What's current best practice for warming up a vehicle?

[OM617YOTA]

When cold I try to start + idle 2-5 mins before leaving, then drive gently until up to operating temperature. When warm, start + drive gently until up to temperature. If particularly cold I'll bump up to fast idle, and will idle as long as needed to defrost or defog the windshield.

Short of adding a block and oil pan heater, what is considered best practice or what can I improve?

 

[supton]

Not seeing an issue here. I don’t do that much idle when cold though, start and basically go.

 

[demarpaint]

I start the engine when the tach gets to about 1,000 rpm give or take a little I start driving it nice and easy.

 

[JavierH19]

However long until warm/hot air starts to blow out when it's cold outside. In warm weather I only idle for at least 5 seconds so oil is well distributed before driving off calmly. I will never sacrifice comfort to prevent some milliliters of fuel dilution per drive cycle when it's cold enough to make me shiver. I'll just change the oil sooner. But excessive warming up isn't needed unless it's really cold or you want it to be warmer.

 

[Nessism1]

Nothing. Just drive as easy as you can before the temp gauge come up to operating temperature. Dont's sweat the fine details, unless you have a crazy expensive vehicle.

 

[hemitom]

Start vehicle if windows are clean I buckle up and drive off nice and easy.
No real need to sit and idle unless in extreme cold.

 

[Hall]

Here we go.... Let's hear how folks in the south (FL, etc) deal with frost/ice/snow and windows that NEED defrosted and just "start it and go".

 

[dnewton3]

When cold I try to start + idle 2-5 mins before leaving, then drive gently until up to operating temperature. When warm, start + drive gently until up to temperature. If particularly cold I'll bump up to fast idle, and will idle as long as needed to defrost or defog the windshield.

Short of adding a block and oil pan heater, what is considered best practice or what can I improve?

Extended idling at cold temps does not really warm the engine quickly as folks think. That means the oil isn't up to temps and there exists information that this time spent idling can cause excessive wear.


- Start it up.
- Wait for the rpm "flare" to drop (that period when the engine revs to fire off the cats, then the idle drops to near-normal; typically 60 secs or less)
- drive normally, with some respect for not going over 1/2 throttle until warm

Driving under normal load will warm up the engine in a safe manner, as quickly as practical.

 

[D60]

You hate the planet and want to kill grandma if you idle unnecessarily at all. Duh.

So, NO warming up ever so as to virtue signal what a good person you are.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Depends on the temperature for me. Can get quite cold in the winter, here in NY. I'll let my old beaters warm up for a good 5-8 minutes. The other 3 seasons, just start and go easy until temp gauge comes up to almost normal.

 

[Mainia]

I think your doing it about right, going any more would be somewhat nutty. I do the same, but my car is a turbo Hyundai and it has inherent design and manufacturing issues. I have seen some badly worn Hyundai/Kia piston skirts on Hyundai/Kia very short piston skirts. So I give time for the piston's to expand even in the summer to reduce this problem of a problematic manufacture. And me wanting to preserve this cars engine tolerances as it is a tuner car that get beat on daily and hope to make it live through the abuse all while being not the most robust engine design. You it appears have a Toyota, so no worries there for the most part. I try to get my wife and daughter to at least wait 1 minute in Minnesota winters and 2 minutes when -10F. But that rarely happens.

Just remember most Minnesota cop cars leave the station on shift change or daytime start "larger shift policeman count" in at 0 to -10+ many times a year going full throttle 5 seconds after starting stone cold and have zero issues. You can only take it so far where it makes sense.

 

[Dave Hess]

I turn on engine and wait 10 seconds before hitting the road.

 

[rijndael]

As soon as it comes off high idle, I go.

 

[walterjay]

I go as soon as the rpm's drop off and then drive easy for a mile or so

 

[GSCJR]

Nothing. Just drive as easy as you can before the temp gauge come up to operating temperature. Dont's sweat the fine details.

+1

 

[SevenBizzos]

Starting the car from the app was a game changer.

 

[BHopkins]

Warming up a car by idling always seems to be an act of futility to me. It takes a very long time to warm up an engine at idle. And from reports I have read, the rings don't seal as well at idle on a cold engine, resulting in excess bypass.

In cold weather an engine needs to be warmed up no more than 30 seconds to a minute before driving. I keep it under 3000 rpm until the coolant temperature gauge starts indicating that the temperature is rising, then drive normally. The exception is when there is frost on the windshield. Then I start the car, turn the defrost on, and start scraping the windshield. When the windows are clear, so it is safe to drive, then I go.

In summer, I idle the engine about 20 seconds before going.

 

[andrew_j]

Do whatever feels best for you, just drive gently at first. It is irrelevant to engine life .

 

[goblin]

Been religiously following idling for several minutes in winter, pre-warming, dutifully paying my subscription to have access to remote start with heat settings, from brand new, 3-5k miles OCIs, Royal Purple Full Synthetic - got the mother of all oil consumptions. No more.

Nowadays it's one minute remote preheat if it's really, really freezing, and reasonable driving till fully warm.

Speaking of fully warm - my coolant temp is 75 Celsius within a mile of normal (not exceeding 2500rpm) driving. Gets to the normal 90 in less than five minutes. And I never ever gun it unless my oil is to temp as well.

The 5 bucks I paid for the full Torque Pro app and the 3 bucks I paid for the PID pack for my vehicle are the best money I ever spent on that car. Gives me engine oil and ATF temp on top of the standard coolant temp.

Speaking of which - unless you're chased by motorized zombies - any medium and up I4 and pretty much any V6 or V8 powered vehicle stays under 2500rpm 90% of the time in normal driving conditions. Which might even not be enough in my book to load it nicely.

Here's my "Add a spoojn of butter to your microawaved TV dinner", AKA - "Do something futile to make you feel you're doing your part", if I have NOT started it remotely the minute before:

- Enter vehicle
- Contact
- Seatbelt on
- Start engine
- Be nice to that shifter when you get in D.
- Drive

That's it. The time it takes me to put the belt on gives the FI time to do its burst of gasoline and whatever magic it does.

PS: I was using remote start EXTENSIVELY. Like - every single morning at 10 minutes idle in winter. Every other day in hot sumer to AC idle. I know that it could be just crappy engine design, but I doubt it helped.

 

[GW.]

I can only tell you what was told to me in GMTC powertrain classes after we asked an engineer. It’s best to drive off easy when the coolant temp reaches about 120f. So depending on starting temp the warm up time varies.

Many years later when I bought my 2013 Subaru Forester, which has a blue cold engine light, I hooked up my scanner and it turns off at 120f. Coincidence??