Oil temperature versus ambient

[OVERKILL]

It has finally cooled down up here in the GWN and so I got curious as to what the oil temperature on the Charger was. Warmer temps, in the low to mid teens, it was 98-100C (208-212F).

Tonight, driving around the temperature varied from a high of -18 to a low of -20C (roughly -1F to -4F). Oil temperature stayed pretty constant at 85C (185F) for the duration of the drive, seeming to have stabilized at that temperature. Since monitoring was a bit of an afterthought I never thought to check and see how long it took to get there from cold. Perhaps tomorrow morning I'll try to remember to do that.

Anybody else with an oil temp gauge, please feel free to chime-in

 

[Nick1994]

The 2013 Beetle TDI has an oil temp gauge, not affected at all by our "winter" LOL. Its in the 50s here and a 4 mile drive got the oil temp almost to 200 degrees.

Which Charger? Are you driving the SRT8 in the salty snow?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
The 2013 Beetle TDI has an oil temp gauge, not affected at all by our "winter" LOL. Its in the 50s here and a 4 mile drive got the oil temp almost to 200 degrees.

Which Charger? Are you driving the SRT8 in the salty snow?


The '06. It has an oil temperature gauge in the cluster menu that you can put on. The SRT is deep in hibernation with its SOLAR battery maintainer

 

[antonmnster]

My 335 sits at about 240F in the summer, and 225 in the winter. Seems like the oil cooler likes to open at just above 245 - never seen it higher than that even at 97F in traffic.

Some like it hot.

 

[JHZR2]

My 135i consistently hits the same temps in the summer and winter, within say 5F.

Even my 35yo MB diesels have thermostats on the oil coolers, so to me this is an expected result...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
My 135i consistently hits the same temps in the summer and winter, within say 5F.

Even my 35yo MB diesels have thermostats on the oil coolers, so to me this is an expected result...


As you recall, my M5 ran cold (on the oil temps) in the winter due to its massive oil cooler.

 

[antonmnster]

I'm curious to see what happens to my oil temps on my 800 mile Chicago runs when it gets below 0F. When I pulled into the garage last night it was at only 215F.

 

[expat]

I have an oil temp gauge fitted to my Triumph.

In cold weather, like 0c it will be slow to warm up, perhaps taking half an hour, but will eventually get to within 5 or 10 degrees of summer temperature. 85-95c.

 

[vintageant]

Expat

Bike or car? Air or water cooled?

 

[Bluestream]

This is where I disagree with Dr Hass and his oil paper. Oil temp will fall with lower ambient temps. Especially when you get below -15C. Of course each vehicle is different,

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/1570468/1

 

[Quattro Pete]

Oil temps on my old A4 1.8T would run about 20F lower on cold winter days (170F vs 190F during summer, normal non-spirited driving).

The Q5 does have the ability to display oil temp, bu I haven't driven it enough in very cold weather to tell you how the oil temp behaves. It does take longer to warm up though.

 

[OVERKILL]

Starting oil temp this AM: -22C (-8F)

Drive to work is roughly 4Km and takes 5-10 minutes depending on traffic.

Ending oil temp this AM: 43C (109F)

Oil seems to correlate well with coolant on this car so I'm wondering if it has an exchanger like the SRT8.

 

[JHZR2]

My test:

2011 BMW 135i, 300hp twin turbo, N55 engine, MT
Gentle driving, stoplights and 45MPH driving. Including drive over Walt Whitman Bridge (2-3 miles uphill then downhill) partway through trip.
Oil temp from gauge, water temp from scangauge
Ambient temp, 68F.
Code:


Miles on trip Water T Oil T

146.5 71

146.6 100

147 124

147.5 157

147.7 165 first budge

148 172

148.5 182

149 195

149.2 200

149.5 206 first tick

150 216

150.2 216 2nd tick

150.5 220

150.5 220 3rd tick

151.6 220 4th tick

152.4 224

152.9 224 5th tick

153.6 220 6th tick

154.8 216 7th tick (full temp)


Cut and pasted from old thread, I dont recall off the top of my head the correct values in Farenheit for each oil temperature tick though...

 

[Bamaro]

So from what I am reading here (so far) "normal" oil operating temps range from 185F to 245F.

 

[shanneba]

Here is about a 40 mile drive on state highways (55-60pmh) on a Feb morning where the air temp was about 15 F. Data recorded using Autoengunity software.
The start was from my garage that was about 50F. It took about 10 minutes for the coolant in the engine to warm up, about 20 minutes for the oil to get to temp.
BMW 330Ci, 7 quart oil capacity, no oil cooler.

The scale on the oil temp is slightly different than the coolant scales.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: shanneba

BMW 330Ci, 7 quart oil capacity, no oil cooler.


Yeah, great software, I used it on my M5 when I had it:

I don't have the Chrysler license so I can't do the SRT8 I don't believe in terms of the graphing functions, though I may try and see what's there.

 

[expat]

Originally Posted By: vintageant
Expat

Bike or car? Air or water cooled?


4 cylinder car, no oil cooler.

Since then an oil coolant heat exchanger has been fitted, which speeds oil warm up. But I have not yet used the car in cold temperatures.

 

[MNgopher]

2004 F150 with the 5.4l 3V V8. Has a 192 (approximately) thermostat. Coolant runs at 192-197 pretty consistently, regardless of outside temp.

Oil temp will run over 200 in the summer under a load. When temps are below zero, they may reach 175 at best. Current 20 degree weather and 180-185 is common at full warm up.

No oil cooler or coolant-oil exchange on this one. Just a 7 quart sump.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I don't have any oil temperature data of my cars, none of them can display oil temp with Ultra gauge.

I think oil temp varies with ambient temp but not by much, ambient temp difference of 50F may cause oil temp different by no more 10F.

I think difference in engine speed may cause oil temp varies much more. Normal engine speed may have oil temp at around 200-210F, but redline the same engine for long distance(more than 20-30 miles) may raise oil temp to above 250-270F easily.

This is the reason European manufactures recommend thicker oil for their vehicles, because they may be driven near or at redline hours, also some Asian manufactures recommend thicker oil for vehicles sold outside US.

 

[rslifkin]

The Autoenginuity software is great. That with the Chrysler package is the only thing short of a dealer tool that seems to read the trans temp from the built-in sensor on my Jeep (it doesn't output via OBDII). And it came in handy when I swapped ECUs too, as it can write the correct VIN into it.