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

Just start it and go, unless the insides of the windows fog over and safety becomes a concern.

But idling a cold engine has no benefits for the engine at all and it takes way more time for it to warm up compared to driving right away. To warm up the engine faster, turn the heater off. In most cars you’ll see a way shorter time before you begin seeing the temperature come up.
 
Glenda W. said:
...It’s best to drive off easy when the coolant temp reaches about 120f. So depending on starting temp the warm up time varies...
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Sounds about right. 120F is 48C. On mine (3.3 V6), I reach this temp in way less than a minute when I start from coolant close to water's freezing temp. I'll have to time it. But one way or the other, 120F is reached VERY fast in a healthy engine.
 
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supton said:
Not seeing an issue here. I don’t do that much idle when cold though, start and basically go.
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I have a long driveway and then go down 1.25 miles an unpaved road, downhill, to get to a paved road. I just drive off at low speed until I get to the paved road. By then, coolant temperature is usually up to 100F, and I drive normally.
 
When I'm parked on the street I sometimes let the car roll and then drop the clutch to start it. Normally I just start the car, put my seatbelt on and drive off. If it's snowing like crazy and I have to clear the car, shovel the driveway and get rid of the mountain of snow the snowplow left I've let my cars idle up to 15 to 30 minutes before.

So in other words, warmup time is anywhere from 0 seconds to half an hour. 🙃 Regardless of the warmup time, I take it easy for the first 5 minutes or so.
 
Glenda W. said:
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??
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That really surprises me. How long ago was that?

A quick search of "idling to warm up a car" returns multiple articles from reputable sources, some authored by or quoting automotive engineers, stating that warming up a modern car is not necessary. And what they mean by modern, is anything that no longer has a carburetor.
 
BHopkins said:
That really surprises me. How long ago was that?

A quick search of "idling to warm up a car" returns multiple articles from reputable sources, some authored by or quoting automotive engineers, stating that warming up a modern car is not necessary. And what they mean by modern, is anything that no longer has a carburetor.
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This was in the 90’s. Fuel injection. My Subaru Forester is a 2013 with the cold engine light. My 18 does not have one. I can say many things were said off the record when asking questions. It was a hot topic even back then.
 
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My v8's take a few minutes to get any reasonable heat even when driving so when it's below 40F they can sit and idle 5-10 minutes while I put on boots/change out of my filthy work clothes.
 
Last decade or so I've made it a point to let the cold idle down RPM's before taking off. For me that seems like it may be easier on the transmission engaging easier w/lower RPM's than higher RPM's. In the winter time I will idle the engine long enough to warm up the interior if that's what I want.

These comments though..."Let er' rip" :LOL:
 
goblin said:
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.


View attachment 310619


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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.
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What car and engine is that?
 
OM617YOTA said:
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?
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2-5 minutes is good for the engine like you mentioned just drive easy.. the transmission is what takes longer to get up to operating temperature.
 
Glenda W. said:
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??
Click to expand...
I miss that light my 2010 Impreza had the same coolant light.
 
goblin said:
This guy.
I'm not saying my constant remote starts caused it, but I'm 110% sure they didn't help.
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I had a Hyundai 3.3 V6. Never burned a drop of oil. Had 130,000 miles on the engine when I turned it over to a family member. I never changed the plugs. All original.
 
walterjay said:
I had a Hyundai 3.3 V6. Never burned a drop of oil. Had 130,000 miles on the engine when I turned it over to a family member. I never changed the plugs. All original.
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Mine was purchased new, the plugs are still the original ones at 143k miles, except that one which threw a code. Luckily it was on the front cylinder bank and easy to replace. I have the rest ready for when I have the time.
The first 80k miles were mostly in The Bronx and Manhattan, so it has seen a life of idle-idle-idle then gross 5k rpm sprints then idle-idle-idle. One way or the other, unless RP is a really bad oil, I don't see what I could have done differently. Maybe do the ring seal driving out of the dealership, but my type of driving included loading the engine.
 
If I have frost to defrost the car idles until it's safe to drive. It works for me and a car accident way way outprices any waste in gas or engine wear. My car will probably rust out before the engine gives out anyway. I hope my BITOG level maintenance covers for this light abuse; I own my car, my car doesn't own me.
 
Some of these previous threads may be helpful. Some are quite long and there are lots more if you look around.

T

Thread 'Should You Warm Up Your Car Before Driving?'

Here's the video. He suggests that theres no need to warm up a fuel injected car, but I just don't feel comfortable with this. I live right near the highway and I definitely do not like pushing a cold engine from 25-55 when merging. Even at low RPMs driving local, if I don't take about 2-3 minutes to let it warm up, the temperature gauge takes forever to reach proper temp. Maybe its all in my head?
09.gif

Do y'all in Canada, Alaska, MN, WI etc. warm up your fuel injected cars? Any reasoning behind it?

