IF you care about your car and it's engine you'll let it warm up no matter what even if its for 30 seconds.

 

thanks CBX. 182F sounds good. LOL though don't know why i would
need it in Canadian though.
I'm in Florida

 

I take out my iPod cord and plug it into the car and then into my iPod, while the car is warming up. After I close the top glove box, I start driving.

 

I will continue to warm mine up for about 30 seconds. A lease isn't that long. I plan to keep mine for 15 years.

 

an average winter here has the temperature drop well below 14 F (-10 C), so if you only let your car warm up for 30 seconds your car is still freezing cold, and driving while frozen isn't cool.

 

Same here for a lot of the winter. I don't have enough space in the garage everyone either. I always let it warm up a couple of minutes for two purely non mechanical reasons. First it's brutal to drive when the interior is 5 or 10 degrees. Second it's much easier to scrape the windows if the defroster has been blowing warm air on them. If it's been in the garage it usually gets a couple of minutes as well while I shovel a quick path out of the driveway. That reminds me, time to go get my Blizzaks.

 

For those of you who warm up your cars for 30 seconds, can you explain how that benefits the engine? For non-Alaska winter temperatures (e.g. 0 deg. F and above), motor oil multi-grade viscosity has no trouble flowing, oil pressure in the galleys builds to operating level in under 2 seconds, and oil splash has the cylinder walls lubed in the first few hundred revolutions. Clearances are such that there's no issue of interference, and the engine management system instantaneously matches the fuel mixture, spark advance, and other parameters to the operating conditions. What additional benefit is being provided by idling for 30 seconds?

EDIT: just saw MoabRat's posting - those are some good non-mechanical reasons.

 

Amazing how many people believe the myth of letting your car warm up. Start the car and by the time you have your seat belt on and are ready to go the car is as well. Just drive easy till you reach operating temp. Even if you are somewhere where it is below 0F there is no need to let it warm up for more than a minute. On the flip side though never letting your vehicle reach temp is bad as well. I used to have like a three mile commute to work. My problem was my trucks engine never got warm enough to evaporate the moisture out of it. I almost freaked out the first time I changed my oil and saw it was all foamy like.

 

haha I was a bit curious and ended up searching a bit about it on the web, and turns out that idling is worse for your car if anything (moreso 'cause it wastes gas).

Bottomline, if you have a newer car, let your car idle for maybe 30 s - 1 minute to let the oil whizz through the engine and you're good to go. BUT when you do start driving, go easy on the engine for the first 5-10 minutes and after that you can start driving the car like normal.

6 car care myths and mistakes - Myth: Wait, it's still warming up (3) - CNNMoney.com

that's just one of the references, and I thought that I'd post it because it has a few other tips that might be helpful to some people.

cheers!~

 

Another little item, oil temp generally rises slower than water temp. On some cars with real oil and water temp gauges, water temp will be up to normal operating temp when the oil temp begins to rise. 30 seconds of warm up doesn't get the oil temp anywhere near its operating temp.

 

Where I live it can be -35 or colder from December to March.
I keep it plugged in and let it run for at least a few minutes.
If you don't the tranny fluid is so thick its hard to move the shifter and gear oil is like tar at these temps.
The joy of Saskatchewan...........

 

So sounds like the general consensus is to warm up for about 30 seconds and drive under 4000rpm until the cold temp light is off.

All the difference in opinions from Phoenix to Saskatchewan Fit owners is what makes this forum so great.

 

Good point, this is something that I watch out for on my other cars that have a real temp gauge, especially if I'm at the track.

BTW, while I'm here in Phoenix, I've also got a place in Flagstaff, where winter temps of -20 deg. F have been recorded, so cold weather is an issue to us here in AZ, too! Plus, I have to deal with it at 7000 feet of elevation!

 

I'd say stay under 3k RPM....personally I'd stay under 2700 RPM. You can really hear the engine start to work past 3k, so if it's really cold (like it can be here in Edmonton and Sask) I wouldn't do even close to 4k if you're trying to warm up your car.

 

Ugh, -35 deg F is pretty brutal. The block heater is essential in this kind of climate because without it, idling or even driving immediately still takes a very long time to reach operating temperatures, with resulting high wear, fuel consumption, and emissions. That said, even with a block heater, you'll reach operating temperatures faster by driving the car after starting (and keeping engine speeds and load low as it warms) than you will if the car sits. Cold climate people, however, have some very good non-mechanical reasons to do some idling warm-up, as was pointed out earlier (e.g. get some heat going, clean the windshield of ice, shovel the driveway, get another cup of hot coffee, etc.).

 

You're spot-on about driving moisture out of the oil. It's also one of the reasons you really need to make sure that your crankcase ventilation system is in good working order. 1st generation Toyota Sienna's had a terrible problem with poor crankcase ventilation that resulted in oil emulsification and sludging, leading to big engine repair bucks that Toyota eventually had to eat. People who only used their vans for short hauls were the first to have the problem.

Another reason to make sure that you reach operating temperature quickly is to drive moisture out of your muffler, too. Residual moisture in systems that are made of mild steel (as opposed to fully stainless steel systems) causes rapid corrosion and rusting. This problem was much more common on older cars with carbs and cheap OEM exhaust systems.

 

I have to say that is an oversimplification that doesn't take into account the capabilities of the lubrication systems and modern lubricants. Under a minute of idle is more than sufficient to get things in a state where you can drive (carefully). At that point, you're better off heating up faster through low load driving than idling, wasting gas and taking longer to heat up.

 

if i dont warm my car up, my flywheel chatters extremely bad. i have the fidanza lightened flywheel. never had the issue when i was on the stock flywheel, but 10lbs lighter, it sounds like i am murdering my car if it is not warmed up completely. i could care less about wasting gas here and there. better spending a few extra bucks here and there than over 1k in one day by destroying it. even on the stocker i let it warm up as well..i like to be prepared to floor it and get out of the way if some douche is driving like an idiot in the city.

 

It's around 5c here in Vancouver BC today and from what I saw earlier, it took the water temp to reach around 55c after 4min of warm up on my brother's car, according to the Defi Link Display. And oil temp won't show until around 7min after start up. And both of us park our car outside.

I usually start up my car with my autostart when I'm making my coffee & let it sits for a lil bit until I finish my coffee, which is around 4-5min after start up. It takes me about 15-20min to drive to work(15km), which is relatively short trip compare to a lot of ppl.

Btw I'm not sure what kinda engine oil u guys are using especially in cold places? I use 5w30 during the summer especially for lapping events & try to use 5w20 during winter depends if the source have it in stock or not. I recommend my friends in Toronto to use 0w20 or 0w30 in their cars during winter time.

 

It's because a lot of us were "raised" that way I suppose. I can't remember where I first read about not needing to warm up the car but I am sure it was on one of the forums I keep up with. It's amazing how much information is available just by searching the different forums.