[T3] 73 T-3 oil temp?

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Tue Sep 7 06:58:32 PDT 2021


On 5 Sep 2021 at 9:52, William Jahn wrote:

> I was stuck in traffic barely moving for over an hour and the oil temp
> read just under 220 F the oil light would go on at idle , it was 94 F air
> temp . If I put the auto trans in neutral the oil light would go out . I
> checked the oil level later and was down 1/2 quart . Once I was able to
> start moving the oil temps dropped .

Given your situation, hot day, hot pavement, stop & go traffic (surrounded by 
other cars also shedding their excess engine heat, as well as the heat from 
their ACs) I don't see anything particularly unusual about what you 
observed. Your 220 F indicated temperature is probably not unusual for 
those conditions, but it can be informative to test your temp sensor in boiling 
water (212 F) to see how good the calibration is.  

Putting the AT into N is the right thing to do: It reduces the load on the 
engine which means less waste heat to get rid of, plus it lets the idle speed 
increase a bit, providing a bit more cooling and a bit more oil pumped thru 
the engine and oil cooler. It's a zero effort solution.  

Once you get moving, there's no longer stagnant hot exhaust air trapped 
under the car, plus there's turbulence that enhances the cooling of the 
underside of the engine.  

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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