O

Thread 'How long to warm-up an engine?'

I know the rule is to start the car, let it idle for a short time and drive slowly till the engine warms up. I've also read this will cause the least wear as well ...

2 of my cars one with over 200K (V6 MPFI) and the other fairly new (V8 MPFI) both make some odd sounds (ticking, knocking?, etc.) when the rpm gets near 2000 or 2200 if I drive them cold. But when they are idling (700-1200RPM) they both sound very fine especially the new car.
With the new car, i typically wait till the engine coolant is near 140-160°F and then drive. With the old car I don't care as much but try to wait for...

S

Thread 'Warm up time for 0w vs 5w or 10w'

I was wondering about how long I should let my vehicles warm up with a 0w-xx before I actually take off and drive. I ask this because if the 0w is supposed to flow a little better in the cold temps compared to a 5w it's obviously thinner at startup. So the oil gets around inside the motor quicker but because it's thinner isn't it providing less protection? Seems like you'd want the oil temp to increase some to get the viscosity up before hit the gas and get the rpm's up. Even in the summer time (with 5w-xx) I usually let my vehicle run about a minute and a half to two minutes before...

G

Thread 'How long to warm up oil?'

I've seen this topic discussed a lot of BITOG, but never really seen a consensus answer. How many miles of driving does it take to get oil all the way up to operating temp, and burn off fuel, moisture, and contaminates?

For discussion sake, let's say 5qt sump, heated garage (65F), and coolant gets up to operating temp in ~1.5 miles.

R

Thread 'Proper Warm Up?'

What qualifies as a proper warm up? Oil temp., water temp. relationships and type of engine (Turbo/Natuaral)must be considered yes? Is it a matter of time at X RPMs? Is idiling good or bad and why?

My wife backs the van into the drive and lets it sit there for upwards of 10 minutes before getting in and departing. I somehow know that this is a bad practice. I roll out and baby it for 10 minutes. Niether of us has an oil temperature guage.

U

Thread 'Is there any practical benefit to letting a passenger car oil warm up before driving?'

With a standard passenger car, toyota camry, is there any mechanical benefit to letting the oil warm up in standard midwest winter, 10 - 30F, temps? When doing an oil change I noticed oil at operating temps runs out like water. About an hour later when draining the oil collection pan at 50F garage temps I noticed the oil ran like maple syrup. This is using a 5 30W synthetic oil. When it gets down to 20F I would imagine it runs even thicker. I am thinking that the car is designed to run best at stabilized operating temps where the oil runs like water. How much, if any, does the extra...

H

Thread 'Warming Up Engine'

So, every day for the last 6 months I've taken my dog out in the morning for a potty walk. And every day at about the same time a guy has run out and started his BRZ and let's it idle for 5-10 minutes before leaving. Today as he came out to his already running car I mentioned the pattern I noticed and asked why. He said he warms the car up to get the oil up to temperature before he goes to work.

I just nodded and said, "oh, ok."

My assumption is he's probably a member of BITOG given this odd and completely unnecessary habit. Or is it unnecessary? Please comment with your opinion. Is...

2

Thread 'How long do you let your car warm up?'

It's it best to let the engine get up to operating temp before driving? I've heard it's not good to let an engine sit at idle for extended periods of time, so I am wondering what the proper amount of warm up would be.
 
I think we should have to thoroughly separate the notion of warming the engine in two use cases - warm up idling at idle rpm, and warm up driving under certain rlengine rpm limitations.

Technically, not warming the engine is drive away immediately and gun it. Which is different from drive away immediately and stay below a certain rpm. Which is different from idling.

I am for example a bit concerned about the engine logic in our new Sportage Hybrid. I thought at cold the engine would be always on, till it warms up. Turned out - major nope. The engine cuts the second the battery can take over. Combine this with the engine kicking in under load, and you end up with aberrations such as - you leave in the morning, it's freezing outside. The engine kicks in for a second then goes off. You drive a mile or two mostly on battery, then you have that huge hill that even your V6 climbs in 2nd gear. Boom, the little engine that could kicks in, because the battery alone can't take it, and it blasts directly to 4500rpm.

On the flip side - the (quite difficult to dig out) temp gauge in the Kia shows full cold, then once the engine does its little exercise to go to 4500rpm - temp climbs to the middle almost as fast as the rev meter.
Disturbing. I never dug deeper in how the engines in hybrid vehicles are cooled, I wonder if they have some strange thermostats that let them warm up faster than on regular cars.
 
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dnewton3 said:
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.
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This is exactly what I do as well.
 
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