New 335d owner wonders: Where is the temp gauge?

Loving my blue water 2011 335d -- averaged 32 mpg over the first 700 miles.

The gauge I watched most closely on my 300-D was the temp gauge, but all I can find in the manual is a) the ambient temp, b) an idiot light that comes on if you overheat, and c) an optional (?) temp readout tat can be toggled with one of the left stalks, which apparently I do not have.

Am I missing something? Thanks in advance.

I beleive WE DO NOT have a temp Gauge i also own a Montego Blue 2011 and the first thing I looked for was the temp gauge, and all I can gather is if the car goes to an extreme temps it will go on SAFE mode and eventually shut down, ANYONE else can hlp us here?

I don't know the steps but seen people say there is some hidden menu method to get temp readings. I'd personally go with some ODBII device such as the one made by Garmin but many to select from and that give you a "dashboard" option to via different things.

Engine temp gauge is one of the things I watch a lot on my other cars. I just learned to live without on this one since it lacks one on the dash.

@Snipe or anyone why did THEY not add a Temp gauge for our "D"s, it confunds me and yes i had my 02 MCS and ALWAYS kept a CLOSE eye for overheating. I was planning in maybe adding a lower temp thermostat if possible to the car since I live in Puerto Rico and most of my driving is at least 90% in the city.

Temp gauges have been useless on BMWs for more than 10 years. The E46's gauge was run by the computer (not directly from a sensor as of old) and displayed essentially three things: cold, just right, and hot.

You can get an OBD reader that displays temp. Can't remember the name right now; search.
You might be able to get someone to code the dash display to display one of the engine temps. Pretty sure that even the thermostat in our D's are computer controlled - they have been on the gas side for over 10 years. If you follow TDI's posts, the engine never warms up anyway, so why bother.

great response but the fact that you state it never warms up makes me wonder, when in fact at numerous times the fan stays on after runs on many of our "D"s. Like I stated i believe the car will go safe mode then evetualy shut to save the engine from heat damage, thats my 2 cents on this.

Originally Posted by floydarogers

If you follow TDI's posts, the engine never warms up anyway, so why bother.

I personally watch temp gauges in my other cars to observe when something is out of the normal. Same basic idea for me behind oil pressure gauges, amp/volts, and what ever else is commonly on a dash in other makes. For a pretty new car though I honestly do not care enough to go through any trouble to see things of this nature. Though with that said, years back on my truck I noticed the cruising temps were higher than normal but not in a dangerous range. I eventually made note of it to a mechanic and his response was that more than likely is a sign of a bad EGR and/or oil cooler, sure enough that was the case.

I have a 5series and also hate the fact that it does not have a temp gauge, but I REALLY Hate that it does not have a dipstick, how the hell are we supposed to look at the color of the oil?

Originally Posted by Gustavoerod

I have a 5series and also hate the fact that it does not have a temp gauge, but I REALLY Hate that it does not have a dipstick, how the hell are we supposed to look at the color of the oil?

Color is not an indicator for oil condition. It was 20-30 years ago, but oil turns color (black for our diesels) immediately you change it.

I like gauges. Use a bluetooth OBD reader nearly 100% of the time feeding the Android Torque app to monitor lots of things, including the coolant temp, when driving.

The only times I've seen the coolant temp exceed ~190F is during DPF regens in the summer (on hot days during regens the temp can hit ~200F) or after several back to back 1/4 mile pulls.

Winter time (for you Southern folk I'm talking about temps below 10F) for most driving conditions I've encountered the engine struggles to maintain more than 180F temps unless one covers the front grills.

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

I like gauges. Use a bluetooth OBD reader nearly 100% of the time feeding the Android Torque app to monitor lots of things, including the coolant temp, when driving.

The only times I've seen the coolant temp exceed ~190F is during DPF regens in the summer (on hot days during regens the temp can hit ~200F) or after several back to back 1/4 mile pulls.

Winter time (for you Southern folk I'm talking about temps below 10F) for most driving conditions I've encountered the engine struggles to maintain more than 180F temps unless one covers the front grills.

That sounds too cool! Where did you get your Bluetooth OBD reader? Which Android app? Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by anE934fun

That sounds too cool! Where did you get your Bluetooth OBD reader? Which Android app? Thanks in advance.

Torque App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...l.torque&hl=en


There are many blue tooth OBDII dongles on eBay. Have been really happy with the cheap one I purchased well over a year ago. Think it was something like ~$16. But be cautious, as some of those don't "shut down" and will keep drawing power even when the car is off. The one I got seems to shut off and draws minimal current, but I still disconnect it if the car isn't going to be driven for several days in a row.

Really useful for monitoring the EGR behavior as well, and makes it quite obvious when the car goes into DPF regen mode.

I used the obc (hidden) coolant temp when i was bmw cca even at watkins glen. I noticed only +20c variation. I think to some extent BMW have determined its less necessary for diesel due to thermal efficiency.

Not saying i wouldn't want one, just saying it may be exceedingly rare for the D to have temp issues

That is true, only time a temp gauge benefited me on a diesel is when something went wrong not because I was pushing things hard and causing for a hot engine. On my gas cars though a temp gauge on some of them has proven valuable simply to catch I am pushing things too hard.

