30-60 seconds is lots, even in severe cold. Start driving moderately when you start driving. The colder it is, the more moderately you should drive.

There is no need to let the cold light go out first. Just be easy on the engine until it is out.

By the way, an earlier poster said block heaters warm the coolant, but they don't. There are circulating heaters that do this, but block heaters heat the engine block, or at best the oil. Other fluids are not heated. I generally use a block heater when the temperatures are below about -15 C or so (about 5 F). Wind chill doesn't affect cars, so there's no need to consider wind chill in your decision.

Warming up vehicles for extended periods (and five minutes is an extended period) is a bad idea as a regular practice. If you're worried about the car being too cold for your comfort, remember that the engine will get warm faster if it's being worked. Two minutes of driving slowly down your residential street will warm up your engine more than five or six minutes of idling.

 

The cold engine light goes out between 120 and 130 F. If anyone cares.

 

Oh yeah, no doubt. You have to sort through the BS sometimes to get to the good information. My son basically totaled his 98 Corolla, and several people over on the Toyota forums gave me some much needed advice on rebuilding the car.

 

Isn't the heating element of the block heater in the coolant? My understanding is that it is.

 

Engineering lab tests have proven that waiting til the cold coolant light is out just wastes gas; however, until the light goes out and you feel warm air from the vents there should not be hard driving efforts. Drive gently without rpm below 2000 rpm should do the trick.
Using synthetic oils is also beneficial because cold temp lubrication is better.

You may note those 'wear' tests in freezing labs (using liquid nitrogen coolants) whammed the engines to increase the wear factors and use a lot more gas doing it.

 

If you ever have to think about twice about something it its best that u do it so yea let the car warm up thats one thing i learned

 

just the other day, i took off as i started. got out of the drive way and car wouldn't move. checked to see if it was hit into neutral and it was still in drive. so, i think that if its cold, the TRANNY needs time to warm up. had a car been coming, i wouldn't be driving my fit right now.

 

Unless you put a warmer on the transmission bottom the tranny will not get warm til you drive.
The advice about starting the engine and then putting on seat belts, checking instruments and then driving easily but not hard or tentatively is the best avice for minimizing wear and tear on your car.
If you live in really cold climates having engine oil and transmission warmers is a good idea. Oh yes, 110vac powered not 12vdc from the battery. Just make sure you disconnect or remove before driving.
If your tranny just stopped working see your dealer. The cold shouldn't matter except that the driving will be slowwer but not stopped.

 

I'm pretty sure that is the case, 'cause I remember someone on these forums way back having heat problems, and it turns out the dealer messed up when they refilled the coolant liquid after installing the block heater.

 

I agree more on the no-warm up method where u just drive off after starting up and keep the rpm below 3000 until the cold light's off.

However, one thing that bugs me about this method is the high idle rpm from the cold start keeps me from backing the car out of the garage smoothly as the fast idle is accelerating the car more than needed.

I have to back the car out of my house straight into a public road where i have to watch out for other cars that might come across.

And the fast idle from the cold start prevents me from doing this smoothly as i have to do more frequent and harder braking than I do when the engine is warm already.

Any thoughts?

 

How 'high' is your cold start idle?

 

anyone know oil temperature of complete warmed up engine,my gauge after 20 min driving about 130/140???

 

Oil temps are usually 30-50 degrees higher than the water temps in a fully warmed up vehicle. The oil picks up high heat around the pistons and bearings so it averages 200-220 in the motor.