1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Can someone explain this R53 center dash?

This was an option avialable on 1st gens called the chrono package. It also added an additional gauge on the steering wheel.

 

That is the Chrono Package Dash. You get some extra gauges in place of the central speedo, with the speedo moved above the steering wheel next to the rev counter as per if nav is fitted.

 

The gauges must have been too useful.

 

I don't know....... probably part of their minimalism campaign. No gauges, less to worry about:confused5:

 

The real reason they didn't continue it to the second gens is because it probably didn't sell well...hence you rarely ever come across those dashes even on the forums. When people ordered it, it was usually just to get the speedo up behind the steering wheel.

 

Someone working of the center stack design said lets get rid of all those distracting gauges in the nifty chrono package and in it's place add a speedometer the size of a large pizza. Worked so great that the same designer one upped it on the R56 with a spedo the size of a sewer lid.

That's why they came out with the Countryman....... they needed a bigger dash.

Word on the street.......... someone saw the same guy taking down dimensions, measuring crop circles. Go figure!:crazy:

 

I got the chrono pack on both cars for the gauges. Keeping an eye on the oil temp and pressure is a must.

 

Oil temp and oil pressure - YES !
Speedo away from prying passenger's eyeline - YES YES!
Cool dual-pod on the steering column look - YES YES YES!

Love my chrono pack!

I just wish it had a voltmeter/ammeter - convertible roof mechanism eats lots of juice... Be nice to know when not to try to operate it with the engine off.

_Dave_

PS: In that first pic, the driver needs to keep the revs under 4500 until the oil temp comes up! Note that the pressure looks fine...

 

Rumor also has it that the oil temp on the chrono is useless and just computerly equation driven; aka not hooked to an actual sensor.

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I've been on the lookout for someone with the chrono pack to install a separate oil temp gauge to compare. I've yet to see or read about it. I love my chrono pack but I'm curious about the oil temp accuracy.

 

same here doggybags,
love my chrono pack.
might be getting a scanguage soon,
if so and it has oil temp, i'll compare and post.
boxcars

 

No oil temp on scangauge on 1st gen cars.... because the car doesn't have an oil temp sensor that we know of.

 

Regarding stock oil temp vs drilling the oil pan for an Autometer oil temp gauge, a local mechanic emailed me this: "if your car has a stock oil temp gauge the autometer will read differently because the stock one is not very accurate."

(I didn't ask if I could publish his quote, so PM me if you need to know the source.)

 

The oil temp scale may not be accurately calibrated, but it is clear that it is getting a true signal and displaying varying values dependent on driving and ambient conditions to the gauge.

I can't tell you what the temperature is, but I can tell when my engine oil has warmed sufficiently to comfortably romp on it.

Water temp gauge on the other hand seems like it is being processed quite a bit before display.

I would love to see a comparison between an independently installed oil temp gauge and the chrono pack unit.

In my book, a functioning, albeit inaccurate oil temp indication is still miles better than none at all!

_Dave_

 

FWIW... my water temp gauge seems to report pretty much what my scangauge says the ECU thinks the water temp is - which is almost always in the 190-200F range. With a properly functioning radiator and thermostat, I'm not sure why most folks feel like the water temp would be fluctuating much...

As for the oil temp... perhaps it DOES do a reasonable job of reporting an approximate oil temp... but we've done a TON of debate and research on this... and NO ONE has been able to identify any mechanism through which the engine ACTUALLY MEASURES oil temp on the 1st gen MINI. So, whether roughly accurate or not, the consensus is that this value is being "fudged" from some other available data (water temp? Load? who knows...)

 

But if the computer is using a formula, which I assume BMW deemed to be reliable, why is that bad?

 

I never said it was bad....

But I also don't know that BMW deemed it "reliable".
Does the ECU actually USE oil temp for anything? I doubt it.

My completely unfounded suspicion is that the history of the chrono pack went something like this (translate to German if you want to hear how it really sounded with all the syllables and consonants):
Marketing guy: "Since we're doing a dual speedo/tach pod for the cars with Nav, we should do a center gauge cluster to sell as an option also - more money!!!"
Engineer: "OK- what gauges should we use?"
Marketing guy: "Well, we already have the water temp and fuel on the center speedo. So we do those. And we have an oil pressure sensor, so we should do that."
Engineer: "We should do a volt meter. Everyone needs a voltmeter. And that data is on the bus already"
Marketing guy: "But our market research shows that enthusiasts want oil temp"
Engineer: "But we don't measure the oil temp. It's not necessary to run the engine. So we don't measure it."
Marketing guy: "But you can fudge it somehow... right"
Engineer: "Errrrr...... I guess so"
Marketing guy: "OK then. Make it so."

 

Interesting extrapolation...

No idea what the ECU might use oil temp for, but just as a point of reference, I know that Lotus records oil temp for the Elise in it's black box whenever high revs or a "jump start" occur... Used to have a jpg of a black box readout that contained some horrifying info such as percent of time engine revs were above a certain RPM, and associated oil and water temps during those times... Maybe MINI needed oil temp for something similar, and that's where the chrono pack gets its info.

Here's another Q: Was the chrono pack an option before 2005? followup question/suggestion: I'm assuming the skeptical attitude about the oil temp sensor is based on nobody being able to find documentation for such a sensor. Could this be that it is not documented either because it was among the many '05 updates, or perhaps because MINI did not want to publicize the info being saved to the black box?

Just doing my own improvising/extrapolation here...

I've seen skepticism about the chrono pack oil temp gauge before and wondered why. All I can say is that if the behavior is programmed, it is some extremely sophisticated programming, because I can see a variety of responses based on conditions, and yet it always seems to make sense...

_Dave_

 

Oil sensor skepticism stems from:
a) no documentation
b) no part in the MINI parts catalog
c) no physical sensor ever found by anyone doing a tear-down
d) no BMW/MINI employee or mechanic ever being able to provide anything other than a shoulder shrug when asked about such a sensor

EVERY other sensor on the car is easy to find and identify.... sooooooo.....