why do I heat up my car?

[griever]

So I started my fiat a few days ago. I haven't driven it in a while and it was a really cold day. My dad told me to get the engine warm before I started driving.

I would ask him why, but it will only make him further think I am less of a man

[griever]

Is it to keep it warm.

[Fulvisti]

Without getting toooo complicated, it's really just to make sure that the oil is at a good temperature to circulate properly and make sure everything is getting lubricated well. Some of the intermals eed to expand a bit as they warm up too. It'll just make sure that the engine doesn't wear as much as if you just went out and drove it cold. I always let my daily idle for a minute or two before driving off, and I give the integrale about 10, because I don't like the noise cold forged pistons make.

[ShayneJ]

Fulvisti said:

Without getting toooo complicated, it's really just to make sure that the oil is at a good temperature to circulate properly and make sure everything is getting lubricated well. Some of the intermals eed to expand a bit as they warm up too. It'll just make sure that the engine doesn't wear as much as if you just went out and drove it cold. I always let my daily idle for a minute or two before driving off, and I give the integrale about 10, because I don't like the noise cold forged pistons make.

Wot e said ^

It is good for your engine to give it a minute or five when the weather is cold
to allow the cold oil to get a good stir circulate round the engine and start
things warming up before you start loading things up by driving.
Also it gets the heater a head start and because the colder it is the harder
the battery must work to crank the thing in the first place and extra few
minutes of alternator charge before you fire up the lights blower fan etc
cannot hurt.

[jimslops]

ShayneJ said:

Wot e said ^

It is good for your engine to give it a minute or five when the weather is cold
to allow the cold oil to get a good stir circulate round the engine and start
things warming up before you start loading things up by driving.
Also it gets the heater a head start and because the colder it is the harder
the battery must work to crank the thing in the first place and extra few
minutes of alternator charge before you fire up the lights blower fan etc
cannot hurt.

Nonsense- perhaps on supercars!
1min is enough
http://www.motherearthnews.com/ask-our-experts/car...

Edited by jimslops on Saturday 28th January 05:17

[Dave Hedgehog]

jimslops said:

ShayneJ said:

Wot e said ^

It is good for your engine to give it a minute or five when the weather is cold
to allow the cold oil to get a good stir circulate round the engine and start
things warming up before you start loading things up by driving.
Also it gets the heater a head start and because the colder it is the harder
the battery must work to crank the thing in the first place and extra few
minutes of alternator charge before you fire up the lights blower fan etc
cannot hurt.

Nonsense

yep indeed nonsense

[Dave Hedgehog]

Fulvisti said:

Without getting toooo complicated, it's really just to make sure that the oil is at a good temperature to circulate properly and make sure everything is getting lubricated well. Some of the intermals eed to expand a bit as they warm up too. It'll just make sure that the engine doesn't wear as much as if you just went out and drove it cold. I always let my daily idle for a minute or two before driving off, and I give the integrale about 10, because I don't like the noise cold forged pistons make.

i doubt you need to actually need to let many cars sit running to warm the oil up unless they have some exotic engine in them, its a good idea to keep engine load to a minimum for the first 10-15 mins to let everything expand thou

unless its a lease / PCP / Rental car, then its ok to rev the fk out of them

[colonel c]

My vehicle’s hand book doesn’t recommend letting the engine idle from cold.

The engine, gearbox, diffs etc will all 'warm up' much faster if they are under load. The trick is to take it easy for the first few miles.

[cailean]

Modern cars don't need warming up by idling, start it and drive off at a reasonable pace (eg how you would drive in a residential area). If you immediately need to zoom onto a dual carriage way or the like then warm it up a bit.

[g3org3y]

colonel c said:

My vehicle’s hand book doesn’t recommend letting the engine idle from cold.

The engine, gearbox, diffs etc will all 'warm up' much faster if they are under load. The trick is to take it easy for the first few miles.

Indeed. The handbook of every car I've ever owned advises you to drive off as soon as possible to minimise idle time.

I do try to keep revs below 2.5k for the first few miles until warmed up.

Should also be noted there's a difference between the coolant temp and the actual oil temp.

[JonnyFive]

colonel c said:

My vehicle’s hand book doesn’t recommend letting the engine idle from cold.

The engine, gearbox, diffs etc will all 'warm up' much faster if they are under load. The trick is to take it easy for the first few miles.

BMW?

I'm sure last time this thread came around the opinion was a minute or so is fine to sit there, then take it gentle for 5-10 minutes to let it get properly warm.

[Dave Hedgehog]

whats a good oil temp before giving it beans?

[steveo3002]

warming a car up does more harm than good

its best to start up and move away asap keeping the revs low /under 3k until it has warmed up , that way it reaches full temp faster than sitting there , sooner its at full the better and that will be achived by driving not idling

[blondini]

Drive off straight away but don't rev the nuts off it or allow it to labour until it has warmed up . Tell dad to RTFM

[davepoth]

Yup, every car I've had says the same. My Triumph Dolomite caveats it a little though; when under minus 20 degrees centigrade it does recommend idling a little to make sure that the coolant isn't frozen solid. But other than that it does say to drive away straight away.

The oil takes longer to warm up when the car is idling, which means the engine runs longer before being protected from wear properly.

[frosted]

Most cars 12 years ago benefited by being warmed up , I believe advanced oil technology is one of the reasons is better to just drive straight away

[E38Ross]

Dave Hedgehog said:

whats a good oil temp before giving it beans?

i'd have thought at least 75 degreec C or more. most cars don't come with oil temp gauges though, mid-way point on the temp gauge on an E92 M3 though is 100 deg C, mind.

[jon-]

The longer it takes for a car to warm up, the more wear happens.

Cars take an age to get up to temperature at idle, some diesels will never get there.

Driving (sensibly) brings everything up to temperature much more quickly, thus less wear.

[Garvin]

In days of old, when Knights were bold, and fuel injection wasn't invented ..... it was never a good idea to let a car warm up idling using ye olde fashioned choke and carbytooter - too much 'overfueling' for too long and poorer multigrade mineral oils would result in the lubrication being washed out of the bores etc. and increase wear alarmingly. These days, though, with modern fuel injection, engine ecu's and much better multigrade synthetic oil it's nowehere near as harmful but, tbh, it's better to just drive off asap and take it easy until the water temp at least is up to 'the mark'.

[Nedzilla]

Its got nothing to do with whats good for the car.I can guarantee you that 99% of people do it so they dont freeze their fking bks off when they get inside!