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Warming Car Up At Idle

R33Turbo

By R33Turbo,
in General Maintenance

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R33Turbo Proficient

R33Turbo

Posted
Posted

I always thought warming the car up in the morning at idle is a necessary thing to do, until 2 of my mates told me that they read its better for the car to breath air as they warm up so just to drive it normally without pushing it too much for the first 5 mins.

Apparently its not too good for the car to be warmed up at idle, is this true?

What are your opinions on this? (Im so confused)

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https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/218648-warming-car-up-at-idle/
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br3ndan Mentor

br3ndan

Posted
Posted

the thing is, its not only the engine that needs warming up... ur gear box and diff also needs to be warmed up....

Its better to turn on the engine.. give it about 15 seconds for the oil to start pumping in and around... then take it easy on the road.. i.e shift before 3000rpm, or even better 2700 rpm until operating temp as been reached.

Your engine will warm up faster if ur driving it as well.

Hope this helps,

Brendan

blind_elk Grand Master

blind_elk

Posted
Posted

There was an article in The Age's Good Weekend, about 12 months ago, by Karl Kruszelnicki. Some of what it says:

- Engines run best at their design temp. Idling is not the best or quickest way to warm up an engine. GENTLE driving is.

- When idling, the fuel is not completely burnt. Unburnt fuel condenses on the cylinder walls, washing the oil off the cylinder walls and also thinning the oil.

- Idling drops spark plug temps, leading to dirty plugs, causing poor fuel economy.

- Idling prevents the catalytic converter reaching its design temp (400 -800C).

- Even in Canada, at -20C, it is recommended no more than 15-30 sec before driving from cold start. So even less is desirable in warm Oz.

Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency calculated that 5 minutes less idling each day would save $646 MILLION in fuel costs and and 1.6 million Tonnes greenhouse gases per year, in Canada alone.

R33Turbo Proficient

R33Turbo

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

hahah thanks for the help, also i shoulda done a search but i couldn't be bothered last night so late. :blush:

yer the thing is i warm up the car every morning for about 10 mins, so i thought maybe i should change my way of warming up now if its bad for the engine. and no wonder my petrol always dissapears every next day lol

Oh yeah another question, then if i wanted to cool down the turbo and engine after a long cruise/speeding, do i keep the car engine at idle for that? is that okay too? or do i just turn the engine off after few mins of turbo cool down for the engine to cool down best?

Edited by R33Turbo
(B1) MR_fanny Grand Master

(B1) MR_fanny

Posted
Posted

i used to let it warm up but i read it might glaze the engine so i just take it easy untill the car is up to running temp. saves on fuel too..ha.

as for cool down, unless your drive way is at the end of a quarter mile, driving your car conservatively a couple blocks befor your home is more than enough to let it cool down i recon...then the ttimer will take care of the rest. mines set to only 30secs anyways, it used to be at 50secs but i found it pointless after a while.

grey pearl Enthusiast

grey pearl

Posted
Posted
i used to let it warm up but i read it might glaze the engine so i just take it easy untill the car is up to running temp. saves on fuel too..ha.

as for cool down, unless your drive way is at the end of a quarter mile, driving your car conservatively a couple blocks befor your home is more than enough to let it cool down i recon...then the ttimer will take care of the rest. mines set to only 30secs anyways, it used to be at 50secs but i found it pointless after a while.

Besides my GTR and some 31's I have a 700h/p daily driver ute and it has forged pistons which are noisy when cold because of the swell required in the piston material to bring it to the required piston to bore clearance.

The way I understand it the result of revving or driving the car before the pistons have swollen to the required tolerance and putting load on the engine is that the piston moves in an oval movement, although only slightly at low revs, until the swelling is complete then it travels in a more direct path up and down the bore necessitating much less wear,obviously the higher the revs when cold the more times the piston is exposed to pre swollen wear as load accentuates the oval movement.

Of course I'm talking about forgies here which is the most extreme tolerance piston to bore clearance,so a normal piston would not have as much problem and therefore warm up would not be as important as I believe it is for my engine,but I believe cold start wear is less about oil temp as many people think and far more about piston swell and tolerances,so in normal car circumstances I agree with the other posters to take it easy till engine temps are reached.Cheers Grey Pearl.

r33cruiser Grand Master

r33cruiser

Posted
Posted (edited)

u do know it only takes 30sec for a turbo to spool down right?'

'mafia' et al.

3 min is a bit excessive for a trip to the shops. i just cool for 10sec maybe 20sec

must be a 'cool' factor in leaving a vehicle running while u strut past all the customers :(

Edited by r33cruiser
bubba Grand Master

bubba

Posted
Posted

I give it the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. Cool down, I just don't thrash it for the last few blocks to my house then give it the time it takes to grab my wallet, phone etc. If I've just hammered it into my driveway I'll give it a minute or so.

nuclear_skyline Mentor

nuclear_skyline

Posted
Posted

Most people do not need turbo timers on their cars... Simple as that... The only reason somee do is because they heat the turbo up so much that it will seize if not given the time to cool down...

Who drives like an idiot on the road, pushing their car so hard all the way to their drive way to need one???

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted
Most people do not need turbo timers on their cars... Simple as that... The only reason somee do is because they heat the turbo up so much that it will seize if not given the time to cool down...

Who drives like an idiot on the road, pushing their car so hard all the way to their drive way to need one???

Point being is whilst you may be able to get a turbo timer you cannot get a brake rotor timer, a calliper timer, a gearbox timer, a transfer case timer, a diff timer.....

With regard to warming the engine the procedure should be this:

1. Get in car.

2. Start car.

3. Drive off gently.

Anything else is a waste of petrol, will wear your engine out quicker & most importantly will annoy the crap out of your neighbours or the bloke lined up to take your parking bay.

r33cruiser Grand Master

r33cruiser

Posted
Posted
Point being is whilst you may be able to get a turbo timer you cannot get a brake rotor timer, a calliper timer, a gearbox timer, a transfer case timer, a diff timer.....

With regard to warming the engine the procedure should be this:

1. Get in car.

2. Start car.

3. Drive off gently.

Anything else is a waste of petrol, will wear your engine out quicker & most importantly will annoy the crap out of your neighbours or the bloke lined up to take your parking bay.

BAM!! hit the nail on the head.

save the cool down time and warm up time for the track

GeeTR Grand Master

GeeTR

Posted
Posted
...will annoy the crap out of your neighbours or the bloke lined up to take your parking bay

Id glass my neighbor if they idled their stock 34 every morning for 10mins.

- Start, idle 20s from cold, drive gently for 5mins - done.

- Don't load the car up 5 mins before stopping - done.

10MinuteCar Collaborator

10MinuteCar

Posted
Posted
Id glass my neighbor if they idled their stock 34 every morning for 10mins.

- Start, idle 20s from cold, drive gently for 5mins - done.

- Don't load the car up 5 mins before stopping - done.

lol so it wears the engine out at idle than whilst driving in cold is it?

What does it mean by "it wears engine out quicker" is it bad at idle?

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