Engine Warmup

Hey Guys,

Just a curious observation. I have a 13 X3 28i with just shy of 5K miles. It is wonderful. I recently noticed that it takes what seems to be a long time for the engine to warm up. I thought maybe this was just my car with the low miles, but last week I had a 12 328 loaner that exhibited the same characteristics. My C300 doesn't take anytime for the engine to warmup.

Just curious if this is normal to this engine.

Thanks
GC

The temperature is for oil temperature which takes substantially longer for every vehicle. Most vehicles have a coolant temperature gauge; most modern BMWs with the electric water pump (pretty much all N-series engines like the N20) warm up very quickly.

Originally Posted by gs1397

...My C300 doesn't take anytime for the engine to warmup. ...

My C300 is warm in about 5-min of driving. I also keep it on "auto" climate control all the time and it works great in all seasons. I hope the X3 is similar and that I don't miss that.

Update: X3 warms up pretty fast also. (Still getting used to no coolant temp gauge but oil temp gauge instead). Only thing is that my MB adjusted the fan speed automatically on "auto" climate control setting, whereas the X3 does not appear to do that and operates at whatever speed you set it to, even in "auto" setting. Note to self: Do some searching and RTFM to see if there are any hints about it .

Not only does the oil have more thermal inertia than the coolant, it lives in a cooler part of the engine -- the block and the sump -- for the most part, and not up where the fires are. Added to that is that the lower limit of the oil temp gauge is at 160º Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to produce third-degree burns, before the needle even moves off the peg. By that time, the coolant has long since reached normal operating temp.