How long should I let my car warm up. Is it bad to let your car Idle for a long period of time

 

I let it idle for 15 min or so in cold days, 10 min in warm days.

 

I always make sure that my car is warmed up to a 180F before i drive it in the morning. Usually takes about 10 minutes to reach that temp.

 

Just let it idle long enough for the idle to setting (about 30-60 seconds). Then just drive easy on the car until it comes up to temp. Anything longer is just mostly a waste of gas.

 

10 mintues on warm days? why? That seems too long.

 

Ive always just let any car of mine warm up for as long as I feel is practical. I dont like to get into it, start it, and off I got...But at the same time I see no need to let it reach full engine temp. Just make sure you drive in a reserved manner before it does come up to temperature.

 

That is if the car was completely cold, I let it warm up for 10 min on warm days because even if the water temp shows pretty warm the oil doesn't warm up as fast.

Once I sit in my car to go, I want her to be ready for boost, I like to be sure.

 

Good advice. I start the car, put on my seat belt, adjust the stereo, and go. Just take it very easy until warm.

...... and time, and money. Not to mention that you are running your engine longer than you need to. Over a 2 year period, with a ten minute daily warm up, you will have idled your car for over 120 hours. Do you really need all that extra engine wear??

 

I think you will wear your motor more if you drive it cold than warming it up in very low rpm for 10 min., you not giving enough time to the motor to expand (friction)before you rev 2-3K rpm, unless you shift @ 1-1.5K rpm, also you are not giving enough time to the oil to warm up and flow/lube properly.
Just my way of seeing it.

 

If the engine is cold (as in mornings) I immediately start the car. Then I scrape the windshield, load stuff into the trunk, put on my sunglasses, buckle seatbelt, adjust stereo, whatever and drive away. That varies from 10 sec to 5 minutes. I just drive it real easy (no boost) until water temp hits 180f for the first time. This takes 5min of idling to hit 180, or 2mins of driving in vacuum.

If you have big hills right in front of your house you might want to wait longer than 10s so that you aren't forced to boost on a dead cold engine.

When I'm running around doing errands the engine is generally still quite warm and I only wait 10s before putting it in gear and moving.

As long as you don't habitually turn the key and immediately put it into gear, I think you're safe. Like Mahjik said, giving it a few seconds to settle into idle is probably all it needs.

Dave

 

Thing about cold starts is lubrication. It takes less than 1 minute for the oil to cycle through an engine. Once that happens, you are just burning gas.

 

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean??


Oil flows just fine when it is cold. If it didn't, you would not be able to pour it from its container into the car. Oil is designed to flow when it is cold, and when it is warm.

 

I've wondered about this: I judge engine load (how to drive easy) by the boost gauge. If I need to run up to 4k but I stay under 0psi, it's ok to me. But even at 2k it's not hard to get into boost. So I pay attention to the boost gauge more than my shift points. The question is which approach heats the engine most evenly and efficiently. I know my car drives like s**t at light throttle under 2k.

Dave

 

Adam's warm up rules

Keep it under 4K for the first two minutes, under 5.5K for a couple more, and no hard boost after that until it is fully warmed up.

 

I usually let the car warm up for several minutes before driving, but that's because I don't like driving like a complete grandma after I get in the car. That and the leather is pretty fricking cold in the mornings during "winter" and I like warming up the car a bit before I get in.

There is no other reason to let the car warm up more than 30sec - 1 min. Especially in warmer weather when only a few minutes of driving gets the car up to temp.

BTW, someone mentioned earlier about oil temps. I agree. The oil temps on my dual 25-row cooler car take much longer to warm up than the water temps....just waiting until the water temps hit 180F does NOT mean the car is fully warmed up IMO.

 

That's true - oil temps are better than water temps, but I only have boost and water temp gauges. So once I hit 180f, I'll use boost but not hard. I wait another 5 min before I will really hold it at 10psi.

Dave

 

Start and go.. I usually keep in under 3k and off boost till full warmup.

 

Interesting response from an old Road and Track. Unless you live inside the Arctic circle, an 10 minute warm up makes little sense. Pretty much every manufacturer's manual I have ever read suggests that a car should be warmed up by driving it.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....&page_number=1

Unfortunately, we can’t lay our hands on scientific engine warm-up data. However, we know what happens when engines are operated at or near their maximum output from dead cold and it is far from pretty. So, we don’t have the statistical ammunition to prove warming up is good, but we can empirically state not warming up is bad.

