Do you warm your car up?

[Bobjones]

Before rebuild,

I would start it wait for some oil pressure let it idle for about 30 seconds, stuff the neighbours and drive like nanna off boost until the temp gauge reached normal and oil pressure dropped down to where is normally is warm, thus allowing the box to warm up also.

After the rebuild:

Now with moly rings etc and tight clearances and the high oil pressure, I let it warm up in the garage for atleast 2min then drive like nanna always watching oil pressure and temp as these are the best indicators when its cold.

[d-d]

I like to let it idle for a bit while i go around the outside of my car making sure nothing has scratched/bumped it through the night, then liek most others i have read above.... i drive like a granny till it warms up and im satisfied its happy to let me give it some schtick!

[IOWNU]

A few people say that you don't need to warm up the car for too long (I certainly don't)....then what the hell are those Castrol Maganatec adds all about....I think they say

"Upto 90% of Engine Wear occurs during the first 10 mins of driving"

I guess the key word there is UPTO....meaning it could in fact be far less than 90%!

Damn marketing techniques....

[Zahos]

A few people say that you don't need to warm up the car for too long (I certainly don't)....then what the hell are those Castrol Maganatec adds all about....I think they say  

"Upto 90% of Engine Wear occurs during the first 10 mins of driving"

I guess the key word there is UPTO....meaning it could in fact be far less than 90%!  

Damn marketing techniques....

They Claim that 90% happens in the first 10 minutes of driving...

Do they claim that it is reduced if you sit there warming up your car on idle.... NO.

But they do give the impression that it does...

So theres an even bigger, shifty marketing technique.

B/C letting it idle for 10 minutes, then driving off causes 99.9% of engine wear, and that does not help selling their product if people just drove off with any other oil...

[FATGTS-R]

I have a/m ecu and I guess the cold start mode needs some work because as someone else mentioned it will stall if I drive it stone cold.

To get out of my estate there is a million roundabouts and it will stall when the revs drop halfway around one, which was very interesting the first time it happened.

Basically, in cold start mode it idles at about 750rpm but if I blip the throttle it will go up and then come down to zero and stall. As it warms up it doesnt go down past the idle rpm as much untill its ready and dont go down past it at all. I have read previously about the possible ill effects of prolounged idling so my procedure is to sit in the car for approx. 3-5 minutes ( cold morning only ) with it running but instead of letting it idle at a constant rpm I constantly mix between blipping the throttle and holding it at different rpms before driving off and waiting for oil pressure to drop.

[Menthu_Rae]

I drive an N/A and I let it warm up - not for ages, just about a minute or so, then drive off down the road not hitting VTEC until the temp gauge is reading its usual level Might not be a turbo - but I treat it in a similar way, like people said - if you're idling for ages it's bad, so just cruising along at low revs (<3000ish seeing as I dont have "boost") in 3rd/4th gear for a few mins is the best way.

[Birnie]

I have a/m ecu and I guess the cold start mode needs some work because as someone else mentioned it will stall if I drive it stone cold.

To get out of my estate there is a million roundabouts and it will stall when the revs drop halfway around one, which was very interesting the first time it happened.

Basically, in cold start mode it idles at about 750rpm but if I blip the throttle it will go up and then come down to zero and stall. As it warms up it doesnt go down past the idle rpm as much untill its ready and dont go down past it at all. I have read previously about the possible ill effects of prolounged idling so my procedure is to sit in the car for approx. 3-5 minutes ( cold morning only ) with it running but instead of letting it idle at a constant rpm I constantly mix between blipping the throttle and holding it at different rpms before driving off and waiting for oil pressure to drop.

Doesn't sound right to me.

I have the standard ECU for the R33 and it revs on cold at about 1100

Then back to 650 but it takes awhile to get there.

