TEF1701

I'm curious what it means when my oil temp never reaches a normal temperature, at least according to my oil temp gauge. I've attached a picture. As you can see it never goes above maybe 90 degrees. I'm going to assume that the engine does actually reach normal temperature, and it's just a bad sending unit. I'm not worried about it, but does anyone have any thoughts?

Joeltron

Yeah, mine does the same thing. I recently cleaned up the ground connection as best I could but it didn't make a difference. There was a ton of sludge in that little rubber cover though. I'm not too worried about it. I figure as long as my coolant temp is normal, my overall engine temp is probably fine too, assuming coolant and oil levels are good. And come to think of it, I haven't had many cars that even had an oil temp gauge to begin with.

Rogviler

Weird... On my '78 it has a dial gauge and it doesn't get much higher than that either, even on long trips. The '84 doesn't have a gauge so I don't know where it's at, and obviously the '85 has yet to get on the road.

I honestly think coolant temp is a better indicator of what the engine is doing and will register a problem more quickly. Seems like an oil pressure gauge would have been a better addition. THAT is definitely something that can mean instant damage if it's not correct.

-Rog

TEF1701

Yeah I think I might try and find a discreet location to put an oil pressure gauge in my car. The manual specifically says not to push the engine too hard or run at wide open throttle until the oil temp reaches normal operating temperature. Makes sense in high compression engines, but it's kinda hard when you don't know what "normal" operating temperature is. Thanks for the input Rog.

audi-driver1126

my 1987 Audi 4000S has a analogue temperature gauge for the oil. It never rises ever. I have found the location of the sender unit, and i have taken it out and replaced it, but nothing ever changes what the gauge reads. I have also replaced the entire gauge cluster for a new one. still nothing. I wouldnt worry about it to much, as it is probably a faulty or clogged unit.

Last4KRunning

I read somewhere that we all got the oil temp gauges because of the Volkswagen influence from the aircooled days. Those engines ran pretty hot and gave the oil a real beating. Oil temp (and pressure) was all important. No coolant in an aircooled engine to measure the temp of (well air...). I used to drive bugs a van and a squareback. Learned to drive in a 71 Bus. I had a aftermarket oil temp gauge in a couple of those cars.
Oil temp gauge doesn't do much in a water cooled car. Mine doesn't move much or get very high normally. The only time I ever saw it get very high was when I had my shifter linkage break when I was leaving work. I crawled under the car and shifted it into 3rd (Could slip the clutch to get going) and then did a 22 mile drive home, country roads. The engine was running quite a bit higher RPMs than normal and the oil temp did climb quite a bit over where it usually was. It didn't get hot enough to be a concern. Tim