1st Gen R53 Cooper S Can someone explain this R53 center dash?

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.....

 

By the way... I occupied your position in this debate for over a year before I became convinced that I was most likely wrong.

 

Here's the thread where I got my whippin' on this topic.

MINI COOPER :: North American Motoring - Chrono Pack Oil Temp Sender Location?

 

Here's another guess....... There probably is somewhat of a temperature correlation between the operating temperature of oil and water in the engine. They may have used the water sensor to run both gauges just used a different scale for the oil temperature.

Quick Test;
See if both gauges stop functioning if the wire to the water temperature sensor is disconnected.:aureola:

 

Someone said they use water temp, throttle position, load, etc. to calculate it. That makes sense.

BTW... your test is brilliant.

 

Blimey, thanks for the link to the NAM thread - hadn't seen it before, as I gave up wading through that mess long ago.

The discussion over there was interesting, but not, in my mind, conclusive. There were several comments stated as facts without any supporting references, such as "oil temp is calculated from water temp, plus throttle position and rpms"... This is interesting, and may be true, but no supporting evidence provided, so in my mind, just a theory. An interesting one for sure... I would love to be privvy to an algorithm development discussion. Seems a little fantastic.

Also interesting is the data point provided by someone who added an oil cooler to his car, and did not see the anticipated reduction in oil temps. That one seems to bear more weight, unless somehow the stock MINI oil cooling system is so efficient that an aftermarket oil cooler just doesn't improve the situation... Seems unlikely, so that adds some weight to the theory that the chrono pack oil temp indication is obtained indirectly.

Other than those two points, I son't see sufficient argument or even discussion to establish the absence of a direct oil temperature measurement in the first-gen MINI.

Was there more discussion around this one? By itself it doesn't seem conclusive.

I'm also comforted by the comment from someone who has the chrono pack that observed that the indications behaved in a sensible manner, and even were meaningful after shutdown and restart (i.e.: the chrono pack indicated the oil was still warm after the engine was shutdown and then the electrics were turned on again.

I too, like the idea of testing by disconnecting the water temp sensor, but I imagine that there will be so many other related error indications, etc. that the results will not be too meaningful.

Very interesting discussion!

_Dave_

 

"God must exist, because you can't prove there isn't one"
"There is no God, because you can't prove there is one"

I'm in the "there is no oil temp sensor" crowd currently. But would actually LOVE to be proven wrong. So find one and let me know. In my book, if frenchie doesn't know about it, it doesn't exist.

 

I like gauges!!!!

I like gauges!!!

 

Yes, we heard that about you. :cornut: