Just wondering how many of you actually let the car warm up before putting into gear/drive? My gf is totally gung ho about waiting until the idle drops from its intial state ..basically to the normal idle speed. in her passat it normaly takes about 2 mins. Obviously this applied only if your car has been off for a while long enough for the engine to cool down. WHen i start up my G it idles close to 2k RPM i think and after about a little less then a min it starts to drop until it eventually sits below 1k. How many of you all do this? Really think its helpful? Maybe its better to be safe than sorry.

 

dont have to worry about that.........FLORIDA!!!

 

Warming of the car only applies to places with cold weather like up here in Canada. Purpose is to warm up the oil and to Lube the engine. Otherwise if you live in a warm weather climate no need for it.

 

true

during the winter, where my doors are almost frozen shut ( in the garage ) ..thats when i know i have to let it sit for a couple minutes.

 

Dont let it warm up in the garage!!!!!!
that would be a badddddd idea
lol

 

I did some research on this question a couple of winters ago, and by far the majority of opinions I could find were along these lines:

Source: http://www.familycar.com/CarRepair/fredfaq.htm

Keep in mind that as your car warms up, oil temperature often lags behind coolant temperature. In my friend's C5 'Vette (which has digital coolant and oil temp gauges) the oil usually takes 3-4 minutes longer than the coolant to reach operating temperature.

 

I too did a decent amount of research on this and came to the conclusion that it is not necessary to warm up a modern vehicle excessively or to the point where the idle drops or temperature gauge moves up.

If it is extremely cold outside, I'll let it idle for maybe 30 seconds.

I used to always religiously let my cars warm up before driving them, and then made a conscious effort to not do so once I did all my research.

The only thing they say you're supposed to do is drive the car lightly until it is somewhat warmed up. If you happen to have a vehicle that exhibits Piston-Slap, then it's probably wise to warm your vehicle up a bit more to the point where the piston slap dissipates as the pistons warm up.

 

why?

carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide im guessing? i always open the garage door before i go inside to start the car

 

Warming up the car before driving is very important when its extremely cold out. You want to make sure the car runs well and does not bring about any problems. I always make sure that my car is running for about 5 or 6 minutes or so and is nice and toasty when I get in.

 

As soon as my seat heater is on, I am ready to drive

Just kidding.

Sometimes I’ll wait minute or two for CarPC to wake up from hibernation

 

Wow I always let the idle drop to about 700-750 rpms here in socal before I drive. Didnt know that.

 

I start the car and watch the water temperature gauge. As soon as it starts to move (depends on the outside temperature), I'm on my way. But I drive very easy and let the car come up to normal water operating temperature. The oil temperature does lag behind, so I wait a few more minutes before exercising the right foot

 

I always let the idle drop below 1K rpm before i start moving. I live in SoCal. I would not believe everything you read and i do it for my own peace of mind.

One question for all of you who think that it's okay not to warm it up but just "drive slowly" or keep the RPMs low until its warmed up. If today's technology is so great and wonderful, then why do i even have to bother to drive slowly? I would guess probably for the same reasons that i let the RPMs dip under 1K rpm before get moving.

 

Idling too long is bad for the car. I usually let it idle for 20-30 seconds and drive it easy until the arrow is middle mark in the temp gauge.