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-   -   Is your car a Hot Head? Post your max oil temperature here (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/266712-your-car-hot-head-post-your-max-oil-temperature-here.html)

Engine oil needs to be at optimum temperatures for engine to operate correctly. With summer at its peak, we will frequently observe high engine oil temperatures.

Maximum oil temperature tolerable varies from vehicle to vehicle. 130°C should be red limit for any petrol type .

Diesel engines have higher working temperature of around 200°C - redlining at 230°C approximately.

Synthetic oils can tolerate higher temperatures than others.

Engine oil temperature however neither depicts transmission fluid nor the coolant temperatures.

Post here your maximum engine oil temperature you have encountered till date & fuel type with corresponding ambient temperature if possible.

Please post here only if your readings are reliable upto +/- 10°C.
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I encountered maximum till date temperature of 104°C with ambient temperature of 26°C on my Kodiaq 2.0 TSI - AC on, while driving uphill in moderate traffic for about an hour.




Note from Mod: Related thread

We live in an era where most manufacturers have completely done away with temperature gauges. Most cars only come with a warning light to indicate overheating. This kind of display from Octavia/Kodiaq is very rare and not found on any mass market car. Most people have no way of knowing coolant or engine oil temperature, unless hooked up to an OBD tool. Honestly, it is not required either. Modern cars have cooling systems robust enough to maintain temperatures as well as AC cooling in bumper to bumper traffic in peak summer without any intervention required from the driver.

Yeah, those have readings can share.

Do you mean 230 deg Fahrenheit? 230C is way too over water's boiling point and even with the coolant additives it will be too much to sustain for the cooling systems. Or no?
Also - I thought while the combustion chamber temperature in Diesel engine may be higher (due to the energy content value of the fuel itself) - the diesels overall operate at a lower operating temperature compared to Petrol engines. Interesting to know that the engine oil temperature is actually higher than petrol still.

You are right - really very few cars actually have a precise oil/coolant temperature read-out. In fact over the last decade - we lost the humble "keep it at the center of it" gauge also.

That said - with the advent of cheaper and less complex (to manufacture) driver information consoles with LCD/TFTs instead of analogue dials - the temperature gauge seems to be making a comeback (thankfully). Even the humble Tiago has a temperature gauge again now (along with the other cars in the line-up above it).

Yes, its in Fahrenheit. Thanks for pointing out.

Good old temperature gauzes are surely missed.

Superb 1.8 TSI MT worst or highest ever 108C, usual 98-100C and that's oil temperature. Remarkable how oil is just slightly hotter than coolant temperature.

Punto : data unavailable

Many people harbor a mental block relating "really" high temperature to boiling point of water 100C ... But in reality, that's "cold" compared to many physical and mechanical processes we encounter in daily life. So, how hot is too hot :D

It will be good to know how much is the general difference in engine oil - coolant - transmission fluid temperatures. :)

Guys,

I keenly track all sensor readings and always wondered and discussed with my car friends, tuners about minor fluctuations and how I infer problems from them and thereby do preventive maintenance.

1.5 2016 Stage 2+ Wolf'd Ford Figo Tdci Diesel.

City: Delhi
Outside Temp - Between 36-44°C

Coolant: Liqui Moly

Coolant Temps:

Regular Driving (Day)- Coolant Temp would not rise above 81°C. In standstill traffic, max 83°C.
Spirited Driving (Day) - Coolant Temp would go momentarily close to 86°C max.
Track Days - Post timed lap Coolant Temp would go momentarily to 92°C
Top Speed WOT Run - Coolant Temp would go till 88,89°C.

Engine Oil - Motul

Engine Oil Temps are always between 94°C - 97°C


Off-topic - I have tried 3 re-maps. I'm not naming the tuners but just measuring these parameters gave me a sense how harsh they were on the engine.
Wolf via Engineering Exponent's map is pushing close to 141hp and car runs as less strained as it would be stock.

I’ve hit 119 deg Celsius on the Kodiaq 2.0 TSI today on an airport run to pick up my friend’s sister and was running late. Ambient 38.5 deg Celsius. Engine/Gearbox in sport mode revving to 6200 rpm. AC on. High speed highway run.

Don’t ask the mileage from this run.

Man this is highest I have come across for 2.0 TSI. Certainly you were pushing to the limits. Hope you were able to catch up with the time.

