how hot should the oil be getting

[xander]

hi i have a 2012 vrs tsi ive only had it a week or 2 and this is the first car ive had with a digital read out on oil temp so im wondering what is normal heat wise my car seems to run between 98 to 107 degrees depending on the type of driving im doing im guessing this is normal as my seat leon i had a few cars ago had a temp dial and its needle seemed to be sat around the 90-100 mark  

im just curious really lol

thanks

xan 

[marcusthehat]

I recall seeing a steady 120 deg C (or it might even have been 125 deg C.)

Displayed digitally in der 1.9 VW TDI engined Galaxy, on a long hard Spanish motorway climb into the mountains somewhere in July, complete with roof box, and trailer.

Pondered a bit, checked the water temp was OK/higher side of normal, and drove on.

At this time we had had the car from new for 1 year.

We kept her to 13 years/253,000 miles.

And never missed a beat.

So essentially, abs NO reason to be concerned.

Edited 28 June, 2014 by dieseldogg

[nickguzzi]

That sounds reasonable.

The temperature needs to be sufficient to drive off any condensation or fuel contamination (maybe rarer these days with fi).

Not so hot as to cause the oil to turn into gums and varnish.

[Bullit]

My Tsi sits around 95-98 on normal daily driving on A roads. If I am having a spirited day it will go up to 102-105.

[RobM]

hi i have a 2012 vrs tsi ive only had it a week or 2 and this is the first car ive had with a digital read out on oil temp so im wondering what is normal heat wise my car seems to run between 98 to 107 degrees depending on the type of driving im doing im guessing this is normal as my seat leon i had a few cars ago had a temp dial and its needle seemed to be sat around the 90-100 mark  

im just curious really lol

thanks

xan 

 

The temperature gauge in your Leon was probably water temperature, not oil temperature. Sitting around the 90 mark is spot-on.

 

As you'll witness in your VRS, the oil temp (as you see on the digital display) and the water temp (the dial beneath the rev counter) behave differently. Water will rise to 90 and sit there (if all is well), oil will rise much slower to around 90-100 and may vary depending on how you're driving. It could go a bit higher, it probably won't go much higher than 100-105.

 

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking the dial on the dash tells them if their car is up to temperature, so think it's safe to thrash it because the water temp is at 90. It really isn't, oil temperature is much more important IMO.

[marcusthehat]

But by the time the water gets hot the oil MUST already be hot(er)

Would be my understanding anyway.

[neil_f]

But by the time the water gets hot the oil MUST already be hot(er)

Would be my understanding anyway.

Water temp will get to normal operating temperature a lot quicker than oil temperature. My water temp usually reaches 90c just as the oil temp starts to register (50c). Fast motorway run on hot day will see mine about 105c. Not had it on track yet to see what temp it goes upto. I used to have a mk1 leon cupra r which I did quite a few track days in and ended up installing an oil cooler as it would reach 130-140c! Once the cooler was installed it never went above 120c

[niceyellow vrs]

But by the time the water gets hot the oil MUST already be hot(er)

Would be my understanding anyway.

 

And that is why engines die from premature wear, as people don't understand that oil takes a lot longer to warm up than water.

[zei20t]

FWIW, my MK2 (FL) TSI oil temp hit 135degrees on the track. Water stayed under 110 the entire time. this was in 25-28 degrees ambient.

 

Next time ill be using another oil brand to see how it handles the temperatures.

[TsvRS]

My Tsi sits around 95-98 on normal daily driving on A roads. If I am having a spirited day it will go up to 102-105.

Same as mine

[marcusthehat]

And that is why engines die from premature wear, as people don't understand that oil takes a lot longer to warm up than water.

But, erm, why do we need the oil "hot", I would have thought once the ENGINE`oil starts moving round the block, anf say reachs anywhere from 25 to 50 deg.

Flog her like you stole her, if that is your wont.

Now gearbox/transmission fluids may well be different, but again I "understood" that heat was the enemy of engine oil lubricity and longivity.

Multiple cold starts and short runs will kill an engine, simply because, and again I merely "understand" that the engine oil runs back down into the sump, leaving virtually "steel on steel".

NOT because the oil is not HOT.

Cheers

m

From someone who took the bought new 1.9TDI (and mildly tweeked) Galaxy to 253,000 miles incl towing and heavily laden hot/foreign Motorway runs.

On tractor oil changed every 10,000 miles.

The only troubles were multiple starter motors (simply due to the endless stop start week-a-day routine)

On all origional everything else(well she did get new tyres from time to time, oh an a battery I suppose)

BUT (i) never "flogged2 from cold.

And (ii) Turbo allowed to relax before pulling the strangler.

PS

253,000 on the origional V Vane turbo too, and never touched or cleaned.

Darn it, just remembered, changed out the absolutly perfect water pump at 200,000 odd, due to that bloody leaky "Y" pipe that dribbled onto the block and ran down to drip off the water pump casing

DOH!

Oh and 1 driveshaft about 200k + rear brake calipers.

But the engine

Pah!, bugger wouldnt lie down, and was also still repeatedly starting in -15 during the winter of 2010

cheers

m

Edited 1 July, 2014 by dieseldogg

[niceyellow vrs]

But, erm, why do we need the oil "hot", I would have thought once the ENGINE`oil starts moving round the block, anf say reachs anywhere from 25 to 50 deg.

Flog her like you stole her, if that is your wont.

 

To put it in the simpliest way possible, oil flows better and therefore can lubricate the engine better when it is up to an appropriate temperature. That's not opinion, that's fact. And to explain why your original bold statement "by the time the water gets hot the oil MUST already be hot(er)", is incorrect, water is a low viscosity fluid; syrup is a high viscosity fluid so it's down to molecular structure as to why oil takes longer to warm up. With oil, like syrup, as you increase the temperature, the viscosity lowers, meaning it flows faster, or more easily. Viscosity, by definition, is an oil’s resistance to flow and shear.  It is the single most critical physical property of the oil as it affects both the wear rate and the fuel efficiency.

 

You are however right in saying that heat is the enemy because in the case of oil, if it get's too hot it becomes too thin, causing a drop in oil pressure which is never a good thing. Before I fitted an oil cooler with thermostat to my vvc engined Rover, I saw oil temps touching 150 degrees after really pushing it hard which was far too high. As for warm up times, I 've just been out in the car and with the current ambient tempature, the water was at full temp in about 3 - 4 minutes, the oil took another 20 minutes to get to 80 degrees.

 

Hope this helps.

[marcusthehat]

But any modern oil is pish thin from the get-go, and designed to be so.

So is this whole hot oil discussion, not now of a rather historic nature?

cheers

marcus

[Saver]

I only get the three dashes on my readout- what am I doing wrong or how should it be set up to read, help please?

[xander]

sounds like the sensor is not working :(

[fairlight5]

Maybe not.

Mine was on variable service when supplied by the dealer.

I went straight onto fixed servicing. First service the indicator was reset and I lost oil monitoring.

There is a setting for fixed with monitoring but progress don't seem to know how to do it.

I have had the car long enough to drive gently for the first 10 miles 20 odd mins before starting to stretch her legs.

22K 1.8 Tsi - 1L of oil in that time - all used in the first 12 months.

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