Subject: Re: Jim, I may be wrong but VDO makes gauges for BMW Author: jimcash : member since July, 2005 : 1377 posts Posted on: 2006-05-17 07:53:17

A gauge maker is not the one who establishes the "danger zone" for a specific engine. The gauges in the BMW's "may" be made by VDO but the operation will be according to BMW specks.

And they have specified how the guage is to respond to the different temperature situations.

For the E39 (and I am going by memory here as I can not find the reference document) the normal range is 75C to about 115C with the needle straight up.

It will start to move above that and will then move very quickly to the red zone. I think I remember that as being in the low 120's - so that would relate to what you are saying.

Just for the record. I am not a fan of this software buffering of the guage. I like to see the swings so I know what is really going on.
But I can understand BMW's approach in that their "concept" is to only provide info to a driver when it is important to do so.
Unfortunately for things like temperature this can be a problem if the message is not seen.

When necessary I get around it to some extent by putting the instrument cluster into test mode and watching the digital readout of the temperature which is very accurate.

Cheers
Jim Cash

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