High oil temperature

[Captain]

Hello!

I've noticed that my oil temperature often rises above 90° (middle of the gauge), It happens especially when I switch the engine off after a long drive, and start it up again a few minutes later. The gauge rose near 3/4 today... After a few minutes of normal driving, it gets back to normal.

Today I also experienced it when driving (31°C outside) and it's starting to worry me, I wonder if the cooling system works well, especially when the engine is turned off.

Thanks for your feedback,

Lionel

[Beady]

Do you mean the bar on the right hand side of the display?

If so, I thought this was water temperature?

Whatever it is, I have seen it rise one or two bars above the halfway point but never any more than that.

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The temp going up after switching off is normal heatsoak.

Heat in the engine is being offset by cooler oil and coolant and this equalises as you drive. As soon as you stop the engine the heat is no longer being removed from the engine and it has nowhere to go. This will for a short while make the coolant and oil in the engine far hotter than it would be normally and when you then start the engine this extra hot fluid will hit the sensors and trigger the effect you're seeing. As long as the temp comes down quickly as fresh cooler fluids hit the engine then there is nothing to worry about - all cars do it.

Similar but less pronounced is the effect of airflow and fluid speed. For example, if you sit at 70mph in 2nd/3rd gear then the engine may be revving hard but isn't really under a huge load and the coolant and oil are flowing as fast as you'll ever see.

Now drop down into 6th whilst keeping the speed the same and you'll probably see the temp go up due to the fluid pressure droppingdue to lower revs. The various thermostats will recover and stabilise the temperature again no problems.

With my old S2 sport 190 if I dropped from 5th to second at 70 I could knock the temp down from 84 to 72 for a few seconds as the engine is flooded with cold coolant but then it's fine once the thermstat adjusts.

The hot weather will also affect things but as long as it settles it should be fine - the only time to worry is if the temp spikes very hot very quickly without you doing anything different.

[Captain]

Thank you very much, that's reassuring!

[anubis1]

when hot temp. outside and inside (engine) open trunk for a minute and the worst is over. A.

[Captain]

Thanks for the tip. Did that yesteday, it worked well indeed.

[Advantage]

There really is no need for any concern. Lotus will have tested the car extensively in all types weather and under all driving conditions. Heat soak will have been accounted for when developing the car. Just continue to enjoy your car without worrying about such things.

[S7 EXG]

In normal road driving I rarely see the gauge rise above the half way point. In very hard driving, when high ambient temp eg >25C, have seen it almost at the 3/4 point. All is well.

[Captain]

Thanks! Don't worry GKP I'll enjoy it. A lot.