It’s cold out across North America these days, which makes me feel I have to go on record as being in complete opposition to the notion of getting the car started and immediately driving off. My thought is that you absolutely need to have a little time to get the oil moving, while the engine is under no load. I think it also makes sense to get a little heat, not much, but some into the engine. One person I read recently made the statement that if you have a OW anything oil, all the properties are there even at the low temperature. Maybe that person should look and feel the oil on the dipstick when it’s cold. It’s thick. I say give it 30 seconds, or a minute. Give the engine a fighting chance. I am even less compelled by the idea that there is an environmental impact to this idle time.
Run that engine before moving the car
- Thread starter TomYoung
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I'm more concerned about getting a little heat in the cabin before driving off. I don't see that as long as you keep the RPMs <2000, that whether the vehicle is standing still or moving will make little difference. I typically will start my drive gently, keep RPMs at or below 2k, and drive gently until the oil temp gets into a normal range.
Most new vehicles are gdi or dual fuel injection. Once they are cranked, they go into a high idle mode. Once the high idle mode comes off, they can safely be driven away. The fluids are still not up to prime operation temperature so, take it easy until the fluids come up to temperature.
No doubt that getting cabinet heat is a priority. Still advocate some idle time. But definitely turn on seat heater and steering wheel heaters if you have them. In most cases, you will have minimal heat until the engine and coolant heat up.
High idle sometimes stays on for a while.
I only let my cars idle long enough to put my seatbelt on, then I'm off and driving like normal. In 35 years of driving, this has never damaged any of my vehicles in any perceptible way. I drive them until the body and frame rust away from the perfectly good drivetrain.
The other bigger concern for me is visibility. Either scraping or defrosting windows will take enough time to help the engine warm up.
Correct. The oil pressure will come up long before the transmission temperature reaches normal operation temperature. That's why I take it easy for the first 1/2 to one mile.
I think it depends how how cold it is. Definitely a safety concern when it’s so cold your breath freezes on the windshield.
On the technical side of things I use to take engine mechanical classes at the GMTC in Tarrytown NY. The warm up topic always came up. The official GM answer was its best to wait until the coolant is around 120 degrees. Years later I had a Subaru with a cold engine light. Out of curiosity I hooked up my scanner and the light shut off at 120 degrees. Coincidence?
On the technical side of things I use to take engine mechanical classes at the GMTC in Tarrytown NY. The warm up topic always came up. The official GM answer was its best to wait until the coolant is around 120 degrees. Years later I had a Subaru with a cold engine light. Out of curiosity I hooked up my scanner and the light shut off at 120 degrees. Coincidence?
My wife once had a 2012 Mazda3 with the Skyactiv engine. That car has a blue light when your engine is cold and it’s cold outside. My VW GLI makes decent heat in 90 seconds on a cold engine in 11 degree weather that hasn’t been ran in 10 hours. I don’t know how it does it.
Patman
Staff member
I have started my Civic at. -30C before and I immediately started moving with no idle time. I just drive it very gently. As long as the windows aren’t fogged up I believe it’s way better for an engine to have as little cold idle time as possible. Cold idling is terrible for an engine.
On my 2008 Subaru, the cold engine light shuts off at 140° F. per reading the value with a code reader.
Veepeak OBDII reader and OBD Torque app.
Have residential roads to drive out so not usually a problem.
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Interesting. Mine is a 2013 Forester. My 2018 Outback doesn’t have the cold engine light anymore.
Shel_B
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I'm on the side of letting the engine warm a bit. While there's no extreme cold in my location, I still take it easy when moving off. I'll start the engine, adjust the seat belt, remove the sunshade, and get comfortable. I'll then move to the parking lot gate at a slow crawl, just idling or above (it's less than 120 feet), wait for the automatic gate to open, and hit the street. The first block or so I drive slowly, and usually get caught at the first light, so a bit more idling. And then I drive off keeping the speed around 25 mph and the revs around 1,500 - 2,000. My first destination is about a mile from home, and by that time the engine is warm enough to push a little harder and start driving normally, which is still gentle because of road and traffic conditions.
I run mine until the idle drops to about 1,000 rpm, then drive nice and easy until the engine is good and warm. The parkway is about 5 minutes from the house, with a nice long acceleration ramp. I take it nice and easy getting on and up to highway speed. No problems to report.
Most of my cars are remote start in this weather I start it from the kitchen for about 5/10 minutes. I been taking the traverse to work for this reason the work beater doesn't have remote it's going to be parked until this cold spell passes.
I start the engine, then clean the windows. It's been running at least 30 seconds by the time I'm ready to go.
I just take it slow out of the neighborhood and for the first mile or so.
The dealer put 0W-16 in my 2024 Rav4 at my last service. I don't hear any strange clicks or rattles when starting on cold days (-4F yesterday morning). Maybe it's the engine design or the thinner oil, but all my other cars always had interesting sounds until they started to get warm.
I just take it slow out of the neighborhood and for the first mile or so.
The dealer put 0W-16 in my 2024 Rav4 at my last service. I don't hear any strange clicks or rattles when starting on cold days (-4F yesterday morning). Maybe it's the engine design or the thinner oil, but all my other cars always had interesting sounds until they started to get warm.
I have scraped the frost off the windows before. Sometimes if it is cold it still hasn't warmed up enough, & then my body heat from sweating and snow melting off my clothing puts enough steam condensation in the cab that it starts frosting up inside the cab.
I have had to pull over within a block or 2 of leaving to let it warm up enough for the defrost heat to start to give me visibility again.
Volkswagens (water cooled) have always had excellent heating performance.
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