[borinous]

Hi All,

After freezing almost to death on the way to work the other morning i thought i would check the operating temperature achieved by my pre-LCI 320D.

From a starting coolant temp of 4deg by the time i arrive at work after approx 19mins of running which is mix of 30/40mph driving on b roads and then a short blast (4miles) up to 60mph on a dual carriage way with some standing still at traffic lights the coolant temp was showing only 54deg.

MPG doesn't seem to be suffering recently was getting average of 53mpg on a recent long run and usual commute/round town it was showing 43mpg.

Should it be getting warmer? im thinking thermostats but thought id ask you guys opinions first.

[Hulla the Hulla]

Difficult to comment. Best you go on a longer journey and check again, that way the car, even in these cold conditions, should be up to temp. If it's still showing 54deg after that I'd say your stats are goosed.

[borinous]

Ive been doing some more research and im going to try leave the idling till it reaches full operating temp of around 80-90deg then drive it. if it drops to 60-70 ill conclude i need new thermostats. If it remains steady 80-90 i guess i dont.

[dy63]

diesels do normally take ages to get to full temp in this blizzard. petrols come up to 90 way way quicker.

[AzRiz]

Don't forget that boost is required to help warm the engine quicker - gentle but strong acceleration is needed instead of simple cruising at a static speed. For example, my car hits the motorway within 500 metres of my driveway so what I do is, for the first 10 minutes of driving, (since the beginning of the M3 is quiet) - I keep dropping down to 50mph, then gently accelerating up to 65mph using light boost, and then drop towards 50 again. I've started this method recently and noticed slightly better MPG figures, which suggests that the engine is warming up a bit quicker this way. Before I used to just sit at 60mph for the first 5 mins of my journey and 65mph after that.

I know our cars have an EGR which helps a massive amount but my mum's car is a Toyota Lucida 2.2td from 1998 and that thing has no EGR, so it literally gains hardly even a few degrees of temp after as much as 15 minutes of driving in winter! I need to turn off overdrive and use light boost constantly to get it to gain any temperature at all!

[borinous]

ill try give that ago thanks for the tips. anything to get it to warm up abit quicker would be nice as its bloody freezing at the mo on the way to and from work.

[Hulla the Hulla]

Originally Posted by borinous

Ive been doing some more research and im going to try leave the idling till it reaches full operating temp of around 80-90deg then drive it. if it drops to 60-70 ill conclude i need new thermostats. If it remains steady 80-90 i guess i dont.

Idling won't help as much as you'd think, a longer drive will tell you what you need to know 👍

[borinous]

Took a slightly longer route home but was busy so didn't get much over 40mph. Did stop on the way to take a call and while idling it went up from 51deg and reached 62deg. But when I moved off and continued home it dropped back down to 55deg and was around that when I got home.

[Dan-danGT]

Change your stats I would, that temperature do my appear right. It should have continued to rise

[Hulla the Hulla]

yupz - stats have had it by the sounds of it

[borinous]

ill add them to my to-do list

[borinous]

Confirmed is the stat(s) yesterday did the usual run home from work then went straight out the shops (30min drive down the dual carriageway) and temp bearly got above 55deg. did rise to 62 when we hit traffic but dropped back down when we got moving again.

Just wondering however as its been mapped (by previous owner) could "fixing" the cool running cause an adverse affect on the map? i.e. if it was tuned at the lower running temps for optimum fueling and boost by raising the running temps by fixing the issue cause the map to go out of shape?

[Hulla the Hulla]

I very much doubt it. If it's been mapped to operate at lower temps (not sure how or even if they could do that) I would question the suitability of the map.

[borinous]

Originally Posted by Hulla the Hulla

I very much doubt it. If it's been mapped to operate at lower temps (not sure how or even if they could do that) I would question the suitability of the map.

Sorry you may have mis-understood im not saying its been mapped purposely to run cooler.

Im saying if the map was done when the engine was operating under these lower temps (due to the fault with the stats not being detected at the time) the baseline fuel and boost may have been different to what they would be at optimum operating temp.

[Hulla the Hulla]

Oh I see. Regardless, the car needs to run at proper temps otherwise it'll screw your DPF as it won't regen and then it'll get blocked. Get the stats done as its most likely the car was running the right temp when it was remapped

[Dan-danGT]

It won't effect your map, what will happen is once temperature reaches normal it will inject a slightly different amount of fuel that's all

[borinous]

Pre-LCI so no dpf worries. Just clouds of black soot.
OK cool I'll get some more bits ordered seems my to do list is getting longer

[Somerset Jim]

Jet this morning I chsnged the stats in my 330s and its gone from mid 60's to mid 80's so it's definately worth doing. Took me 2 hours this morning to do both. It was the same with my other 330d and this one went to early 90's once changed.

[Dan-danGT]

Do pre lci 320d not have Dpf? Shame I have 330d pre lci and unfortunately mine has one... Wait had!

[borinous]

Originally Posted by Dan-danGT

Do pre lci 320d not have Dpf? Shame I have 330d pre lci and unfortunately mine has one... Wait had!

I could be completely wrong but i thought they didn't have them on 320d Pre-LCI

[borinous]

Originally Posted by Somerset Jim

Jet this morning I chsnged the stats in my 330s and its gone from mid 60's to mid 80's so it's definately worth doing. Took me 2 hours this morning to do both. It was the same with my other 330d and this one went to early 90's once changed.

nice one, have you noticed any difference in fuel economy?

[Somerset Jim]

Originally Posted by borinous

nice one, have you noticed any difference in fuel economy?

Only covered a few town miles. I will be doing a 90 trip this evening and a 6 hour round trip at the weekend so will let you know.

It can only go one way as far as I'm concerned