Why are there neither water nor oil temperature gauges on the 3 series E90?
In my neck of the woods a zero or sub zero start is the norm for up to five months of the year. In that period I try to make very gentle demands of a cold engine. In my Audi I can monitor both the water and oil temperatures and avoid high loads before they indicate that the engine has reached operating temperature.
Is there any form of indicator/warning, perhaps digital, in the BMW ?
Again on the temperature theme, When I read a car manual (only occasionally!) I see that there is often reference to a pre-heating system which can be set to warm the engine before starting in cold climates. In Canada (much colder for much longer, admittedly) few cars are offered without it. Yet I have never seen this offered as an option on any UK car. Why ever not? In Scotland, in particular, this would be a very useful facility.
I grew up in a era of mechanical sympathy being not mere desirable but essential to obtain year round service and economic longevity. Has physics changed? (I know the answer to that!) Can the heavy boots be used at any temperature in modern engines? If so, why? Is it a function of new lubricants?
With interest.
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I genuinelly worry about these cars when they become used cars.
BMW's have typically weak cooling systems and so being able to monitor the guage is useful for peace of mind and to indicate faults before the car reaches overheat point.
A single light which should, in theory, maybe come on when the engine gets too hot doesn't inspire confidence.
Fine when the car is in warranty, but...
This concerns me really as I intend to buy something like a 330i or 335i M Sport Coupe as my next car if I move away from the idea of an E39 M5. It'll be my last nice car before I get a life and get a property, so I intend to keep it long past the expiration of the warranty..
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The beauty of a gauge is that it will indicate a problem before it becomes a disaster. For example if the gauge always behaves a certain way, and one day does something different, it stands out and alerts you before the car actually overheats.
I can understand the omission on a cheap car (Ford Ka for example), but on an expensive, sophisticated bit of engineering like a 3-series, I just can't understand why it would be left out. Manufacturers have been able to present a four dial instrument panel cleanly, legibly and elegantly for years.
Cheers
DP
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I am with DP on this. My car always warms up in the same way; gauge stays still for a mile or so, slowly rises to an indicated 90C and then at a rapid and visible rate, drops back to 75-80. I always watch it do it and I would notice and be a bit worried if it didn't. I had an oil temp gauge in a Golf Gti 20 years ago so to have a noddy warning light re temp, protecting a £5000+ engine snacks of the accountants telling the engineers what to do!
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The Alfasud had a red light which stayed on until the engine was warm enough to be thrashed. Very useful. I do like the idea of more guages than less. I assume the systems are monitored anyway by the CPU, so switchable digital displays would be very cheap to produce (in fact don't Mercedes do that?).
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Probably BMW expects their engine to be thrashed when cold?
So that they can get more repair work to do.
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I used to follow a BMW 330 out of our village every morning (driven by a good looking young woman) and used to be horrified at how she would turn out on the bypass and just absolutely disappear into the distance.
I do remember reading some years ago that BMW temp gauges are actually fed by a signal from the ECU so they don't directly follow the engine coolant temp anyway and, within quite a wide range of temps, will still display the same temp on the gauge. Is that true?
Edited by Bill Payer on 09/03/2008 at 11:08
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I have wondered about this myself, damned annoying penny pinching if you ask me.
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I suspect that the engine temperature is monitored by a computer. If there's a problem, the computer will flash large red lights (or somesuch) on the dashboard.
In my opinion, it's much better and more reliable for the computer to monitor engine temperature and provide a large blatant warning than for the average (less than fully awake) driver to monitor a gauge.
Yes, there may be occasions where the computer misses something - like coolant temperature falling indicating a leak and a lack of water near the sensor; but, in many more cases, the computer will catch a problem that might be missed by a significant proportion of drivers.
Of course, given the perfection of most backroom drivers, who's eyes are rarely far from their speedo, or from their gauges, a temperature gauge might seem tempting, however, for real drivers, who, owing to their poorer driving skills must keep their eyes are on the road, having the computer watch engine temperature is a good thing.
Once you've pu the computer in charge of watching engine temperature, why bother the driver with it anymore? Why fit a dashboard gimmick, which does cost something to fit, and hence for the customer to buy, when its fuction is being duplicated and monitored more frequently, and with greater assiduity by the computer?
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