Car : MY00 4dr UK-spec Turbo fitted with 3 Raceimex gauges (oil pressure/temp and turbo pressure). 8,300 miles, 8 months old (from Gertjan vd Velde in Holland). Not modified.

A very strange thing happened to my oil temp gauge tody - either that or something is very broken in my engine!

Normally, the oil temp stays between about 85 and 95 degrees depending on how hard I'm driving. I went to Wales over Xmas, and the car stood unused for 3 days in overnight temps of about -9.

I set off for home today and, as usual, the oil temp gauge slowly went up. After about 10 mins it was at 60 degrees. I then pulled into a garage, and glanced a the gauge. It was now 'bouncing' between 90 and 100 which it's never done before.

After getting some fuel I set off again - the gauge hit 140 degrees about 10 minutes later, soon after getting on the M4 - it went up extremely quickly (about 50 degrees in 5 mins).

After about 30 mins at 140 degrees I stopped for about 15 mins. When I started again the gauage started showing 120 degrees, and over the next two hours of motorway driving, slowly dropped to 100 degrees where it stayed. When I got I home I let it idle for about 5 mins and the temp went up to about 110 again - haven't driven it since.

Everything else about the car seems fine. The standard engine (water) temp gauge stayed rock solid on its normal point. The oil pressure was reading OK (6.5 bar at about 3000 revs, about 3.5 bar at idle).

Oil levels seem OK (such as it's possible to tell with the Scoob's bizarre dipstick) - it's running Sikoline Pro 10W50 which was put in there about 800 miles ago.

I've convinced myself that the gauge (or, more likely, sender unit) has broken in some way - possibly due to the cold/ice. I'm fairly sure that if the oil really had hit 140 degrees the water temp would have risen and the oil pressure would have dropped. Also, it showed a dramatic rise in a very small amount of time, as well as bouncing around immediately before. It now appears to be reading about +15 of what it used to.

Any ideas / advice appreciated - at the back of my mind is the nagging feeling that something would have to go really wrong to get the oil temp that high!

Cheers,

Nick

 

NICK
I have a very similar set - up to you and agree with your normal readings of 80-90oC but have never experienced the problems you have. I assume the oil temp. gauge is direct reading? If so the simplest way to check it is to imurse the sender in boiling water, the gauge should then read 100oC of course! Assuming it is located in the sump (in the sump plug?) this means draining the oil which is a bit of a pain. I would think it very unlikely that there is anything wrong with the car itself as the pressure readings seem fine and water temp. o.k.
Not a lot of help I know, let us know how you get on?
JohnD

U

 

Follow-up : It's almost behaving itself again now. It just reads slightly higher (at about 100C) than it used to.

V.peculiar.

Thanks,

Nick

 

Nick,
I also have a MY00 with the Racimex gauge set fitted by Frits Kempen. The temperature gauge has caused me loads of grief.

a) When I took the car for it's 1000 mile service, the guys at Cheam Motors told me that the sender unit, which replaces the sump plug, was leaking slightly. It snapped when they tried to tighten it!

b) Frits sent me a new sender unit which was fitted by Cheam Motors. About a week later I noticed a slight burning smell and small puffs of smokes emanating from the engine compartment! Turned out to be the sender unit leaking again. Back to Cheam motors. They taped it up, tightened it.

c) That was just before Christmas. Yesterday the burning smell and the odd puff of smoke reappeared. It's going into the garage tomorrow to have the damn thing removed and replaced with a normal sump plug. It would be nice to know the oil temperature but I will have to do without until someone suggests a permanent fix.

Raj

P.S. Does anyone know of any other way of measuring the oil temp (i.e. without replacing the sump plug)?

 

Raj
My combined temp./press. gauge is Motec and the sender (direct reading) is mounted into the sump plug using a standard adapter (5/8UNF) I machined the sump plug myself and have no problems. I have provided a similar plug to a guy in Y`shire which I believe is fine.
Let me know if I can be of help.
JohnD
PS - Nick 100c is much too high for normal running, I have only seen this figure when stuck in traffic in warm weather, so it must be the gauge?

[This message has been edited by JohnD (edited 04 January 2001).]

 

I got 100 during a track session!

When the gauge was 'working' it would go up to about 95 during summer when the engine was idling after a hard drive home. (presumably the residual heat from the turbo as the oil circulated).

 

Took the car to Cheam Motors today to get the burning smell/puffs of smoke sorted out. It turned out that the braided steel hose
for the oil pressure gauge was faulty, and was causing oil to leak where it attaches to the engine block. As the engine was revved up you could see the oil rising up between the connector and the hose itself. The garage will take off the hose and temporarily replace it with an oil pressure sensor(when they can get one). Car is off road until an oil pressure switch turns up.

JohnD,
Thanks for the offer. I will get in touch when I get the car back.

Raj

 

Raj
I had a similar problem of oil leaking from the tee-piece to block connection (using a tee-piece to allow the warning light sender to be retained) This was due to the tapered thread (1/8 BSP)not screwing in far enough and with 100psi it leaked! Eased the thread on the tee-piece to reduce the taper thus allowing the tee-piece to screw in further - cured!
Good luck - John