Everyone with oil temp issues

kannibul

It was 101F here yesterday, though my car said it was 112F outside

Pretty bad when your car sits for 4 hours, and the oil temp is still above the minimum, and the coolant temp is still around where it normally sits!

Anyhow, with some spunky driving I cracked 220...in fact, I've yet to get it to 240.

The guys doing so must be REALLY pushing the car, or driving illegally on the streets - IMO...

wstar

I really wish people would stop pushing the "illegal" angle. For one, most people drive "illegally" on a regular basis, at least around here. Just try driving the speed limit on Beltway 8 and see what I mean. It's just a matter of the degree of illegality you're pushing.

But perhaps more importantly: pushing the car hard enough to heat up the oil does not automatically equate to driving "illegally". The two issues are orthogonal, and it's well within the realm of possibility to overheat the engine without breaking a single traffic law.

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kannibul

OK, has your oil temp gone over 230F by going 75 in a 65?

I'm saying that someone who is going over that has to be doing something illegal - more illegal than those who typically drive the same stretch of road(s)...

And, how exactly does one "push" the car to the point of overheating the oil and going into limp mode?

I don't drive mine like a saint (at all), and I've yet to...

wstar

Oil temperature has nothing to do with vehicle speed, it has everything to do with ambient temperature, engine revs, engine load, and airflow to the radiator/engine. To give a silly example, if you were to drive down the road in first gear at 6,500 rpm for several minutes straight (which is way under most street speed limits, much less highway), the oil would overheat in most ambient conditions. At that low vehicle speed you're not getting much cooling to the engine, and the high revs are going to cook the oil, and no laws have been violated.

Following the same logic it *is* possible, on a hot day driving around on smaller streets with lots of uphill, to keep the revs high while nailing it around a twisty set of corners and streets without exceeding the speed limit, and overheat the oil. If you're a particularly smooth driver you could even do it without attracting much attention or appearing to be doing anything reckless. Most people won't, but it can be done.

"It's illegal to overheat your car" is nonsensical, don't give Nissan ammo to avoid the issue with.

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ChrisSlicks

I'll take auto-cross as an extreme example of low speed driving. Our auto-cross site has a speed limit of 70 mph, we basically drive the whole course in second gear. There is lots of hard acceleration and hard braking with the rpm consistently in the mid to high range. At the last event I was hitting 260 degrees in 100 seconds. If I were to keep driving like that the temperature would keep rising and eventually hit limp mode, but fortunately auto-cross has a long cool down period between runs.

I could drive half as hard on the street and still get there, but it would likely take 3 times as long. Acceleration is what generates the most heat as that is when there will be the biggest bang (fuel combustion) and when the VVEL is the busiest. So on the street, switching between full throttle acceleration and braking you can still hit limp mode in no time, speed is irrelevant.

antennahead

I don't drive illegally, unless you consider "going with the flow" on the interstate about 10 over illegal, which everyone does. I am a very safe driver, cognizant of conditions, as well as traffic density and flow. Accelerating through the gears, winding it out and observing speed limits, just enjoying the car (not granny shifting at 2500 RPM), will in high 90 degree heat run this thing up to 250 or 260, as wstar states. You could encounter traffic and have no or minimal airflow, after some nice driving, and it will shoot up as well.

John

rackley

That's a BIG negative and to be honest I'm sick of people telling me I'm driving illegally because my temps are high. Either you haven't read this whole thread or you're ignoring everyone who posts who says they have high oil temps without pushing their car.

My Z sits at 220 as a BASE oil temp. Doing anything more than 6th gear cruising (5th gear cruising for example) will cause temps to hit 240+ in very short order. This is just cruising on the freeway. Forget any kind of sporty driving.

Zcott

I'll add some info.

Yesterday on my 30 minute drive home my oil temp easily reached a steady235.
It was 102 degrees.
My speed varied between 50-70 depending on the traffic. I'm babying it right now since it only has 800 miles, so there was no "shenanigans" involved.

I can believe it's very easy to push it higher without doing anything illegal when it's hot outside... simple thermodynamics...

antennahead

220 is my normal base temp as well, anything outside cruising along and up they go......... how hi depends on RPMs attained and for how long, as well as air flow and ambient temperatures. 260 is possible without breaking the law or driving recklessly.

John

ricer333

Hey guys, something here has crossed my mind, especially with the previous post that is quoted above. And before I ask this question, believe me, I have kept up with this thread very closely.

So here it is, has anyone tested the accuracy of the Oil temp Gauge in the car? It seems that this gauge could be off and reporting higher temps for some and lower temps for others. The reason I ask is primarily due to people having high temps at startup, high temps when driving yet not getting the 'limp mode' and other various reasons.

If the gauge was off then it could be reporting higher temps than actual. I guess the only real way would be to run the spirited test driving, noting the Oil gauge temp, and then draining the oil (or some other way to thermo gauge the temp).

What do you all think about this? Not being a huge car expert, it just seems questionable that with all the same mechanical parts, the one thing that could be off would be the gauges.

~Matt

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Modshack

I brought this up a month or 2 ago since there seems to be a large variation in experiences. Either a bad batch of senders, or gauges could be a factor..

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