E36 318is Temp Question

[3 SERIES 92]

Hi all,

Hope someone on here can help me.

When I start my car from cold it takes a good 20 odd mins of continuous driving before the car starts to heat up and the temp guage rises. It has done this ever since I brought the car so not sure if its normal or not.

I have had it on a scanner a few months back and not fault codes appeared.

Could it possibly be the themostat?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Brett

[greenday-rulz21 5]

Sounds like its the thermostat.

If its stuck open slightly then the cars going to take a lot longer to heat up. My 323 takes possibly 5 minutes to heat up. Although i've never officially counted.

[MLM 57]

I have a E36 318is also. 20 min to warm up sounds very long mine will start to register on the dial within 5 minutes of driving with full temp in~10 min. The thermostat sounds like the best starting point.

[tire 10]

Thats deffo not right Brett. It will pay to get it sorted as thats 20 mins of running rich (bad fuel economy). It should be the tstat.

[Cale 36]

And high wear on the engine running cold for that long.

+1 for thermostat.

[|ncary 0]

And high wear on the engine running cold for that long.

+1 for thermostat.

It's not the engine running cold, just more cold coolant flowing through than the engine can heat up. The oil would realisticly heat up as usual.

[gmccormack 0]

It's not the engine running cold, just more cold coolant flowing through than the engine can heat up. The oil would realisticly heat up as usual.

Actually the oil won't heat up as it is circulating in an engine that is stone cold and being overcooled by excess coolant flow. The bigger problem is the incorrect running clearances between the engines internal parts while it is running cold, causing excessive wear.

Edited May 25, 2009 by Graeme

[|ncary 0]

Hmmm, if I think about it dynamicly, it would seem like the oil would heat as usual being pushed out of the crankshaft journals, hitting the bottom of the hot piston, and being sprayed into the head where the heat from the chambers rises to.

The metal all round the coolant galleries would be cold yeah.

This is all estimation but the only way to prove it would be with a whole lotta gauges. Unless you know your info from gauges Graeme?

[3 SERIES 92]

Thanks for the info guys. Im going to head into Page Euro tomorrow to suss it out. But it is looking like the thermostat.

On the topic of the oil not heating up. On the weekend I had the car running for a while then decided to do an oil change. After the car running for approx 20mins the oil was still cold!

Hmmmmmm. Will let you know what the outcome is.

Edited May 25, 2009 by 3 SERIES

[|ncary 0]

Hmm well there's some proof Must be a lot more oil touching water galleries than hot bits.

Water is a fantastic heat storage medium, especially with glycol added. For reasons which would bore you

[3 SERIES 92]

Well, took the car into Page Euro yesterday.

Thermostat was shot and it also happend to be the wrong temp

New one put in and problem solved! Car heats up in under 5 mins. A lot better than the 35mins I had yesterday before getting it fixed!

Cheers for the help guys, much appreciated.