Temperature needle all the way to hot

[1BADM6]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

That is if the temp gauge climbs to that temp not this failure mode where it would literally need atomic power to achieve the rate of increase.

The gauge went from 120° to 230° instantly not five seconds. Zero seconds. It was pretty clearly an error. I first figured my temp sensor just failed open/closes whichever would give high output but I cautiously checked the actual temp of my engine knowing that at 10° ambient it was physically impossible to achieve 230° in ten minutes. When IR thermometer confirmed, I crossed my fingers it was software not hardware and restarted the computer. Bingo it worked I wasn't even surorised I just figured it's probably normal for a 16 yo car to have some computer coding errors and moved on with my day.




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That's bizarre. Would have freaked me out but without other signs of an overheating engine I'd probably figure something else was up. It's things like this that make these forums invaluable.

[andrewwynn]

Xoutpost has saved me $1000s easily.

We own two 2001 E53 and mine has been costing $40/mo and wife's has been averaging $80/mo. For X5 class Vehicle, that amazing.


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[Crowz]

Figured Id put mine in this list since it did that to me today. Went from cold to pegged out hot. Cut the car off and started it back up and everything was fine. Mine did it when I pressed the cruise button on the steering wheel. I happened to of noticed it as the needle flipping over to the right caught my attention when I was pushing the cruise button.

[amancuso]

My 528i did the exact same thing this morning, about 15ºF. Left it running in the driveway to warm up, came back out 5 mins later and it stalled. Restarted it, went back inside, came out 5 min later and temp gauge was in the red. I knew it wasn't right because it wouldn't have had enough time to get that hot. Shut off car, restarted, and true temp was 1 notch up from cold. Cold weather does weird things to these cars. Also My X5 said "STOP ENGINE OIL PRESS" and there was nothing wrong it it then either.

[andrewwynn]

There is a known bug that does this. A restart all needed to fix.


It was about 10F out when I had this happen to me and only 5 minutes into a drive. I popped the hood and felt the radiator hose to confirm It wasn't really a bajillion degrees then I guessed it was a computer error and shut off and restarted the car and temp non gauge went right to blue.

[Crowz]

Another way to tell its the cluster screwing up and not actually overheated is the red light on the temperature gauge doesn't come on. The needle pegs out overheated but the light behind the red area of the gauge doesn't light up.

[amancuso]

Originally Posted by Crowz

Another way to tell its the cluster screwing up and not actually overheated is the red light on the temperature gauge doesn't come on. The needle pegs out overheated but the light behind the red area of the gauge doesn't light up.

The red light came on in my 5er, but it def. was not overheating.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by Crowz

Another way to tell its the cluster screwing up and not actually overheated is the red light on the temperature gauge doesn't come on. The needle pegs out overheated but the light behind the red area of the gauge doesn't light up.

High clusters don't have the light. Message on the readout.

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by Overboost

High clusters don't have the light. Message on the readout.

Mine is the low cluster on the 2001 I bought.

[andrewwynn]

So logically if the error happens on high cluster you'd get the non/gauge pinned but no message.

I did not recall seeing the red on my low cluster gauge when it happened to me.

From what I recall, the bug happens only when very cold ambient. If you see the fake temp gauge pin to the right without climbing through the middle and apparently no red light or message you can be pretty confident it's the over temp bug. Turn the engine off and back on and it should come back to normal. I've read the TIS bulletin about it.

I tried to find the reference but no luck.