Hi everyone,

I took my MINI in for service on Monday because I've had to fill the coolant reservoir twice within the past month. It turned out that I had a coolant leak so the coolant thermostat and housing was replaced. Before I brought my MINI in I noticed that the temperature gauge would read at 3/4.. approximately 195F.

Yesterday morning I went out and after about 5 miles of driving, the needle quickly climbed up to 3/4 again. So my question is.. is this normal? I mentioned it when I brought my car in on Monday but the SA either wasn't listening or didn't care. I don't have access to a ScanGauge so I can't check the temperature manually. Can anyone that has the Chrono Pack (w/o Nav obviously) let me know what position their temp needle is normally at?

I'm trying not to stress too much about this but it doesn't help that my current navigator keeps reminding me every 5 min. that the needle should be in the middle, and not at 3/4.

 

Hmmm... Mine sits at about 50-55% most of the time... and I thought 50% (straight up) on the gauge was closer to 195F... 3/4 would be considerably higher than I've seen it.

Curious. When off, does the needle go all the way over to like the 5 o'clock position? If not, might just be a needle position/calibration issue. But otherwise, you shouldn't be running at 75%ish all the time... post in your local club forum and find someone with a scangauge to check your temp...

 

Based on the way the gauge is set up, I think 140F would be 50%.

When the MINI's off, he's at 30F (5 o'clock position). The gauge starts at 30F.. next number shows 140F.. the one after that is 250F. I'm right smack in between 140 and 250, which is 3/4 of the way, and at about 195F if I'm estimating it correctly.

I've "borrowed" and manipulated the attached photo from Lyle to show where my needle usually is (sorry for stealing, but it was the first chrono pack-related photo I found that wasn't super tiny).

 

Mine sits straight up without fail and has since new.

 

Duh.... yeah.... not in my car and forgot how it looked (that's my gauge face in the pic, by the way )

So, yes... when "normal" and warmed up mine is vertical... which corresponds to 195F on my Scangauge... occasionally it gets as high as 205F and the needle moves a bit to the left accordingly.

 

So Geoffrey's normal then? I'm just freaked out cuz that's technically 3/4 of the way in...

 

Yes - that's normal. The choice of minimum and maximum temperatures to display on the gauge are pretty much arbitrary. MINI could have chosen to have the gauge read from 140F to 250F, then the "normal" reading would be at 50% of the gauge travel rather than 75%.

Unless something's wrong with your car, the normal coolant temperature is going to be within a few degrees of the thermostat temperature. If your needle settles much higher or lower than vertical on the gauge, there may be a problem, but otherwise, you're fine.

 

... Looks better with the needle vertical. That's why they did it, I bet. Damn designers.

 

Thought they did it so that the needle would match the one on the speedo when I'm driving around town.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. Looks better.

 

Maybe they did it to be be like the race cars. Most race cars orient their gauges to read straight up... that way if there is something wrong it's easy to to see.

 

Do keep an eye on Geoffrey's coolant. It's not uncommon for the coolant to drop a bit after the system has been worked on. It's no big deal just add a bit if needed & motor on.

 

Thanks to everyone that responded!

Will do. Thanks.