Temp of Oil as shown on the MFD

[aslsw]

Just to add to the discussion:

- water temperature never moves off the 90 mark when the car is warmed up. The ambient temperature or load makes no difference.
- oil temperature had climbed to 116 when pulling the trailer up the Clyde on a hot day. It freaked me out the first time, but someone here reassured me it was OK. Still, my blood pressure seems to rise in sync with the oil temperature readout!

[zei20t]

actually the water is moving constantly. the dash is padded so it doesn't alarm users.

I have a polar FIS+ so I can see actual temps. plus a whole load of other values.

if you tow a lot, and get temperatures like that all the time, id investigate an engine oil cooler. doesn't have to be massive.

[wai]

Just remember that the gauges are not necessarily accurate. They are only an indication.

Many years ago a car manufacturer got a lot of complaints about their cars overheating. It was well within specs, but that was not enough for the owners. Unable to "fob" customers off any more, they came up with a solution...a temperature sender that allowed the gauge to read lower! The engine was running as "hot" as it was before, but the gauge showed a lower value so they felt more comfortable.

So it does not matter what instrumentation you have, you need to make sure that the sender is reading and sending out the correct value. In some ways having all this "data" tends to make us a little skittish, only we need to remember that what we are seeing may not necessarily be that accurate anyway.

I can see some people wanting to go back to the "idiot lights"