Yes I did. When I saw the oil temp I stopped using the S mode and shifted to manual paddles. Much more efficient(fuel and temperature wise) to use full throttle and shift at around 4500 rpm with good acceleration instead of auto S mode where even at ~75% throttle (I am approximating) it only shifts at 6000+ rpm.

Some thought and comments.

On a modern car engine it is simply not relevant to monitor oil temperature.

The one temperature to monitor is coolant. From a cold engine startup rule of thumb. Your engine oil will lag 5 minutes behind. So once your coolant has reached its normal operating temperature it will likely to take another five minutes for the lub oil to reach its normal operating temperature.

On regular cars and engines, oil temperature monitoring is more or less futile. It follows the coolant temperature. Unless you are driving in very cold regions, e.g. below -20oC, ambient temperature isn’t going to have a big effect either on oil temperature. And even if it does, what are you going to do about it?

We drove three forty year old Alfa Romeo Spiders to the North Pole, -27oC. Only thing we could do is put in a different oil and close down the air intakes around the engines, so less cold air in general for the whole engine. (Apart from engine air intake obviously).

Coolant temperature is the one to look for. If it is too low, your lub oil won’t adhere to the cilinder walls properly! That is why cars that always drive short distance tend to have more wear. They don’t drive long enough to ge the coolant and the oil up to normal operating temperature.

So watch for wonky thermostats. If your coolant isn’t reaching the normal operating temperature your engine will have additional wear. (and your fuel consumption will be a little less).

Modern lub oil will protect your engine across a wide range of engine temperatures. But those temperatures are determined, by and large, but the coolant.

It is somewhat different on larger engines. E.g. Marine diesels and so on..

These days it is just about unheard of an engine bearing running hot! As long as you have the correct engine oil, specification wise, and your oil pump is working normally, there is absolutely nothing to worry about, or anything you can do.

All down to coolant? Coolant is your main variable when it comes to engine wear and engine problems! Not oil!

Jeroen

To everyone saying you don’t need oil and trans temps displayed live on the dash-

During shorter everyday driving, how will you know when you can gun it? Oil may lag coolant by 5 minutes but I don’t want to sit around counting and guessing from when my coolant hits optimum temperature. Transmission temps are also important, and this is a variable depending on the load and driving conditions.

Having all 3 live on the dash is the way to go, when all are in the optimum range I can safely use my entire rev range without worrying about excessive wear on the motor. Specially on smaller, underpowered cars where you need to hit the redline just to get a move on.

Sure if it makes you feel better, by all means, do. Being an engineer I appreciate everybody and anybody looking after their engine. However, being an engineer I also like to understand what the real pro-cons are of such behaviour. I believe it won't do any harm of course. It won't help either I believe.

In practice, the only thing that matters is coolant temperature. Too low coolant temperature for some time and you can quickly measure actual wear and tear. Your oil in your engine or tranny being a little low for a few minutes won't matter at all. In terms of incurring measurable wear, at least not in a practical sense.

There is a reason car manufacturers are doing away with all these gauges. It doesn't matter, as long as you take it a little easy for the first 5-10 minutes. And again, it is primarily the coolant temperature. Because that is the one that determines heat stress on the engine block/cylinder head and poor cylinder lubrication whilst still warming up.

You can poor hot lube oil in an engine with cold coolant and you will still incur the same wear. Visa versa, not so.

Modern lub oils, especially synthetic ones, are marvels of engineering. Doing their job under a vast range of different operating conditions.

How often do engines get overhauled due to wear due to poor lubrication due to low oil temp? I have opened up my share of engines over the last 50 years or so. Professionally and as a DIY mechanic.

On a properly maintained engine, the most wear will always be on the pistons and cylinders. I have not kept count, but the number of pistons/cylinder/liners replacement jobs compared to replacing say engine bearings, gears and so on is probably 8:1, if not more.

To be honest, in many cases, I replaced engine bearings, just because it was so easy with all the pistons and liners out already. Not because it was really necessary.

By the way, as you will know most cars/engines will easily last well over 100K kilometres. Most will do 150K without ever having a problem that requires the opening up of the engine or tranny. (At least not due to the sort of wear we are discussing here).

If you buy your car new and like to keep it past 150K km, you will never get the benefit of these practices. It's always for the owners of said car after 150-200K km. They will benefit from a properly maintained car, although how much is difficult to say.

So I do appreciate you being so careful with your car/engine/tranny because the cars I buy usually have 100-150K on the clock! Thank you!

Jeroen