[Godzilla32]

I ALWAYS warm my car up for at least 5 minutes while im getting breakfast then take it pretty easy even after that. Any person that knows engines and cars has always aggreed with me that warming up the engine (at least) is something you should always try to do before driving it. It can take upto 5 mintues for engine oil to completely circulate throughtout the whole engine. Not just turbo engines need to be warmed up, N/A ones also benefit a good warm up period before running at higher than idle.

[Greg]

I jump in and go but real slow....or should i say, low revs

Nothing above 2000revs and hardly pushing at all really.

The 60kms/hr in 5th gear type thing

underevving can be as bad as overrevving. i dont warm mine up as such but always rev it no more than 3000rpm until the oil pressure drops. also never use much throttle when cold (ie rev it out slowly (maybe 20% throttle))

[Method]

Regardless if my car is turbo or n/a I will drive sedately until the car warms up. However in my previously owned turbo cars I keep off boost until the car is warm. I rarely leave the car in the drive with the engine running until it is warm.

[V-Spec]

start it

oil pressure up

20-30 sec 40 when its cold for autochoke to come off and revs to drop a little, i have to stick on the flip face of my sterio anyway and pick a track - so that passes the time, mamybee even enter a new cd

then i take it easy to operating temp

i dont really consider it warming up

[petemillis]

Warming up for more than half a minute at a standstill is bollocks. Quickest and safest way is to allow just a few seconds for the oil to circulate, then drive off without labouring the engine. 3000 rpm in 2nd puts less stress on the engine than 2000rpm in 3rd - best to keep it spinning quite freely.

Anyone who knows engines will know that most wear occurs when the engine is cold, so the quicker it warms up with the least amount of stress on it the better. Provided you don't labout the engine or rag it then there's no excessive stress and it'll warm up far quicker than just sitting there idling.

[jezzerrr]

that's pretty much what i've decided pete so long as you dont "race" it or labour it, should be fine. and as was said before, the gearbox and diff(s) need warming up too

[TracidTrax]

how much thrashing can a stock engine take before u break something?

[Greg]

how long is a piece of string?

too many variables dude

[Rolls]

how much thrashing can a stock engine take before u break something?

42.666 Days

[Kaz200]

I don't let me car warm up as i'd be waking the family / neighbours. I just wait a few seconds for it to gain some oil pressure, and drive off boost & below 3000rpm for the first few minutes of my drive.

hehe most of the street knows when I leave in the morning

And my neighbours go to bed at like 8 or 9pm every night.. I tend to wake them up when I get home late.. with the rattling windows and all..

Apart from that I'm a really good neighbour, really!!

[Aztec]

Originally Posted by TommO

However, I don't "baby" like driving fifth gear at 60km/hr, more cruise at 2500rpm or so... wouldn't driving at low revs / high gear under load put lots of stress on the engine and if it's cold, do more damage than good?

It will do more damage to the gearbox if you drive in top gear under 2000rpm, even when the engine is warm. Try and stay above around 2000rpm when cruising even when babying it to get it warm, change at around 2500-3000rpm off boost.

[Cubes]

Even 2000rpm isn't considered low rev's.

I think the majority of us have got used to our high geared, high reving 6cylinders.

The majority of cars cruise around at 1500-2000rpm all the time. Nothing wrong with that.

Its all about load. You can cruise around at 1000rpm, its not damaging anything, put your foot in to it, go no where and it is likely to wear at a greater rate than if you were to do the same at say, 2000rpm.

Just drive the car normally. Like a normal person drives. Thats all it requires.

[Busky2k]

Yeah as mentioned, prolonged cold start idling is no good due to the fuel washing down the cylinders. Especially when cold, since the fuel doesnt mix all that well (hence ECU runs rich for a lil bit). Also the extra fuel can end up in the engine oil, which is definitely not good. I've seen plenty of oil analysis where excessive fuel in the oil was due to overboard warmups (ie >5 minutes).

Futhermore, warming up the engine by gentle driving brings it up to operating temps alot faster than idling away. This is good in respect to distilling off condensation in the oil, in very cold climates.

I reckon 2 minutes maximum, but 1 minute should be plenty.