I saw in an earler post that the E60 instrument panel does not show engine temperature! Only fuel guage and consumption gauge!

Then how will i know when, and if, my beemer starts overheating?!! :unsure:

I simple can't wait for white smoke to come up the hood while I get stuck on the streets with my E60! :o

Thanks!

Acording to the owner's manual, a warning tone will sound :(

There is also andigital temp gauge in the "secret" OBE2 menu that you unlock thru menu in instrument cluster, I believe it shows the outside temp & the temp of our coolant..

The tachometer has an indication of temperature (albeit without numbers). Notice the white bars on the tach just before the yellow/red engine speed (6500 rpm). Normal temperature is when about 3-4 bars (lines) are visible. As the temperature goes up the lines disappear.

so as long as I see 3-4 bars there then I'm not running too hot? I normally have 5-7 bars there but haven't drove it long enough for it to get warm since reading your post and learning that method of keeping an eye on the temp.

They took the bars away on LCI cars. Sad.

iDrive rulez, gauges droolz. I'm going to get a BlueTooth OBD2 port and run Torque on my smartphone. Even the so-called temperature gauge on our E53 is dumbd down and buffered to only point to 12 o'clock unless it's on the cusp of blowing up.

so lately I have been seeing only two bars it doesn't go any lower than that but still I see you said 3 as your lowest so I'm wondering is having only the 2 bars mean I'm running hot? Granted I live in mid/nor cal & over last week or so it has been starting to get really hot here.

Check the coolant level - it might be low, but I wouldn't worry about the only 2 bars showing instead of 3-4, especially since you have not experienced any high temperature alarm.

ok thanks, yea no alarm/warning of any kind. I checked coolant an its not low, however there was some, I guess you would consider it run-off but it was dried up on tank and had dried anwhitish color and I remember reading something about this happening in a post while back and if I remember correctly It had something to do with something electronic malfunctioning but have to hunt for post to be positive.

One other question I have is if anyone knows what the average/normal temp. that our transmission's should be showing on secret obd2 temp gauge?

you will know when the car gets too hot, a yellow overheat warning and tone will show on DIC.
if it really starts to overheat, a red overheat warning will show.

Example


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=e60+bmw+ov...it-work-06.jpg


if you don't have an owners manual, get one.

ok thanks, I checked coolant and its still full however I'm unsure when the last flush was or if ones even been done on the car is that something I should look into as a form of preventive maintenance or more something to look into if a problem ever pops up?

I wouldn't worry about it at all, unless you start having problems. Your coolant should be fine for a long long time.
It's more likely that you'll have to replace the water pump, thermostat, radiator, expansion tank, etc. before long anyway :)

ok thanks, I was trying to decide if I should flush my coolant system or not, the car is 14 years old with 120k miles on it but I have no idea if it has ever been done before or not, and I do know that something is going on with it because on real hot days after driving my car for awhile when I get home an open the hood there is dried up white spots all over the engine bay and from what I understand the spots are dried up coolant so it is either leaking a tiny bit making it a spray or its coming from the valve on the expansion tank but from location of spots, since there are all over, its hard to say whats the cause, I will take a pic later on today.

Great info thanks, do you have a link to a 'how to' please ?

Thanks,
Brian

This is funny. When I was about 14 I saw in forums people saying google is your friend.

Now is my turn to say YouTube is your friend.

Sorry for the slow response, just got back from a 4800km road trip. Many thanks, this is great information, and yes, i will look at Youtube more :)

Best wishes,
Brian

No worries, I wish mine stayed on like in some peoples BMW's. I think my weak battery doesn't allow for it.
unfortunately, it turns off when I restart the car.