Un mechanically sympathetic petrol heads

[Axionknight]

Hub said:

Will idling it do much harm? Although it does seem bizarre behaviour.

I have always wondered this, is warming a car up from cold a bad thing? I do it to my Clio, I don't nobble it straight from the drive way when it's been sitting at warm for a while, still a good ten should be minutes drive away from town for some twisties so it should be properly warmed though, but is warming a car up at idle bad for it, if you then proceed to thrash it, more so than warming it at revs, so to speak?

[Matt UK]

Hub said:

Will idling it do much harm? Although it does seem bizarre behaviour.

Indeed - who the hell has a lunch break sitting in their car?

[Escy]

wjwren said:

My mates nan died and she left him about 20k. This was about 2003 and he headed straight to the Honda dealer and bought a brand new Type R Civic. He came round my house after he picked it up, it had 4 miles on the clock and he was red lining it down the road. I said are you not meant to run it in gently? He said no the chap at the dealership said they are race spec engines and you can rev the nuts off them! I remember other occasions where I had a pop at him about running it hard from cold and he said it had Castrol magnetic in it and that meant you could run it hard from cold as the molecules stuck to the engine components!
The civic only lasted 2 years and someone broke into the house and took the keys.

I'd rag it from new. Engines don't need to be run in these days.

[blank]

I quite often put my oven straight on maximum heat when it's turned on.

TV sound system goes up high without giving it time to warm up too!

[paulw123]

I moved the lever on my sink tap from totally cold to hot the other day.

[mrmr96]

wjwren said:

My mates nan died and she left him about 20k. This was about 2003 and he headed straight to the Honda dealer and bought a brand new Type R Civic. He came round my house after he picked it up, it had 4 miles on the clock and he was red lining it down the road. I said are you not meant to run it in gently? He said no the chap at the dealership said they are race spec engines and you can rev the nuts off them! I remember other occasions where I had a pop at him about running it hard from cold and he said it had Castrol magnetic in it and that meant you could run it hard from cold as the molecules stuck to the engine components!
The civic only lasted 2 years and someone broke into the house and took the keys.

So in those two years of "abusing" it, he never actually encountered any problems? no point babying the engine so it will last to 100k instead of 50k, as if you bought it new you'll proably sell at 50k anyway.

Devils advocate, but you can see what I mean?

[Heaveho]

Better to drive a car gently immediately than leave it idling from cold. Gets it off the cold start rich mixture faster, less bore wash. The oil takes for ever to get to temp when idling, still usually takes 15miles when driving. I won't drive mine hard during this period. I'm fortunately able to save it for decent length trips, going somewhere local means I'm in the van.

[New POD]

Benbay001 said:

Cyder said:

Working at an OEM in R+D it never fails to amaze me how many of my peers who should know better leave the car park at the end of the day and proceed to nail their cars immediately from cold often to the red line.

They obviously have the utmost faith in their work.

Ah, I once worked at a Burnley automotive switch manufacturer, the Prince of Darkness himself. At the end of every assembly line were women (10% of workforce were male) who had a set time to test every function of every switch. Left indicator, right indicator, horn, side light, dipped light, full beam, etc.

At home time, not one of these people EVER used any indicators. I'm not sure that it wasn't a desire not to wear them out or just that they CBA'd