The recommendations we’ve received from automakers are that warm-up is vital, but given standard temperatures most of it can be done on the road. Furthermore, your supposition of more rapid warming on the road is also true. After a brief period of idling, easy driving at light loads provides a beneficial speed-up to the warm-up.

The EPA likes that advice, too, because any stationary idling is wasted fuel and increased emissions with no gain (no distance traveled).

As you’ve noted, at the least, initial warm-up should allow oil to reach everywhere in the engine. Let’s call that a minimum of 10 seconds under temperate conditions; 30 seconds would be better.

Next, we want to quickly bring the engine to operating temperature so the critical parts are quickly at their operating shapes (pistons, rings, cylinder bores, block/gasket/cylinder head interface), but not so fast that dissimilar heating will tear gaskets or thermal-stress hot parts such as the exhaust valves. Minimal warm-up time reduces oil dilution/contamination and brings the catalytic converters on-line rapidly as well.

Throttle position is directly related to combustion chamber heat and high exhaust gas temperature. So, full-throttle acceleration yields a big heat spike; gliding quietly down the street provides minimal heat. That’s why a rolling warm-up must be done at small throttle openings.

Often overlooked, it is vital the oil reach a flowable viscosity; until it does, it is likely some parts of the engine are receiving little oil. Hydraulic valve lifters and lash adjusters are good examples of such powerplant nooks and crannies. Again, some warmth is mandatory for this to occur, and obviously, the colder the ambient temperature and the higher the oil viscosity, the more of a concern this is.

Also consider the remainder of the car, that is, the transmission, final drive and wheel bearings. Temperature and some movement of these parts clearly contribute to their lubrication.

Add all this up and a 110-volt block heater makes sense! But failing any special hardware, and assuming a temperate thermometer, our advice is to fire the engine, let it idle 30 seconds, then motor gently for two miles before asking much of the engine. The half-minute idle is an easy enough sell if you fire the engine first, then put on the seatbelt, adjust the seat, check the mirrors, etc.

Now, in the true cold of winter, a stationary warmup is necessary because the oil must have time to thin. Plus, if you live at the bottom of an uphill freeway onramp or other full-throttle inducement, then a longer stationary warmup is indicated.

Should your wife habitually pull out of the driveway like Robby Gordon out of the pits, then either warm the car for her or figure engines are cheap and marriages are not.

Is your 1-minute stationary warmup a good idea? Well, it’s not hard on the engine! We’d cut it in half in summer and lengthen as necessary in winter.

 

Bay area winters are brutal

I agree with Rynberg. I don't believe my car is fully warmed up until my oil temp gauge gets close to 200 degrees. 180 on the water temp is not necessarily warmed up.

 

So start the car, let it idle for about a mintue then drive, then wait till temps are up to par then start to boost?

 

I usually let it idle for 2-3 min. Maybe, colder areas need a longer wait. Hawaii doesnt seem to get cold very often.

I dont believe the engine is as fragile or prone to wear as people make it out to be (as long as you dont boost it too soon). If you let your engine run through the AWS cycle, I'm guessing that would cause more wear than not waiting 10 min for your engine temperatures to reach 180.

 

Perhaps I didn't know how to express myself as I wanted to and came out a blur, my english is not the greatest either, maybe someone can halp me out here.

What I meant is, by not giving enough time to the motor to warm up properly, you are not alowing enough time to the metal (housing in contact w/seals) expand enough in 30 or 60 sec., yet you are rev-ing the motor to 3-4K rpm, which is not good in my view, even if you're not boosting. (another reason I completely dissabled accelerated warm-up completely cold my motor idles at 850 rpm)

Metal shrinks when is cold right, therefore there will be more wear on the motor, so by allowing it to warm up properly in low rpm (10 min. in my book) the heat energy, atoms moved by it expand the metal to the point where actualy you can drive and boost all you want, 30 sec, 1 or even 2 minutes of warm up are not sufficient in my opinion.

 

hmmm I get in , start it up in gear so the AWS does not kick in, then i engage the line locker, and slowly spin the tires up, when the smoke acclumulates enough to where it engulfs the car, i dis engage the line locker and peel away at 15 em peee hches

 

Just because your motor oil and coolant are warmed up doesn't mean your car is ready to be ragged on, there is still tranny fluid and other parts that warm up through movement, I let my car idle for a couple minutes, then I drive it softly untill it is full warm

 

three or four minutes on hot days. Up to eight if it cools down. Doesn't the double throttle system that we all love to eliminate prevent boosting much on cold apex seals for a reason? Or is this just heresay, like the syntheitic oil myth?