Thanks these are all helpful answers. Honestly, I'm less worried about overheating and more concerned just to know when the car is warmed up!

Originally Posted by jfxogara

Thanks these are all helpful answers. Honestly, I'm less worried about overheating and more concerned just to know when the car is warmed up!

While I do not think there is a real need to worry about in these, I'd suggest getting one of the ODBII devices that let's you see such data. Will give you the data you are looking for.

I use a OBD thing called ScanGuage 2. It reads water and intake temps, outside pressure and a few other things. It has the ability to read boost pressure, but as usual this car doesn't allow that. It can also scan and clear codes. I bought it at Autozone for $150.

I found this car likes to stay at 180F, sometimes it gets to 190F and rarely over 200F.

Most temperature gauges form the vehicle manufacturers nowadays little are more than a fancy idiot light. They now are run by the computer and "normalized." This means they basically have three readings (1) cold, (2) "normal" and (3) Overheating. The computer monitors the temperature and as soon as the engine reaches a predetermined temperature threshold it quickly bring the gauge needle to the vertical "normal" position. As long as the temperature in is the "normal" range, the computer keeps it vertical. If the engine exceeds a predetermined high temperature, the computer quickly moves the needle to the "hot" position. This limits the usefulness of a temperature gauge, because as long as the temperature is in the "normal" range, the needle does not move.

Why did they do this? Because many people nowadays have more money (or credit) than brains. The manufacturers got tired of complaints from people when the temperature needle went to the top of the "normal" range when they were driving in stop and go city traffic, with the A/C full blast, and an outside temperature of 110 degrees. "What do you mean that's normal? I spend $70,000 for this vehicle and it shouldn't run hot, don't give me that BS, now fix it!"

So BMW, and others, went to normalizing the gauge to get rid of such unfounded complaints by people who don't understand engine cooling.

Originally Posted by Penguin

Most temperature gauges form the vehicle manufacturers nowadays little are more than a fancy idiot light. They now are run by the computer and "normalized." This means they basically have three readings (1) cold, (2) "normal" and (3) Overheating. The computer monitors the temperature and as soon as the engine reaches a predetermined temperature threshold it quickly bring the gauge needle to the vertical "normal" position. As long as the temperature in is the "normal" range, the computer keeps it vertical. If the engine exceeds a predetermined high temperature, the computer quickly moves the needle to the "hot" position. This limits the usefulness of a temperature gauge, because as long as the temperature is in the "normal" range, the needle does not move.

Why did they do this? Because many people nowadays have more money (or credit) than brains. The manufacturers got tired of complaints from people when the temperature needle went to the top of the "normal" range when they were driving in stop and go city traffic, with the A/C full blast, and an outside temperature of 110 degrees. "What do you mean that's normal? I spend $70,000 for this vehicle and it shouldn't run hot, don't give me that BS, now fix it!"

So BMW, and others, went to normalizing the gauge to get rid of such unfounded complaints by people who don't understand engine cooling.

Although this sounds plausible, my 2005 E320 CDI did not have such a setup. The temperature guage did read differently in differing conditions. In fact, a common problem of that year was a "stuck open" thermostat where the temperature was unusually low most of the time and so was mine. I also suffered a failure of the coolant control valve where I lost heat during the winter, so the coolant temperature guage was useful then too. Finally, when my electric radiator fan control circuit failed and my engine began to overheat, it was very useful knowing how long to drive it and under what conditions until I could get the thing fixed ($$$) without cooking the engine. It was a very useful guage and Mercedes did well to make it so.

As far as the aluminum block BMW diesels, this may not be the same situation. I would not risk ANY overheating with such an engine, given the chance of warping the block/head. Mercedes still uses cast iron/other alloys for its diesel engines or so I hear.

PL

M57 is Alusil IIRC

Sent from my MB525 using Bimmer App

Originally Posted by jfxogara

Thanks these are all helpful answers. Honestly, I'm less worried about overheating and more concerned just to know when the car is warmed up!

I added the Garmin ECORoute HD to my GPS. It connects to the OBDII port and sends a bluetooth signal to my dash mounted GPS.

I can select what parameters I want displayed in a nice custom arrangement. Things like voltage, rpm, speed, turbo boost, engine load, charge air temp (after cooler), and of course cooling water temp, which I have confirmed jumps right on up to the 195 deg F range very quickly and hold pretty steady, as it should.

The EcoRoute HD was $99.00, added on to the price of the GPS. You can find some posts with photos somewhere in this massive website!

There is a piece about this in this month's Roundel. Basically said that the ECU varies the coolant temperature under various conditions so much that it can give "useless" information to the driver. BMW is eliminating coolant temp gauges in all their cars for this reason.

Originally Posted by Philm35

There is a piece about this in this month's Roundel. Basically said that the ECU varies the coolant temperature under various conditions so much that it can give "useless" information to the driver. BMW is eliminating coolant temp gauges in all their cars for this reason.

+1. It was for emissions but I wonder if that's the case with the M57 since we do not have an electric water pump. In any case with the aux radiator our cars have and the fact that its a diesel (sheds heat quickly compared to gas) I have better things to worry about than coolant temps.

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