Where does oppo stand on warming up your car

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock) 12/04/2016 at 15:45 • Filed to: None

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When its cold I usually start the car while im getting in, so it can run at idle while im belting up etc. Then I just drive relatively carefully for the first couple minutes of the drive (no high rpm or sudden acceleration).

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 15:48

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synthetic oil? No. real dino-juice? Yes.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 15:49

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That’s pretty much what I do. I don’t like to give it any stick until the engine temp is up to where it typically rests when warmed up.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 15:51

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I’ll always remote start the truck on cold days so its warm when I put my son in

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 12/04/2016 at 15:51

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Yeah that just seems the sensible way. One of my neighbours starts her car and immediately guns it out of the street evwn in cold weather. Makes me cringe everytime, you can hear the tappets are much louder than normal.

gmctavish needs more space > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 15:52

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My old BMWs usually wouldn’t idle unless they were at least somewhat warm, so I’d hold it at 1500-2000rpm for a couple minutes and call that good. My Blazer was angry when it was cold and always needed de-fogged so I’d let it idle with the blower on high for a few minutes. With the Subaru I do the same as you. Start, seatbelt, fiddle with radio or whatever, and then go. No redlining it or anything, not that I do that anyway.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 12/04/2016 at 15:54

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Makes sense, I do always hate the freezing cold of the first few minutes of my morning commute.

HammerheadFistpunch > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 15:55

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My engines dont ever really rev so I just go driving. The cruiser heats up fast and the nox box takes a billion years so I find is best to just go. That being said I find my self warning up the cabin a lot for the family. The cruiser has a hand throttle so it gets toasty quick at 1800 rpm, and the nox box has electric assist heaters that get the cabin going even if the coolant isn’t there yet

Stephenson Valve Gear > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:03

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Depends on what I’m doing and where I am going. If there is ice on the window, the truck gets warmed up sitting in the driveway. If there isn’t ice, then I’ll warm it up a bit if I’m going to immediately jump on Interstate (got a hard pull uphill going west). If I’m trundling up the outer road to town, then warm up is minimal since it is hardly getting above a fast idle.

Now, the pony car gets warmed up a bit more, and I watch how I drive it until it is thoroughly warmed up. It doesn’t go anywhere near full throttle or above 3k until the temp gauge is straight up, and doesn’t approach redline unless the temp gauge has been straight up for a while (gotta make sure the oil is warm).

Just my quirks, your mileage may vary.

bob and john > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:06

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start it, wait for the needle to come off the lower stop, and then leave, drinving slowly as the trans and diff opil havent had a chance to warm up yet. by the time the engine is fully up to operating temp, the trans and diffs are good to.

Stephenson Valve Gear > Stephenson Valve Gear 12/04/2016 at 16:08

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...and another thing: All the modern articles that advocate immediate startup & drive because of the driveability of a cold engine with fuel injection compared to the carburetor days always seem to miss the other reasons for warm up; namely, to help clear the windshield during inclement weather and to minimize cold engine wear/damage if the vehicle is going to need to run hard as soon as it hits the road. Wow, that is a run-on sentence if I ever wrote one...

lone_liberal > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:10

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I start the car and get the defrosters going and turn on the seat heater then scrape the windows. After that I get in and wait for the windows to defog. The car is usually pretty warm by then.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:13

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With the Fiesta I basically do what you do. The 4Runner I’ll go out and turn in on like 10 minutes beforehand, so it’s nice and warm.

Direct Injection: 0, Indirect Injection: 1

Vicente Esteve > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:15

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Every start that I have done on my car has been the same since new.

Turn on and wait for the constant idle. I set off and take it easy (below 3k RPMs) until it is warmed up.  

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:22

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Block heater if its really cold but let it run for about 10min in winter.

I drive a 7.3L Diesel truck

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Stephenson Valve Gear 12/04/2016 at 16:26

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Its funny you mention cold drivability, because my modern fuel injected Renault runs at reduced power until warm. Assume its built in protection for the engine, it revs and builds speed slower for the first minute of the drive.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > gmctavish needs more space 12/04/2016 at 16:27

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My BMW runs pretty good from cold despite being my shittiest car, the Renault runs at reduced power until warmed up a little.

shop-teacher > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:27

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If it’s normal cold outside, I basically do what you do. If it’s super cold out, I run it long enough to get the cabin warm.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > HammerheadFistpunch 12/04/2016 at 16:28

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I wish my cars had electric assist heaters. They should be on all cars, like I believe heated windshields should be.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > TheD0k_2many toys 2little time 12/04/2016 at 16:29

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Block heaters arent really a thing over here. People panic if we get into minus temps (celsius), so it never gets truly cold.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 12/04/2016 at 16:30

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Synthetic still flows worse in lower temps. Its why you need to drain oil from a warm engine, flows out better (and also picks up more crud on the way out).

