Warming up the car

[king9]

Hi,

Just wondering how many of you warm up your car before driving... is it just necessary to do it once a day.. or whenever its really cold?

also, When i do warm up my car on a very cold day.. i do blast the Heater so when i get in, it's heaven... is this bad for my car?



thanks

[mars_panas]

I always warm up my car before driving... especially when it is really cold...

Well it is recommended that you turn your Air con / heater after 5mins... but not sure myself seeing i heard it from my mechanic...

[tony1234]

Not necessary.I warm mine for approx.20 secs.in the morning,that's all.But more importantly don't rev the engine past 3k until the temp.needle rises to about 1/4 of the way up the gauge.

[DLO01]

Theres other threads about this.....

I start the car and drive. No need for it to sit there. As long as you don't cane the car when cold, theres no problems whatsoever.

[JetSir]

+1 just start and go.
Just dont thrash it till its warm =D

[Mr_will]

.But more importantly don't rev the engine past 3k until the temp.needle rises to about 1/4 of the way up the gauge.

kinda not really. its more about throttle pressure than how high you rev it.

revving to 2000rpm but using WOT is much worse for the engine when cold than revving to 3 or 4000rpm using light throttle pressure.

it is a big mistake to think that just keeping to low rpms is all you need to do when the engine is cold

[Psy]

whats wot?

[Mr_will]

whats wot?


wide open throttle. when you have the accelerator completely depressed.

[king9]

any other comments about the heater?

[Mr_will]

any other comments about the heater?

well you are drawing hot air away from the engine, so you could argue that it makes your engine heat up more slowly, but i doubt the difference would be significant.

tried reading your owners manual?

[10KRPM]

waste of petrol.....

with the chances of you stopping at a traffic light within the first 5 mins of you driving the car there really is no point in warming the car up.

Actually it takes on avg about 20 mins for a car's engine to warm up.

[Mr_will]

waste of petrol.....

with the chances of you stopping at a traffic light within the first 5 mins of you driving the car there really is no point in warming the car up.

Actually it takes on avg about 20 mins for a car's engine to warm up.

whats the relevance of stopping at traffic lights?

it doesnt take 20minutes, i get oil temps within normal operating range within 5 minutes.

[IVTECS4]

The Euro's engine warms very quickly anyway. Heck, I leave my house and the temp gauge is cold and by the time I get out to the end of my street to a big road and it is already warming up very fast.

[EUR003act]

you cant go by your water temp gauge (stock) to know when to start thrashing the engine. my water temp gauge gets up to standard 91degrees in the first 5mins... takes another 20mins ontop of that for the oil to get to 80degrees..

as said by many before me, no need to sit there heating up the car, but dont take it past 3k as the oil is still to thick and cold to properly lubricate the engine at higher speeds... my 2cents

[tim-e]

Another start-and-go driver.

[EuroAccord13]

The Euro's engine warms very quickly anyway. Heck, I leave my house and the temp gauge is cold and by the time I get out to the end of my street to a big road and it is already warming up very fast.

The coolant temperature is not a reflection of the oil temperature in the engine, your coolant temperature may have hit 90 degrees but your oil temperature is only approximately 50 degrees, way off the temperature it is supposed to work efficiently at.

[Crapdaz]

i vtec the car when its cold
















just joking! =P

[LXRY]

I never leave until temp gauge reaches half way....oil needs to be warm to get motor lubricated properly, you can take off if you like when cold just don't thrash it. I see plenty of cold cars in the morning running cold and sometimes they have no choice but to thump it to take off in certain instances....traffic, avoid accidents etc, etc...

Heater is off at first as it takes longer to warm up with heater on. A/c off as well.....it's become like a habit for me to start/warm car before take off.

If I need to thump it in any situation I can as my car is already warmed up.

Hope this helps......... :)

[ok2]

whats the relevance of stopping at traffic lights?


Two things (though we hope that the stops at the lights are short ...)

1) Engine will warm up much quicker when working under load than just idling i.e. at lights / stuck in traffic

2) It's not just the engine, all the transmission components need to have their oil warm and everything at proper temperature.

So either loading up the engine (WOT and low revs) or high revs will cause premature wear on the engine and transmission i.e. not good.

[DanVR4]

The owners manual reccomends not to leave it standing to warm up, but to take it easy driving it around while it does. The ecu actually leaves the transmission in gear longer than normal while cold to promote faster warming up of the engine

[Crapdaz]

The owners manual reccomends not to leave it standing to warm up, but to take it easy driving it around while it does. The ecu actually leaves the transmission in gear longer than normal while cold to promote faster warming up of the engine

For auto your talking about....

[drezy]

does this apply even if i use castrol magnatec..???

[EK Civic R]

I try to give a short warm u before driving..
Don't generally look at water temp, but I look more at my rpm when idling..
If it drops down to normal idle roughly 800rpm then I start to push a little more..

[DanVR4]

For auto your talking about....

Ah yes I am. But the theory behind it should be used in the manual too I'd say