Diesel engine temp - which one do I trust?

[Johanj]

Hi Guys, the temp gauge on my X5 3.0D is bothering me, it sits at about 40% when driving normal and with some spirited and high speed driving will climb to about 60% fairly quickly, yesterday I checked the OBC menu 7 and saw that the coolant temp normally sits at about 72 Deg C and when the gauge shows hot, the OBC shows 81 Deg C, do I have a faulty gauge, faulty sensor or innacurate OBC, where do I start, any one with experience or knowledge of this, please help, I want to tow to the coast next week and I am not 100% at ease with this gauge.

 

[RAArmstrong]

Very odd... My 530d's needle sits dead center and never moves. Doesn't matter how I drive or how hot it is outside

 

[S1NGH 911]

Very odd... My 530d's needle sits dead center and never moves. Doesn't matter how I drive or how hot it is outside

That's how it's supposed to be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AshG108]

This is wierd and in all my 8 cars and cars that ive worked on and raced before, all the temp gauges normally sit at the 90 degree mark and dont move.

However...I had one of the Golf's gauges move like this and actually go lower and not higher, after about 3 months, the gauge started going above 90 degrees. That got me worried, upon checking, the thermostat was sticky...so it was either under or over reading more than it should be.

Just my 2c...hope it helps.

 

[netercol]

your thermostat has most probably failed and is stuck in the open position. common fault on the diesels..

 

[Blue Shirt]

+1 on the stuck thermostat, it is an easy fix to give you peace of mind.

 

[Andy1GP]

your thermostat has most probably failed and is stuck in the open position. common fault on the diesels..

+1 change the egr stat first as its much easier to do than the main stat. If that fails to solve the issue replace the main stat as well.

 

[Johanj]

your thermostat has most probably failed and is stuck in the open position. common fault on the diesels..

+1 change the egr stat first as its much easier to do than the main stat. If that fails to solve the issue replace the main stat as well.

Hi, thanks for the advice, got the prices earlier, would that explain the conflict between the gauge and the OBC, I still don't understand why the gauge shows hot, I think they might have swopped clusters and used one from a different model maybe.

 

[Bayn46]

Did the same exercise over the weekend after reading Andy's thread. Max temp I got was around 80c and that was over quite a long run.

Picked up my EGR thermostat this morning - will fit it later and hope for the best.