Thermal imaging pics

[gmcman]

I picked up a Flir i5 for a pretty good price that was lightly used, mainly to look for temp leaks around the house and the more I use it the possibilities seems endless. I was after a monocle for use outside but for now this will suffice and works better than expected, I can easily pick up the heat from my kids at the top of my driveway and that's about 100' away.

I started the motor cold, looking to see if any exhaust leaks would show up, I don't hear an exhaust leak for the most part but on occasion there's a faint tick when cold. I played around and checked the manifold, trans cooler, the cat even though I didn't drive it so it's not up to temp anyway.











As well as my 2 center vents which show my temp actuator is bad....but don't need an imager to tell me that.



Overall I really like it and I'm sure half of the things will be for fun. I would love one of the higher resolution models but these things get crazy expensive.

 

[MAY03LT]

Man I'm jelly right now!

Maybe I'm behind on the times but I didn't know these were used (or available) for automotive use until realfixes did a video series on them. I thought they were just for the police helicopters LOL. Since then there have been two times where I would have used one if I had one.

Also if you need an excuse to use it how much of the rad does it see if it was pointing at it from the fan side?

 

[gmcman]

Also if you need an excuse to use it how much of the rad does it see if it was pointing at it from the fan side?

I will find out in the morning after work for sure. I will say, for a small handheld unit, I thought it would be for more close up inspections but looking up the driveway it does remarkably well.

One on the battery ride on toy, one at top of driveway.

 

[gmcman]

I will have to get you some better radiator images with a cold start. I just drove it about 1 hour and the coolant was red in the image when I arrivedbut this is after it had cycled some coolant. You can see some transition from yellow to green. Doesn't help that my thermostat is starting to get weak as my driving temps are about 188-190.



I have about 120K on these replacement hub and bearings and I'm just barely beginning to feel some grit in the wheel, not much but I can tell there's a little roughness when rolling. My OE hubs lasted about 130-140K before they started getting pretty loud.

You can see the RF hub has a little more heat in the bearing. Could be a CV joint, brakes slightly warmer but I can feel the difference when I turn the wheel so safe bet it's the bearing starting to go.





Disregard the temp display, wasn't trying to center the target on the bearing. The image on the right is the RF and the green is the warmer bearing.

 

[gmcman]

Just messing around...after 1 shower the water heater loses it's "steam" and it used to stay hot for a few showers. I had to combine two images since this doesn't have a very wide angle. Likely doesn't tell the whole story but after the water has been off for 5 hours the temps should be more uniform. I know heat rises but looks like entire lower half is a fair bit cooler.

 

[Hatchet]

Man I'm jelly right now!

Maybe I'm behind on the times but I didn't know these were used (or available) for automotive use until realfixes did a video series on them. I thought they were just for the police helicopters LOL. Since then there have been two times where I would have used one if I had one.

Also if you need an excuse to use it how much of the rad does it see if it was pointing at it from the fan side?

They have been used for years for home inspections. I borrow my buddies and go around my house every winter and summer looking for air leaks and possible water damage.

 

[C-ya]

I would love to have one as well. We had a guy come every year or so at the paper plant I worked at go through the MCCs and panels. A bad connection would be hotter as it was drawing more current. We would go through everything after he submitted his report and clean up and tighten those connections.

I have a cheap IR temp gun that I do the same thing with, but a picture with lots of pretty colors would be much nicer!

ETA: They have adapter cameras for phones fairly cheap on ebay!

 

[budwich]

Just picked up a cheap "off shore" model for a "good price"... that after reading this post and seeing the possible uses. Looking forward to seeing if, one, it works and two, whether it is good enough at the "reduced res" that the low end units have (sensor 60X60) versus the one posted here (100X100) I think.

I am hoping it may be useful in other areas like bearing "detection" on my travel trailer. IR thermometer is OK but if this works, it would be a great deal.... especially capturing one image of one wheel and then comparing to an image of another.

 

[Hatchet]

A Thermal Imager and a bore-scope are 2 of the best tools you can have. They can save you in every aspect of do it yourself.