Operating Temperature

[sleeptalker]

Hi all,

Having had my S3 since August i've noticed it takes a good 10 mins or driving in London traffic to get the indicated temperature up to the ~70-80C level on the temp gauge. This has always surprised me as I'd have thought a big ol' V6 would heat up fairly quickly.

To add to this I had a nice long couple of drives in the S this weekend and noticed that in this colder weather the car seemed to never go above ~70C whilst driving at motorway speeds (albeit in freezing fog.) Only when I came off onto slower roads did it near the 80-90C level on the gauge.

My question is - is this 'normal' as I recall people on the forum saying the first mile/couple of minutes should get the engine up to temp? What is the ideal operating temp?

The gauge has never gone above 90C in the worst of the summer traffic, but it's also true to say that i've never heard the fan kick in (can you over the exhaust noise?!)

Finally I noticed that after a good 30 mins of motorway running yesterday I still had small puffs of steam coming from my exhaust whilst stationary in traffic - should I be worried? Or am I turning into a neurotic car owner finally ;0) ?

Any hints of tips would be greatly appreciated as I'd like to make sure I don't unwittingly cook my engine.

[tozerman]

Sounds about right to me for this time of year.

[Roy C]

In my experience (of 19 years of S ownership) this is normal.
In this weather it takes ages to get the cast iron 2.9 V6 up to temperature
(modern alloy engines warm up very quickly).

Edited by Roy C on Monday 14th December 15:46

[Ragtop]

Makes a change to read a post about underheating rather than overheating! It does sound a tad slow to me, even for this weather. If you have the heater and fan on full blast, this can noticeably increase the time it takes for the engine to get up to temperature, but I'm not sure this accusation can be made of the rather feeble TVR heater. The only other likely culprit is the thermostat - stuck partly open, or more likely missing! (Due to someone's misguided attempt to cure overheating).

A faulty or missing thermostat is easy to check. Start the car from cold and leave it to idle. As the engine temperature rises the top hose should stay cold. When the temperature reaches normal running temperature the thermostat will open and the top hose will suddenly get very hot very quickly - this is normal. If the top hose warms up gradually along with the engine temperature, the thermostat isn't working.

When checking hoses under the bonnet, make sure you keep your hands away from the whirly bits...

Have fun!
Graham

[M3CHA-MONK3Y]

I have the same with mine.

Takes a good 15 - 20 minutes to get up to a decent temperature and never really goes above 70c except when slowing down from a good thrashing.
I consider it normal and a testament to the S cooling ability.

Steam from the exhaust sounds about right for the weather, but I had the same thing this time last year and it turned out to be the start of a failing head gasket.
Have a quick check for 'mayo' inside the oil filler cap and if you have the facility, a quick compression test just to be sure.

Should be nothing but worth 30 minutes of your time to be safe.

HTH

[jimed]

My S3C used to heat up quite quickly but after I took the cats off it took a bit longer and also tended to run a bit cooler. I tried 2 different thermostats in case that was the problem and it made no difference so just lived with it running a bit cooler which wasn't an issue as long as it wasn't too cold (and then effectively running with the choke on all the time).
Jim