Now a little owner advice. If you slow down again after a 60mph run watching your temps at around 40 degrees, say traffic jam or service station stop, and the temps climb to 50 or 60. Now speed up again to 60mph and the temps will go back to about 40. Now push on upto 80 or so and your temps will start to climb upto mid-high 40s as the engine temps start to overcome the ram air effect on the temp sensor.

Agree you are of course correct, & fine for middling revs. But IMO if you want to venture up to the higher revs without fear for the engine's longevity there is an element of guesswork and therefore slight risk. Personally I just prefer to have the reassurance of KNOWING that the oil temp in the tank is high enough before indulging

Hence shielding both the tank and the sensor from the airflow.

[garthd]

Thanks very much guys ... lots of good advice. It also occured to me that the sensor could be placed right at the front of the tank. Measuring the coldest sample, may not therefore provide a fair reflection of the oil going through the engine.

This is guesswork of course and I agree that the only way to be sure is to block off the airflow as suggested.

Aren't these cars great!!! Use mine everyday since I bought it 2 months ago, and it hasn't missed a beat

[tail slide]

Glad you're enjoying it

Had mine 2yrs & still