Cold weather, Hot oil temp.

[bvclark]

I have a 9 month old 04 RT that has about 25k miles. Typically I run about 5 bars on the temp gauge. The highest it has every been in the hot Texas summer was 7 bars. This morning on the way to work with outside temp of 23 degrees F the Interstate was shut down and it took me 40 minutes to go about 3 miles and the RID temp gauge went up to 8 bars. I checked the oil when I got to work and it was okay. Coming home I ran 5 bars all the way. Is this normal because of the reduced airflow even considering the outside air temp. or should I be concerned?

thanks

[LeRoux Strydom]

... Is this normal because of the reduced airflow even considering the outside air temp. or should I be concerned?


Yes, I'd say it's "normal".
Concerned? I know I was when I saw higher than normal RID readings one day, under similar conditions. That's when I decided to install the RTP oil cooler fan. It works!

[dano]

I agree.....it would be normal to see 8 bars in stop 'n go traffic. RT's hate stop 'n go traffic.

Other than stopping and pulling out of traffic when it gets hot, not much more you can do.

[kbasa]

Yep. The oilheads depend on air flowing through the coolers to get rid of the heat. You might want to take a look at the lowers around the exhaust pipes as well. I'd be they've got a little bit of gold to the color that wasn't there before.

[Mr. Frank]

You might want to change your oil, especially if it's dino. Somewhere around 7 or 8 bars bad things start to happen to your oil.

[lkchris]

I agree.....it would be normal to see 8 bars in stop 'n go traffic. RT's hate stop 'n go traffic.

Other than stopping and pulling out of traffic when it gets hot, not much more you can do.

Actually you can buy from your dealer the police setup, which puts an electric fan behind the oil cooler.

Imagine it "heats" the rider pretty well.

[Mr. Frank]

You might want to change your oil, especially if it's dino. Somewhere around 7 or 8 bars bad things start to happen to your oil.

To amplify my statement, 7 bars is 299F and 8 bars is 317 degrees.

[dano]

I've been using MOBIL 1 15w/50 in my '03 RT engine since the 3000 mile mark.

Supposedly....it handles heat mucher than dino oil. I've ridden in temps in excess of 115 degrees with no problem.

Most bars I've ever seen on my RID was 7.