Cold starts and your engine coolant temp sensor

[Bamaro]

Any more than a couple of seconds to get oil flowing is a waste of gas.

 

[The_Jake]

A 20-30 second warm up is always the best. Get the oil circulated and take off. OR you can always lay across the cold engine in your PJ's in the morning to warm it.

 

[The_Jake]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

-- A zero-degree cold start needs 2x as much fuel as a warm start.

-- Going 50 MPH on a stone cold engine needs 2x as much fuel. But the injector pulse width is much longer. It's not going to warm up faster than idling with air blowing around in the engine compartment, and all that cold ram-air hitting the intake.


So wouldn't it be best to just go WOT right out of the driveway as WOT uses the maximum fuel anyway?

 

[Tzu]

I don't worry about squeezing the max out of each drop of gas I put in my car, especially during this time of year. The winter blends give me about a 3 mpg hit anyway. This morning it was 3 degrees with 4 inches of snow on unplowed roads. I was just happy it started and got me to work fine. It heats up quicker while driving of course, but its old and you can hear a noticeable difference in engine noise between the sound it makes when first started and then after 2-3 minutes of just warming up (from whining a little to whisper quiet). If it was new and tight, maybe it would be different. My last tank yielded me 31 mpg, so the 25 cents or whatever it cost to warm it up a few minutes this morning was more than worth it to me. Now if it was my piston slap Chevy truck (I know they last forever like that) but it has to warm up atleast 5 minutes on days like this. Otherwise it just sounds.....nasty. Instead I just use the Toyota and don't worry about it.