Run that engine before moving the car
- Thread starter TomYoung
- Start date
We only have to drive 1/2 mile and then we are on a 70-80 mph highway so we warm up a few minutes when it's 50 or less. But that's rare in TX. I have noticed my 2001 Tacoma needing a little whack on the dash to unstick the temp gauge pointer when it's really cold. Maybe I should buy the new Tundra with the great new engine....nah.
How you drive until it fully warms up has more impact than giving it an extra 30 seconds to 1 minute after the initial start up.
Also there is absolutely an environmental impact to any excessive idling and IMO it should be compelling. We don’t get something for nothing out of life. Everything has a trade-off. How many engines are getting wasted because they didn’t run for an extra minute on cold mornings vs the guaranteed fuel consumption and increased emissions from idling for said extra minute? Now extrapolated that to millions of people over days, months, and years.
If you don’t care about the environment, that’s fine, that is your choice, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an impact on it.
Also there is absolutely an environmental impact to any excessive idling and IMO it should be compelling. We don’t get something for nothing out of life. Everything has a trade-off. How many engines are getting wasted because they didn’t run for an extra minute on cold mornings vs the guaranteed fuel consumption and increased emissions from idling for said extra minute? Now extrapolated that to millions of people over days, months, and years.
If you don’t care about the environment, that’s fine, that is your choice, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an impact on it.
Depends. If it’s below roughly 35 to 40F or colder it gets ~10-15 minutes purely for my own comfort, bonus is defrost generally melts everything for me on the windows. This is enough that even at -10F that the coolant will be at ~150F, the trans will be about ~60F if I remember correctly (better than 6!), and the oil will be just maybe starting to read above 104F (minimum on my truck).
Any other time of the year of if it’s already warmed up I just jump in, start it, seatbelt, music, off I go.
Any other time of the year of if it’s already warmed up I just jump in, start it, seatbelt, music, off I go.
You will find an electrical heater grid in the HVAC system that gets the heat going way before the engine can make heat.
Oil temperature is mostly going to matter in the first seconds after the engine is started, when parts of the engine are starved for oil. After that, oil temperature doesn't have too much of an effect on wear until it starts getting too hot.
Coolant temperature is a lot more critical. Below a certain coolant or cylinder liner temperature, piston rings and liners will experience a lot of corrosive wear from combustion byproducts. This stops happening once the coolant is above ~100°F.
Patman
Staff member
10-15 minutes when it’s not even that cold outside? 40 degrees? I have done walking tours in Niagara Falls in shorts and a T shirt in 40 degree weather.
I use a windshield frost cover. It covers the windshield and the front side windows. Takes less than 20 seconds to put on and even less time to take off and the windows are free of frost, ice and snow. I find that having a window down a couple of inches at first, keeps the interior condensation down.
Kestas
Staff member
My 1967 Ford LTD had that.
If it's above -30° F, I start the engine, put on the seatbelt, and drive gently until the drivetrain is up to temperature. Below that, I might let it idle for 30 seconds before gently driving off.
Coolant is cycled through the exhaust manifold in the VW.
Doesn't get that cold here in South Carolina, but last several days it has stayyed in low 20's and the teens in morning start-up. I start it, wait maybe 30 seconds and roll. Yes, take it easy on gas pedal until warmed up.
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Probably the best reply given !
No one seems to give a second thought about the rest of the drivetrain at -30f diffs, transfer cases ,wheels bearings etc suffer from extreme cold as well.
On a cold morning, like below 20F, I'll leave the house, start the HAH and walk down the driveway to get the paper (yeah, we're old and still get the local paper and the WSJ delivered), take it into the house and then set off. Even below zero the HAH makes useful heat within about two miles.
I drive gently until everything warms up.
In warmer weather, I shut the HVAC off and leave the house in EV mode.
I drive gently until everything warms up.
In warmer weather, I shut the HVAC off and leave the house in EV mode.
Summer, winter, rain sleet snow or zombie apocalypse I generally remote start mine as I'm walking up to it. It probably takes me 90-120 seconds to get in and put my seatbelt on.
I take it easy on my 10r80 (at least most of the time) - they've got enough issues without me treating it like NASCAR
I take it easy on my 10r80 (at least most of the time) - they've got enough issues without me treating it like NASCAR
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
I knew that the vehicle would be evicted from our stable when we came back from Las Vegas from a Thanksgiving visit to my in-laws in 2019. 15 degrees at Denver airport, car was parked for a week outside. It froze from the inside. My 7-month-old daughter still breastfeeds and wants to eat and cries. I start the car, son under the blanket, wife breestfeeds, but everyone is like shivering. I covered them with my jacket and I had two blankets inside. Sitting, keeping gas pedal to 2,500rpms. She stopped breastfeeding after 20min, and you could barely feel any heat coming out. It took another 10min of driving.More Toyota bashing by @edyvw;but I agree with you on this one brother
. My 2GR-FE goes stone cold after it sits, the heat just simply vanishes. Yesterday it was -17c when I started it, and you could hear the little guy with his hammer on the engine for a while, and in less than 60 seconds, I feathered it out of the neighbourhood. One more thing, the perforated leather seat has been obliterated, I had to get some material to cover it or the sponge would disintegrate; just brutal.
When I sold that car, it was a marvelous day.
There is an anti wear additive in modern lubricants that is active at lower temperatures. There is no need to worry about cold operation with help from modern formulations.
That’s a healthy dose of boron.
That’s a healthy dose of boron.
Where did you find that graphic? The wear rate on that one falls of a lot more linearly and quicker than the ones I'm familiar with.
You're correct with everything you're saying, though. The old saying about 90% of wear happening at startup confuses a lot of people because it's more accurate to say it happens during warm up. The fraction of a second before oil pressure comes up doesn't cause much wear. I may get excommunicated from BITOG, but the choice of oil doesn't have much impact on cold start, pre warm-up wear.
Idling in cold weather really doesn't do much to heat up the oil. You need RPMs to do that, but what one needs to avoid is high cylinder pressures as that will cause accelerated ring and bore wear. Driving gently without lugging the engine is the best way to do that.
My Sonata has been outside for 11 years and it gets idle time every morning in the winter. When it was -9F the other morning it was 16 minutes before leaving (I know because I meant to make it 15). I'm destroying the engine, I know. Terrible results. 
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