Headlights Causing High Oil Temps LOL!

[CazzaVR 0]

Evening all,

 

Since getting the car back from my local garage, I've noticed the oil temps have risen considerably. They are up approx 15c. Have had a good look around and the only thing I noticed was that the Mocal cooler mounting (bottom right as you look at the car) has broken. The Mocal seems to have some oil on it, so think it might have a slight leak. Any ideas? Could this be the cause of my sudden high oil temps? Do these block up? Are they easy enough to remove and clean? Can you replace the bottom mounts?

 

Water temp seems to be the same as usual, and oil pressure seems normal, although I'm keeping an eye on it. Am planning to change the water pump soon (just precautionary).

Edited November 27, 2012 by CazzaVR

[clumpy1 11]

Maybe the car is reacting to you saying you were thinking of getting rid.

[CazzaVR 0]

:lol: Yeh, it's throwing it's toys out of the pram!

[clumpy1 11]

They can be very fickle car's it's not the first time i have heard of this:confused:

[Stonejag 10]

Tried cleaning the connector for the oil temp sensor? Mine reads 20º hotter when it's wet out for some reason :lol:

 

Stone

[CazzaVR 0]

Hi Stone, whereabouts is it? Down near the oil cooler etc?

[fla 9]

yes, looking from the front of the car its the one with the green/yellow tracer, iirc on the top left. Take it out, clean the spade and terminal and refit. Should be ok, unless its failed and leaking oil. If the temsp were 15C higher you would certainly feel a greater blast of heat from the engine, which i assume you dont?

[CazzaVR 0]

Right, they were incredibly filthy, so gave the plug and spade a very good clean. We'll see how it is tomorrow morning...

[CazzaVR 0]

Just the same :(

 

---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 PM ----------

 

I'll give the wiring a good check over.

[Jim 2]

Stupid question but... have you tried taking an oil reading whilst using the car in daylight, or has it been in the dark only? For some reason my oil temperature reads a good 8-10 degrees higher when I have the headlights turned on.. not sure if it's a wiring thing or what, but just throwing it out there as a curveball suggestion.

 

Just thought it may be something that's only occurred since we have darker mornings / darker evenings :)

Edited November 14, 2012 by Jim

[CazzaVR 0]

Think you maybe onto something Jim! Always drive with the lights on at the mo, and that coincides chronologically with when the problem started. When I got home tonight, the temp was 108 with lights on. Turned engine & lights off, then engine on again straight away (no lights) and it was reading 100. Also seems to change when I cycle through the MFA. For example, if it's on 82 and I cycle through the options, when I get back to oil temp it goes up to 86 in less than five seconds. VERY ODD!

[Jim 2]

Aha :)

 

I've never worked out or heard a convincing explanation for why this is.... I do believe it's electrical though rather than an actual "problem" :|

[CazzaVR 0]

Have retitled the thread. Had another play with this at the weekend. Used the car without headlights in the day, came to a stop and the oil temp was 100C. Switched lights on, cycled through the MFA and back to oil temp... 112c! :lol:

 

This is crazy- anyone got any ideas?

[Portent 0]

No idea but out of interest what happens if you switch the headlights on but the plugs into the actual lights are taken out?

[robrado974 1]

Must be just the superb corrado wireing , im going to see if mine is the same at the weekend . Would have thought if you drop RW1 a pm he would have the answer as he is great at this sort of thing , that guy is like morris mcwhirter with corrado's !

[Jim Bowen 1]

I just had to fix the wiring on my temp sender. Oil temp was acting weird and found the wire clinging on by a thread

[CazzaVR 0]

Cleaned up the plugs the other day as they were filthy and wiring looked good. Will have a closer inspection at the weekend. Interesting idea about unplugging the lights- will have a look. Could it be anything to do with the uprated loom I wonder.

 

Jim, does yours have an uprated loom?

[Abdul 0]

WTF that's something new. Wowsers.

[matasj89 10]

I can only think about voltage drop affecting the oil reading. I'd try different battery or check the battery wires/connectors.

[Jim 2]

Cleaned up the plugs the other day as they were filthy and wiring looked good. Will have a closer inspection at the weekend. Interesting idea about unplugging the lights- will have a look. Could it be anything to do with the uprated loom I wonder.

 

Jim, does yours have an uprated loom?

 

Nope - totally bog standard!

[floppyman 0]

Same thing here. Especially when lights on,wipers, heather, fogs and rear demist.

In the middle of one my trips to portugal with the dash showing 150°c oil temp, in act of panic i punched the clocks and the temps started going down...

I was thinking might be a bad earth maybe inside the actual clocks

[GusPW 0]

I've been wondering about this for a while, doing steady motorway speed when I put my lights on oil goes up 4°. At first I thought it might be linked to the extra load on the engine from the alternator but there's no way it could have that much effect that quickly. Can turn light of and on and each time within 10 secs it goes up or down 4°.

definately electrical problem, Voltage drop sounds like a possibility but I would expect the alternator to cope easily with the extra drain from the lights at 3500rpm .

Maybe earthing problem, or perhaps there is some stray voltage from the lights circuit.

Mines standard lighting apart from the chinese switch from 8vmatt

Edited December 1, 2012 by GusPW
Stupid phone duplicated post