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > shop-teacher 12/04/2016 at 16:33

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We dont get extreme cold here really, probably averages well over 0c through winter.

Berang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:39

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The SAAB will never actually heat up if I don’t let it warm up first (I think the previous owner put a low-temp thermostat in it). It’s usually good enough to let it run until vapor stops coming out of the exhaust.

jkm7680 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:40

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I don’t, I just keep it under 4,000 for the first 10.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:49

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true, it flows BETTER when warm, but synthetic is closer to spec-weight/viscosity over a wider temperature range than dino-oil, and especially on the low end of the temp scale. I’m a non-concerned warmer for the most part. I won’t horse on a cold engine, but I won’t let it idle until its up to operating temperature either. I’m MORE LIKELY to let it warm up some if I know it has dino-juice-lube and not synthetic lube in it’s veins though... all of my vehicles (including my tractor) currently have at least semi-synthetic in them for mostly cold-weather-related reasons.

shop-teacher > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:51

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Yeah, in those kind of temperatures I do what you do.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 16:58

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Man I wish we could get heated windshields widely here in North America...

Amoore100 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 17:10

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Volvo has conveniently solved that age old question. If it’s a cold start, the car automatically holds revs at around 1500 for 30 seconds or so before dropping to the normal 700ish idle before I put it into drive. If I start it up when it’s warm, it just resumes and is ready to go. Before everything’s completely warm the car feels a bit lethargic but once the whole thing warms up it drives as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 18:53

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I try to warm up my car a few minutes. Granted it’s been in the teens (fahrenheit) lately when I go to work and my house is literally 20 seconds away from me having to accelerate up to a speed on a 65mph road...

If I lived farther from a highway with lower speeds that would take at least 5 minutes to get to a highway, then nah, I’d probably not let it sit as 5 minutes of low speeds will warm it up better than just idling.

Tristan > HammerheadFistpunch 12/04/2016 at 19:10

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I drove the wife’s ‘04 Jetta TDI to Minnesota for Christmas one year, and that temp gauge WOULD NOT budge unless the engine had a load on it!

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 20:09

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I’m a firm believer in if its not cold enough to need a block heater then it’s not cold enough to need to warm up anything. Idling the engine really only heats up the engine and not much else. But if it is colder out, -20C or so, I’ll let it run while I’m scraping the frost off the windows and brushing snow off. Getting down to -40 I’ll usually drive around the block a few times before hitting the highway to warm up the trans, tcase, and diffs, because it feels like I’m driving through glue no matter how long the engine idles. I also generally use the block heater on a timer when it’s forecast to drop below -15.

I’m also less inclined to shut the engine off unless I’ll be parked for more than five minutes at 0 and a half-hour at -40 because I don’t like heat-cycling the engine with that much amplitude.

Nauraushaun > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 20:57

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I feel like this is one of those issues where you get a lot of opinion being stated as fact.

I’ve heard that driving the car while the engine hasn’t warmed up will cause excessive wear. Which makes sense.

I’ve heard that letting the car warm up while parked means it takes longer to get to optimum running temperature which causes excessive wear. Which also makes sense.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Of course, nobody has really tested two identical engines under identical situations, then dissected both to determine the cause of failure and whether or not it was random and repeated the test to achieve statistical significance. So it’s all guesswork.

I usually let the car idle for a time, while I pick music or whatever. If I’m in a hurry I’ll just go, but try to keep it low revs and low load. It feels right. Maybe it’s not. *shrug*

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/04/2016 at 21:54

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If it’s just cold out, I’ll just start it before I buckle in and take it easy for the first mile or so.

If there’s ice on the windows, I’ll Start it, turn on defrost and then get out and clear the windows. By the time I get back in teh car it’s warmed up and I go.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/09/2016 at 16:37

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With modern EFI cars don’t need much time to warm up to “usable” temperature.

On my DD, I wait until the cold idle RPM starts to drop, then I get going. Mostly a psychological thing, knowing that fluids take time to warm up and circulate through the entire powertrain.

On the Fezza, I’m stranded until the secondary air injection stops running. If the F1 system isn’t sufficiently warm, the clutch won’t bite. This usually takes about 2 minutes rattling my entire street with the Tubi exhaust.

On all cars I drive easy about 5-10 minutes before allowing WOT. Actual driving is the best way to warm up any car.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Stephenson Valve Gear 12/09/2016 at 16:41

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If you need to run WOT to redline the moment you start the car up, you need an electric car or you need to start your car earlier.

Matthew Phillips > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/10/2016 at 12:36

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I get less noises from my 29 Year old Jeep when I warm it up on cold mornings.