How long do you guys let your car warm up?

[Rick L]

I usually warm it up for few minutes. When really cold, at least 5 minutes. But I've been told otherwise. Some say it will harm the engine if you let it idle to warm up for few minutes before you drive it... I always thought it does more harm to drive the car when still cold as the oil is too thick to adequately protect vital parts of the engine. Why would you want to put stress under these condition? I have always followed the cardinal rule to warm up your car before driving and always change oil within 4k miles. I have kept most of my cars till ~150k miles. And all my cars, even American made lasted without engine problems.

See following arguments why you shouldn't warm up your car.

1. for one thing it "fouls" the plugs.

2. Part of the problem has to do with the fuel system.... When the car is cold the ECU is running the car in "open-loop" mode until the O2 sensors warm up. Until this happens, the car is running from a hard-coded fuel map, which runs the car very rich until the O2 sensors heat up to a sufficient temperature, at which point the ECU switches over to "closed-loop" mode.

When the car is at idle, the oil pressure is low. Low oil pressure, combined with a lot of gas going into the cylinders is like "washing" the cylinder walls down with gas, greatly increasing friction and wear. Under load, your oil pressure will be higher, which will prevent this from happening, even though the oil is cold and thicker. Besides, the engine will warm up faster under load than it will idling.

[Tiger]

No warm up... just drive as you go. Maybe 20 seconds warm up while I fasten seat belt and whatnot.

[glen-sj]

I warm up long enough to buckle my seat belt and check the mirrors. All in all no more than 10 seconds and drive off easy for first mile or so.

[shogun]

Read the owners manual. Car will warm up faster when driving, also the transmission shifts later to higher gear during the warm up phase, in order to get the engine as fast as possible to operating temperature.

[nk530]

Might be a good idea to include the approximate temp in your replies. I assume this question is in reference to cold weather (<32 f).

I usually warm it up for few minutes. When really cold, at least 5 minutes. But I've been told otherwise. Some say it will harm the engine if you let it idle to warm up for few minutes before you drive it... I always thought it does more harm to drive the car when still cold as the oil is too thick to adequately protect vital parts of the engine. Why would you want to put stress under these condition? I have always followed the cardinal rule to warm up your car before driving and always change oil within 4k miles. I have kept most of my cars till ~150k miles. And all my cars, even American made lasted without engine problems.

See following arguments why you shouldn't warm up your car.

1. for one thing it "fouls" the plugs.

2. Part of the problem has to do with the fuel system.... When the car is cold the ECU is running the car in "open-loop" mode until the O2 sensors warm up. Until this happens, the car is running from a hard-coded fuel map, which runs the car very rich until the O2 sensors heat up to a sufficient temperature, at which point the ECU switches over to "closed-loop" mode.

When the car is at idle, the oil pressure is low. Low oil pressure, combined with a lot of gas going into the cylinders is like "washing" the cylinder walls down with gas, greatly increasing friction and wear. Under load, your oil pressure will be higher, which will prevent this from happening, even though the oil is cold and thicker. Besides, the engine will warm up faster under load than it will idling.

[BMWCCA1]

The only time my car warms up at idle is if I have to scrape snow or ice off the windshield. Otherwise, sit down, fire it up, and drive off, not exceeding 3,000 rpm until the temp gauge gets out of the blue. Even if it's 0ºF, as long as there's no snow or ice, I still just drive off. Makes it a lot more pleasant with heated seats though.

[repenttokyo]

Do any of you who say 'don't warm up a car' live in a climate that sees temperatures below -40 degrees C?

[shadowpuck]

can't claim that i regularly see temps of -40 C.....

but, it gets plenty cold in this part of the world. i agree with the others (-40 temps aside), the car runs only long enough for me to clear the glass, etc. of snow, ice, frozen bits, then i'm off.

and, yes, heated seats are QUITE nice!!

[shogun]

Do any of you who say 'don't warm up a car' live in a climate that sees temperatures below -40 degrees C?

that is interesting, probably you should open a complete new thread for that in extreme cold areas.

For example: who is using a heating pad? Is this one the best or what is everybody using?
http://www.padheaters.com/index.html
http://www.dieselproducts.com/proheat/padheater.html
http://www.wolverineheater.com/engin...ting-pad.shtml
http://www.jegs.com/p/Moroso/745633/10002/-1

[Ross]

Only a few moments, if very cold until I see movement of the gauge.
Easy throttle and revs until fully warm.
I have first hand experience of destroying an engine in below zero(f) weather by accidentally reving it immediately on startup.
Thick oil, pump cavitates, bearings spin.