Warm up idling

[Sparkman]

Unless I'm going to clean every flake of snow off and prevent any from falling on the windshield before the coolant is warm, the coolant must be warm enough before I drive off to keep the windshield clear. Even if it's warm enough to clear it a little while stationary, it may not be warm enough to deal with the thermal load that driving introduces. I've learned over the years that driving off prematurely can result in a re-frozen windshield and dangerous visibility. Conditions can be so bad here that a fully warmed car will struggle to keep the windshield clear.

I'm about a 10 minute idler below around 20°F. I run 0w-30's in both cars during the winter.

 

[Quattro Pete]

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I warm up the engine until I can tell the oil is flowing, as the rpms come down abit from the initial start. Usually about 1-2 min in cold weather, driving slowly until the engine temp goes up.

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Are you saying that during those 1-2min your oil is not flowing?

 

[glenncof]

I let driveability be my determining factor. In Rochester NY I would let car warm while trying to clear windshield of ice and dig the car out of snow. In New England I let the car tell me. In California I just go slow for first couple minutes first start of the day. Subsequent starts just go.

 

[DragRace]

Another reason I dont just drive off when first starting my vehicle is,it has a cold idle speed of about 1250-1500 rpms, when it's really cold. No way in #@$%! am I dropping my vehicles in gear when it's that high.

 

[Warlord]

Unless there is snow and ice on my truck I would never warm up for more than 30 seconds. A good set of wipers goes a long way when trying to see on a winter morning.

 

[4esorselrahc]

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I warm up the engine until I can tell the oil is flowing, as the rpms come down abit from the initial start. Usually about 1-2 min in cold weather, driving slowly until the engine temp goes up.

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Are you saying that during those 1-2min your oil is not flowing?

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No. Just not flowing hotly...

 

[Bryanccfshr]

I believe a roof over the vehicle is better than any warmup technique. Start it up and go with a nice clean windshield. My Truck was parked out during a freezing rain icestorm last week. Half an inch of ice on the windshield at home in Texas is worse than arctic cold mornings at -30 at work IMO. Never the less I simply took the garaged vehicle when I wanted to go somewhere until the truckcube thawed.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

I give mine a few secs for the idle to go stable, if a little high, 1050 or 1100, then idle away out of my development.
In a half a mile, the heat is on, idle is back to 800 and the temp gauge has started up. Works fine, and I'm getting some mileage for the gas otherwise spent idling

 

[4esorselrahc]

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. Works fine, and I'm getting some mileage for the gas otherwise spent idling

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An important point there. Long idle times waste tons of gas. Better to drive to warm up than sit.

 

[Sparkman]

I should add that when not freezing out, I simply wait until the oil pressure gauge hits 50 PSI (6-8 seconds), then I drive gently until I perceive that the oil is warm, 5w-40 < 50 PSI, 0w-30 < 48 PSI above 1500 RPM. I don't know how accurate the gauge is but it's very repeatable.

The 1.6l diesel gets different treatment, it's simply dangerously slow to drive without a couple minutes of warm-up when it's colder than about 50°F out.

 

[CharBaby]

dcoyne78,
To answer your question of wheather or not we let our vehicles warm up for 15 minutes at each start up...The answer is NO!...In the summer time and most spring and autumn months as well, we pretty much start the engine, adjust mirrors, seats and seat belts and drive off. Most winter day that are down into the 20*'s or lower, with no snow/ice to remove, we may start the engine, throw on the heater/defrost and run back into the house for a few minutes while we check and make sure we have everything such as cell phone and drivers licence etc. and then we're off. More often than not we start the engine and make the vehicle comfortable to our liking and drive away.

 

[Patman]

Even if there is snow and ice to remove, why do you guys start the engine before doing this? I keep my snow brush in the house and always brush the snow and scrape the ice before I even get into the car.

 

[CharBaby]

This morning it's 9*F. Cars are covered with snow and the driveway is full. Guess what Im going to do!...........That right, Im staying in bed!

 

[ARB1977]

Since moving to Texas and experiencing my first winter chill with snow and ice i let her warm up while i scrape the ice off the windsheild but during the summer about 20 seconds.

 

[brianl703]

I used to know a guy who would let his car idle until the temperature gauge reached normal. He did this spring, summer, fall and winter.

I finally told him that he's killing his engine and wasting a lot of gas by doing that. I believe he stopped it after that.

 

[ForeverFord]

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This morning it's 9*F. Cars are covered with snow and the driveway is full. Guess what Im going to do!...........That right, Im staying in bed!

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Then your car engine will last longer and extra fuel is saved!

 

[ScottB]

I usually let mine go about 3-4 minutes in what we call winter here.
20's-30's F.
My Scion warms up before the end of the block, so I think it's OK.
Plus, it's downhill, so it's mostly coasting.

Otherwise, it's normally 1-2 minutes for me - EXCEPT when I'm waiting for my wife or son to come out and sit there for 10

Letting an engine warm may waste gas, but I think it helps the engine and certainly can't hurt it.

 

[dailydriver]

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My Corvette is parked outside overnight, and there have been many times in the last couple of years where it was below 0F and I started the engine and immediately pulled away. I make sure to drive extremely gentle while the engine is warming up though, for instance I don't rev the engine beyond 1500rpm until the oil temperature reaches at least 80-100F. My oil analysis results have not shown any excessive engine wear at all with this practice, in fact my engine wear numbers in the winter are pretty much the same as they are in the summer! Although I will admit that I have underground parking at work, so even in the cold winter there is only one cold start per day instead of two. (my oil temp when I start up the engine at 5pm is usually about 60-70F)

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As usual Patman is right! But I must admit, it takes MAXIMUM will power to do this with an LS1 engine!! It is VERY tempting to let these idle excessively (and "wash down" the cyl. walls, doing even more damage) due to the abject clatter they make when cold (from "piston slap" and "lifter tick"), this despite what the oil one's using says the cSt is at 40* C. They sound quite scary when cold (especially outside, overnight when it's

 

[Patman]

I hear a lot of people talk about how the LS1 is so noisy on a cold start but I just haven't ever heard it. I've owned two LS1 powered vehicles now and neither of them made any strange noises. Even this morning at 1F, with my Corvette parked outside, it sounded fine when I started it up.

 

[dailydriver]

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I hear a lot of people talk about how the LS1 is so noisy on a cold start but I just haven't ever heard it. I've owned two LS1 powered vehicles now and neither of them made any strange noises. Even this morning at 1F, with my Corvette parked outside, it sounded fine when I started it up.

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Hey, I don't know, maybe I (and others) just beat the #@$%! out or our LSxs more than you do. Or you just got one of the "quiet" ones.

All I know is that I would NEVER give up the performance of this engine/car for ALL of the supposed quiet and luxury of a Lexus (or any other sub exotic import for that matter).