Oil temp indicator

Hi everybody! This is my first post. Great forum and very good advice from the people around here... I have just changed from BMW M3 E46 to my 996 C2 '99. I can feel that the C2 it is a bit less powerful than the M3, but the handling and brakes are great! I am going to remap it (mild remap)in order to get a bit more of torque. Anyway, my question is related to something that I had in my M3 that I miss in teh 996, and it is an oil temperature indicator. I have done a thorough search, but without success. Has any of you tried to install an oil temperature indicator in the dashboard? As far as I know, the info of the temperature is used by the DME so, do you think it could be easy to pick up the info from the right wire? Are there any "hidden menus"(showing temps, voltage,etc...) like I used to have in the BMW? Thanks in advance.

Welcome! I miss an oil temp too. At least it has a water temp gauge, my Jag XKR doesn't even have that! The 997 has one, and owners inform me that it takes about 10 mins of normal driving to get the oil temp up to normal. As far as I know, there is no way of retrofitting one... I'm not sure even the GT3 has one.

Hi and welcome... As a rule of thumb I just wait until the oil pressure at idle is around the 1.5-2 mark indicating oil at full temp. If you have A/C then I believe there's a code which can bring up the oil temp on this... see this thread... http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=43054&highlight=secret+temp :thumb:

Stuart, you have made my day! :thumb: Not just oil temp, but a whole range of exciting things to get readings on, who needs a Nissan GTR! Edit to add: Dammit, hopes raised and dashed! Couldn't get it to work on my facelift 996, unless I'm doing something wrong, or unless they have another way of doing it? :frustrated: :?:

Has anyone had any success reading the OIL temperature through the aircon diagnostics? The oil temperature isn't transmitted through the CAN network, so I don't see how the aircon panel could pick it up. In the past I had thought about getting an OBD2 datalogger to try and display the oil temperature, but these don't seem to work either. Climate diagnostics only works on early 996's, btw.

I'd never tried it and now I guess I never will, damn it! Sticking to the pressure at idle route then... :dont know:

Thanks everybody!! Yes, I know how long it takes the oil to get warm (remember I used to have the oil indicator). This A/C codes are great! I will give a try tomorrow... Thanks again Stuart. The problem that I found in that to get the kind of readings you say , you need to stop to get the idle condition. Btw, my idle press is 1.2 (aprox), and sometimes goes down to 1 bar when fully warmed. Maybe it is so low due to the 0w-30 oil that I was put in for the winter season...

0W-30? I think you could be asking for trouble there. No wonder it is low when hot. Porsche don't recommend anything below '40' hot viscosity. Who suggested 0W-30? The '0W' is the cold viscosity, so you won't be gaining any advantage in UK conditions - even in this extreme winter. IMO you should get the oil changed asap.

This little thread may help too... http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=43231&highlight=oil

From using the PST2 computer and getting the oil temperature reading from there this is what I have found. Starting form cold (ambient temperature of -1 degrees celcius) I drive about 6.5 miles to work and it takes about 15 minutes including a couple of traffic lights and free flowing traffic at 50 mph. By the time I reach work, the water temp is at 91 degrees and oil temp is 85. This correlates to an oil pressure of just below 2 bar. Even prior to getting actual values, I would have taken the 2 bar idle pressure as the oil warmed up and relatively thin. Fom cold the oil temp is about 10 degrees lower than the water temp until the water temp reaches 91 degrees then the oil temp catches up.

IU saw that recommendation in the owners hand book (0-30 for really cold wheather). As I live in the montains of Madrid (Spain), and it is really cold, I followed the manual recommendation... Btw, I can enter to the hidden menu, but the only parameter that I can not see is the oil temp. Instead that, I get the counter. Maybe it is because of old software... (version 2.0 instead of the "usual" 3.4 as the link in the post above states)...

There are no 0W-30 oils on the current Porsche A40 oil approvals list. You can see an summary version I did in 2008 here: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=33144 I don't know how cold it gets where you are, but I doubt you are getting any advantage using 0W-30.

Thanks everybody!! I have just bought Mobil 5W-50 (the only "50") approved, and I am going to change it tomorrow. I suppose that this way, my pressure will not be so low... I will keep you posted. Besides this, regarding the hidden menu, I can not get the oil temp, despite of getting all other temperatures... My car is an early one ('99), so it was supposed to be able to show me the oil temp. Any clues?