How hot is too hot?

[sugarbearRT]

While riding in a construction area during rush hour :banghead Grrrrr, my 1150RT seemed to be right up to the dreaded red zone for oil temp. I panicked and turned off at the first opportunity, shut her down for awhile, then rode until the temp reached the normal zone again. I'm just wondering, is it "normal" for the oil temp to get that high? :dunno I just had my 18k service done and was told that everything checked out fine. I'm a new rider and this is my first BMW :thumb I know that stop and go in first gear for an extended period of time is not the most ideal situation. However, it cannot be avoided during Construction Season here in Michigan! (Maybe I should have bought a liquid cooled bike!) Any advise for the Newbie?
Carol:wave

[Oldhway]

I have an '04 r1150rt and when up to temp (Middle of guage, 5 or 6 bars, I'm not sure which) it never wavers under any circumstance. I hit some hot slow 2-up riding on rte 7 in Mass. and Vt. up to the national last year and it stayed put. I don't know everybody else's experience but my temp has been stable.

[screwtop]

My '02 GS usually holds at 5 bars and goes up to 6 in heavy traffic for a brief period, until I get moving agian. Funny though, I just made the switch to synthetic (amsoil) and it seems to go to six bars more frequently than it had in the past:dunno .

[Belquar]

When I switched to synthetics my GS runs a bar hotter than on DINO.

If you are paddle footing along in traffic, you should shut down, take an alternate route. Sometimes it can't be avoided and in that case you should change your oil more frequently.

At a tech session at the National last year this was a topic of discussion because of a particularly long light everyone was going through. It was recommended that if you have to sit for very long to shut it off. Trouble is, how do you know how long you are going to have to sit.

So the recommended solution. If you are sitting you are burning oil. Change it more frequently. If you can safely navigate a shoulder or something, moving at 15mph is better than sitting.

Brian

[PacWestGS]

Any advise for the Newbie?
Carol:wave

Find an alterante route :dunno

It won't hurt it too bad to run upto the red, but I'd be thinking of shutting it down if you can't keep it below that...:banghead

[glwestcott]

Good reason for advocating for lane splitting. My bike went one bar from the dreaded red when I was in Mount Zion National Park a couple of years ago. Long narrow tunnel and this idiot in a motor home thought it important to go no more than 5 to 10 miles per hour. Guess he was afraid of scraping the walls, although he really had a fair amount of clearance. Anyway, it was very hot and there is no passing and once committed, I had no choice but to go slow behind him and watch my bars creep up.

At home, in the California central valley, even when its over 100 and the freeway is jammed up, I have no problems because we can split lanes!:dance

[rgvilla]

hah, my 99 R1100R doesn't have a an oil temp guage so I don't have to worry about it:dunno

[mikereid]

rgvilla, mine doesn't either! :wave

[GlobalRider]

Grrrrr, my 1150RT seemed to be right up to the dreaded red zone for oil temp. I'm just wondering, is it "normal" for the oil temp to get that high?

Well that all depends what the "red zone" equates to in temperature. 240°F isn't the end of the world; 270°F and higher would be getting there.

Does anybody have the specs for the oil temperature guage? What is the 5th bar in °F? What is the RED bar in °F?

I normally runs 5 bars, 6 in traffic and 7 in very hot temperatures or in stop 'n go traffic.

[John Brase]

Got stuck in a construction backup last summer with the air temp nearing 100. The oil temp bars went to the top of the scale for a while till we started moving again.

When I changed the oil (synth) I sent a sample to the testing lab. They reported it good with no evidence of breakdown.

John

[sugarbearRT]

Well, I suppose with summer upon us, overheating will probably be more of an issue. (I forgot to mention in my original post that it was a hot day, about 90 F, on top of the rush hour issues and road construction delays.) My RT oil temp normally runs at 5 or 6 bars. Never approaching the Red Zone. I was wondering if changing to synthetic was a good option...Thank you all for your advise!

[j-budimlya]

http://pweb.jps.net/~snowbum/oilhdlcd.htm

I'm not sure if this applies to all Oilhead models...but I bet its pretty close....see the site above for more details...

For oil temperature LCD readout, there are 10 BARS, with no bars showing to be taken as zero bars:

0 Approx. 033.5° C and below .....092° F and below
1 040° C.....104° F
2 065° C.....149° F
3 080° C.....176° F
4 090° C.....194° F
5 105° C.....221° F
6 130° C.....266° F
7 150° C.....302° F
8 160° C.....320° F
9 170° C.....338° F
10 175° C.....347° F



I only use full synthetic because if gets real hot out here from time to time. :D

[GlobalRider]

5 (bars) 105° C.....221° F


Perfect!

5 bars is what I (and most people) run all the time and that oil temperature is just right.

[bransan]

I run castrol gtx 20w 50. I have 30kmi on My 04' r1150r,(no gauge) no worries. I have had only a few stop and go traffic situations and was always worried about overheating. I guess if it's a daily occurence I might be concerned. But I live in the great north woods and My biggest worry is DEER! Really big lights!

[GlobalRider]

When I changed the oil (synth) I sent a sample to the testing lab. They reported it good with no evidence of breakdown.

John


A coworker/engineer runs Mobil 1 in his BMW 330 Ci and changes it every 20K kms (12K miles). The oil then gets sent upstairs to our labs where it still passes with flying colors.

In Germany (and probably the rest of Europe), BMW sells "long life" oils. I'm assuming those are synthetic.

[PETDOC]

Interesting sidebar. I recently ran my '04 1150 GS up Nevada 93 then across route 50. I found that at sustained speeds below 80 mph it ran at 5 bars and at 80 mph and above it ran at 6 bars. I did a 50 mile streach at 100 mph and it never went above 6 bars.

[Hankles]

I was at a tech day at MAX BMW in New Hampshire last year. I seemed to recall one of the techs say to shut down when in traffic for an extended period of time. The oil can get hot enough to melt the sight glass.

[twins4life]

(Maybe I should have bought a liquid cooled bike!)


My wifes bike just prior to the BMW was liquid cooled. It had a real neat design, on hot days, when sitting in traffic the fan would run nearly 100%. The really neat part is the fan drew more amperage than the alternator was putting out. :doh So dead batteries and failed rectifier/regulators (from over heating) were common results of sitting still in traffic.