Temp guage caution !

[Frontman]

Just a bit of info; When I got my X5 it seemed to be running very hot and found a small leak. One thing I did  notice is that the temp gauge never moved from the half way point, ie; it warmed up from cold went to the centre and no matter how the car was driven the gauge never moved.
I also own a Toyota Hilux Surf import and a few models have a tendency to overheat and crack the cylinder head (mine included). The overriding thing seems to be that if the gauge starts to move up and go into the red it's to late, the head is cooked. It seems that Toyota designed the gauge to stop any worrying wild fluctuations and level out the output. Because of this a large amount of owners have fitted aftermarket  gauges and there is also a fix to swap the resistors in the gauge to give a true temp reading.
Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
Cheers Col

[shadrack]

every bmw i have ever owned has always stopped bang in the middle, my thermostats gone on my x5 and its running cold all the time, and my 328 head gasket went and that was the first time id ever seen a bmw guage go past halfway, it did rise steady over 10 mins tho so they must be pretty accurate

[petert]

I had understood that most modern cars these days have 'buffered' temperature gauges, meaning that a fairly wide range of coolant temperatures will show on the gauge as being 'on taget'.  It needs the coolant to be very cold (ie engine cold) or very hot (really overheating) before the gauge moves out of the normal range.

Not like the old days when working an engine hard (climbing steadily for a long time or taowing) would see the gauge move up even as the thermostat allowed more cooling of the engine coolant.

Peter T

[X5Sport]

And of course the latest BMWs don't even have a temperature guage.  I would much rather that the puzzling ergonomics in the car were actually of a bit more use to a driver.  The econometer is really a gimmick and of little use when compared to the guages that really should (IMHO) have been included such as Coolant Temp, Oil press, or even alternator output/electrical load and for all current turbocharged cars perhaps a boost indicator.

Some of the data is there but it's buried in the iDrive functions and means that the data only shows if you give up the nav display as an example.  I wonder what they will have done with all of the info on the new iDrive due from Nov 12 builds on some series.

[Cannondale]

I have never had a car that the temp gauge gets to normal as fast os my X5, after 1mile the temp is in the centre, even the heater is very quick to warm the car up. Mind this is the first petrol I have had in a while.

Rich...

[jaynana]

i've felt mine's a bit slow getting there (3.0d though).. i'm usually a bit heavy footed but try not to be when teh engine is cold. so its usually an impatient wait until the needle is off the blue zone.