in my opinion, the purpose of idle warm up is to get the oil flowing to all critical parts. after that best to drive away easy. believe it or not, 10 or 20 sec in cold weather is NOT enough to get oil flowing in SOME engines. all engines will differ. for my nissan VQ30, in 20F temps it takes over 2 minutes before a typ 30wt oil is gushing from all lifters. prior to that time, I believe it is best not to drive the car. just my opinion.
Start-up wear - how long to wait
- Thread starter LouDawg
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I think the main important thing is to keep the RPM's below 3000 until water temp reaches 185F, so that the oil is warm and flowing freely.
My last UOA was from my car over winter. I never let the car warm up for even one second. I put on my seatbelt, adjusted evertying, started the car and popped it D as soon as possible, then gently drove off. Aluminium seems to be higher in winter, probably from the piston slap. But it's not alarmingly high.
What about automatic transmissions? I heard you have to let the vehicle warm up while it was in drive to circulate transmission fluid.
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In some automatics the only thing that happens in PARK is the pump turns and bleeds fluid back to the pan. Some don't even use the cooling circuit in PARK (though they do in Neutral) ..since nothing is turning. If they do ..the only thing that happens (again, typically) is that you're cooling and lubing stuff that hasn't any heat and hasn't yet turned
. 30 seconds should be more then enough to get things in order ..maybe a bit more in extreme cold.
30-45 seconds is enough for me. Nothing I can count if it's warm.
30-45 seconds is enough for me. Nothing I can count if it's warm.
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