Warming Up Your Car - Right Or Wrong?

[R31Nismoid]

The only reason its going to foul the plugs, is repeated cold starts & short drives.

ie, get in car, drive 5mins, turn off. Drive 5mins 4 hrs later, turn off etc.

Obviously ive exaggerated it a tad, but over the course of 3-4 weeks, lots of 'mini' drives on cold start does have potential to foul plugs.

Just let it sit for 30 secs, give you time to do your seatbelt up, check the oil pressure gauge is doing its thing, and any other warnings that might pop up...

and off ya go

[gfunkk]

people say that if you start your car and let it idle for 5 mins, the petrol gets through the piston rings and into your oil

+1 for gentle driving

on this note, its not about coolant reaching operating temp, its about oil reaching operating temp.

[GTR-N1]

A bit off the thread but...

The only cars I've ever had to warm up (out of the 30 in my 40 yr driving life) were my precious

Alfetta GTV and

Alfa Romeo 164 Quadrifogglio

what with...

i) oil leaks

ii) exhaust manifold working itself loose from the block through different expansion rates in metal on warm up

iii) blowing universal joints

Why did I get a 2nd Alfa??

Slow Learner! Lolz. I laugh at the times that Jeremy Clarkson says that you have to own an Alfa to be passionate about cars.

What I've learnt is that by owning an Alfa, you learn how to become stoic and patient with its faults.

Tez

PS Why even my Alfa Romeo umbrella developed holes - yeh, gave it away to anothet Alfa owner. Needless to say, he's a slower learner than I am!!

[r32line]

I would NOT use the water temp gauge as an indiction of when your car is warm.

My water temp gauge comes up to mid way and the oil temp gauge has not even moved!

It takes 7mins of easy driving to bring everything up to temp. Warming a car by letting it idle for 5 mins as people have suggested it waste of time.

[Marco-R34GTT]

I know that piston/cylinder glazing is an issue with heavy diesel vehicles (tractors, trucks ect ect), but I don't think it is a big issue with petrol engine, or even automotive diesels for that matter... I think it is more of a load issue more than anything, but don't take my word on it..

[Owgasm]

mm good stuff here.

Bad thing about my car driving cold is it is real rough

[R31Nismoid]

^ get a better tune then.

I had 370rwkw, car ran like it was factory just like every other big power car i know

[cuppas]

why bother waiting for oil and water temps to reach optimum?

the oils you use are multigrade winter-suitable oils... the coolant is designed to transfer heat away from the head etc... the ecu is programmed to fuel differently at different temperatures...

as for oil on the walls... the piston rings are supposed to keep the oil on one side and the combustion on the other... on downstrokes theyre designed to angle slightly to scrape oil off the cylinder walls...

if im wrong, someone please correct me on this

im thinking the only time you really need to let your car idle for a while is with forgies that get piston slap at cold temps

[Johnny]

^^^^^ What is piston slap??? Someone mentioned it to me once that forgies need to be warmed up; but why? is it the material they are made out of

[cuppas]

yeah. different composition, i forget what of

they expand much more when hot...

[Bankzy]

Thats awesome!!

Thanks so much everyone!!!

Hi Guys And Girls it's Bankzy here.

I just joined today, and i thought i might just add to this post.

When sitting in traffic for those of you who don't know this it's actually a good idea

to rev the motor a little and hold revs, maybe say between 1200rpm and 2000rpm in turn creating more coolant to flow

thrue the internals. What this will do is keep the internals cooler. BTW your car is hot Beck.

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

^^But your revving the engine, things will start to heat up..?

Plus I'm sure all our cars from Japan would have sat in a lot more traffic jams then here in AUS.

[R31Nismoid]

yeah. different composition, i forget what of

they expand much more when hot...

depends on clearances, tolerances, piston type etc.

not all forgies are the 'same', different properties for each brand and so on.

a well built motor, shouldnt have any audible 'slap' unless its a crap build IMO

[Primordial]

I would NOT use the water temp gauge as an indiction of when your car is warm.

My water temp gauge comes up to mid way and the oil temp gauge has not even moved!

It takes 7mins of easy driving to bring everything up to temp. Warming a car by letting it idle for 5 mins as people have suggested it waste of time.

Ditto... I use the oil pressure as a guide until i get some way of reading oil temp (ie. R35, not just a sensor )

If the oil pressure rises with revs, oil aint ready!

[cuppas]

depends on clearances, tolerances, piston type etc.

not all forgies are the 'same', different properties for each brand and so on.

a well built motor, shouldnt have any audible 'slap' unless its a crap build IMO

haha i only learned from a guy at work

has an 80s turbo charade

backyard performance to the max =D

[blind_elk]

I don't see how starting your car and letting it idle at any time could possibly be detrimental to your engine.

Fuel mixture runs rich, not burnt completely, excess fuel dilutes oil. You work out what happens then.

Turn it on, start driving. The engine will warm up MUCH quicker if it is doing some work. You don't need 2-3 minutes to get fluids circulating - if they aren't circulating in the first few seconds of running, then they won't be circulating 2-3 minutes later.

BTW - we discussed this a few months ago!

[blind_elk]

Hi Guys And Girls it's Bankzy here.

I just joined today, and i thought i might just add to this post.

When sitting in traffic for those of you who don't know this it's actually a good idea

to rev the motor a little and hold revs, maybe say between 1200rpm and 2000rpm in turn creating more coolant to flow

thrue the internals. What this will do is keep the internals cooler. BTW your car is hot Beck.

What utter rubbish. At idle, the engine is not doing any meaningful work, therefore it is not generating substantial heat. All you are doing is burning - read 'wasting' - fuel for the sake of burning fuel.

If it was such a good idea, the manufacturers would have designed the ECU's programming to do it for you.