The lesser of which evil... help me choose

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Ok so my trip to the station is 1.4m each way in my beloved e46 alpina b3s coupe. the temp gauge currently gets to normal operating temp at the moment due to the fair weather. however, based on experience, it soon wont.

leaves me wondering whether I should let the car idle on the drive before setting off (I know this is frowned upon in many circles)

or just let it be and hope that the engineers that have formulated castrol edge have done such a great job that my cars innards wont really notice the difference

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camelot1971 said:

If it's really 1.4 miles I don't understand why you wouldn't just walk it. Unless you can't, of course. If that's the case, just drive the car.

I would but I cant

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trickywoo said:

Get a push bike or walk you lazy barsteward.

you're right I should but im not getting in and out of 2 sets of clothes for that and cycling would be almost as suicidal as walking

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andy-xr said:

Ours isnt the place to tell the OP whether he should change his mode of transport. His choice

I can say though that I've done many short trips and you'll need to up the oil change frequency or look at a 'better' type of oil for the sort of driving you're doing. The temperature gauge is measuring coolant temp not oil, which normally takes 2-3 times as long to get up to temperature. Basically you're running the engine on cool oil, which is thick and gloopy and not great at doing what it's supposed to do

thank you

although im still enjoying the witty comments so happy to let them run

more seriously though.... not taking the car is not an option and im not really bothered about the economics and I have a very nice slot at the car park so its always safe...

i was curious about how long the oil takes to get to temp and never realised it could be 3 times as long as the coolant but makes perfect sense... the geek in me wants to take out my computer so i can get the data from the obd port next time i do a run but that would be step too far...

the manufacturer spec is a 0/30 fully synthetic which is what i use.

im thinking the only way around this is to take a scenic route

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giger said:

Put better oil in with better cold start properties? Might look after your engine a bit better?

this merits consideration but with such a low viscosity already im not sure what else to do...

i think i need to get more scientific!

reason i need to drive is there is a gradient pretty much all the way with no pavement and fairly semi rural so lots of flora and fauna to deal with

getting a snotter would be more trouble than its worth and my little indulgence before and after work is a great way to ease me into and out of the working day...

im probably worrying about something relatively trivial.. the cars done 65k miles and ill probably be shot of it before i put 10k on it