warm up time before driving hard (in WARM temps)

[rationull]

Just wanted to add too that I've known people, especially people who don't care about cars and have automatic transmissions, who just seem to gun it to get on the freeway no matter what. There's a freeway onramp a quarter mile from my office that I know co-workers use to go home. I've been in the car with some of them going to lunch and seen their tachs sweep up to 4000 RPM or whatever right out of the office parking lot getting on the freeway.

They don't care and their cars don't seem to either.

Ah, it would be nice to be so carefree...

 

[klingon20]

Im only 3 miles from the freeway on ramp, i have to gun it to merge onto the I-10.

 

[The Critic]

For me, my car is parked outside in a covered parking spot. I start it up, drive out of the parking lot, and then turn right onto Highway 1 and gun it to get up to 60 mph immediately. Not saying it's the best thing to do, though.

 

[Colt45ws]

I start it up, drop it into reverse and proceed to do a J-turn out of the garage. Year round.


Just kidding.

The road by my neighborhood is 50MPH, so sometimes I have to get on it right off the bat if I miscalculate an entry vector. Then it slows to 35MPH before I have to make a right onto another 50MPH road if Im going to work. If I time it right for a green I can just sweep onto the road and only have to make up the difference from 20 or 25MPH. Otherwise I have to try to join traffic..
It never seems to mind. Only thing I really notice is the trans shifts a little softer below about 160F pan temp. Its still firm, just not a hard thump.

 

[demarpaint]

In the perfect world the oil should be up to operating temps before getting on the car. The world is far from perfect, from time to time for the sake of safety we have to gun a cold engine to enter a highway. The 5-10 seconds, if that, that the engine is running at higher rpms is probably not going to harm a thing. The key here is not to make it a habit.

OTOH if a cold engine is raced, or run at sustained high speeds day in and day out before it is warmed up I would imagine there would be problems down the road. I'm sure there are plenty of people that have done that too. It would be interesting to hear their comments if they are driving high mile vehicles that were treated this way.

Think about it, how many seconds does it take to enter a freeway, and how often is it being done?

 

[Spyder7]

I let mine idle for maybe 10-15 seconds then take it easy for the first couple minutes on it. In the winter I increase the idle for the first start of the day to a couple minutes. This is more a visibility thing than an engine thing, though. It takes a couple minutes of warming to avoid pulling into traffic as your windows begin to fog up. A 2 middle idle with the compressor and defroster going eliminates that. I doubt any more idle time would be beneficial, while less would make any difference trivial.

I've seen people idle up for as long as 20-30 minutes, routinely, during the winter as they remote start and wait indoors for the inside temp of the car to come up past room temperature. Not a healthy habit for the engine to bear.

-Spyder

 

[21Rouge]

Originally Posted By: rationull
But, my whole commute is less than 20 minutes one way,


+1

Many of us have similar routines. Our car is driven less than 10 minutes one way in the morning and at night. (I have tried to convince my wife to walk but no go so far). That is our family's routine and the oil must do its best to 'keep up'.

 

[rclint]

I would be willing to wager that one could start the engine immediately start the commute with wide open throttle from a new engine to used up and any mileage, or hours would be so minuscule that it would be a meaningless datum point. Several military applications do this very thing tanks, gen sets, power grids, our lawn engines etc...

I have read it before, and I believe it to be true, a load on a engine is far better than drawing out he warm up time...

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: rclint
I would be willing to wager that one could start the engine immediately start the commute with wide open throttle from a new engine to used up and any mileage, or hours would be so minuscule that it would be a meaningless datum point. Several military applications do this very thing tanks, gen sets, power grids, our lawn engines etc...

I have read it before, and I believe it to be true, a load on a engine is far better than drawing out he warm up time...




You have some valid points. I think the first few minutes would be very hard on the engine though, and most of the applications are diesel that you are referring to. A slight load during warm up is probably what they are referring to, not a full load.

I do however think the whole going easy for the first 20-30 minutes is way over rated. I would think in a modern engine aluminum vs cast iron the wear curve when cold is greatly reduced. 5 minutes should be fine before rapid acceleration onto a freeway ramp. JMO

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: rclint
I would be willing to wager that one could start the engine immediately start the commute with wide open throttle from a new engine to used up and any mileage, or hours would be so minuscule that it would be a meaningless datum point. Several military applications do this very thing tanks, gen sets, power grids, our lawn engines etc...

I have read it before, and I believe it to be true, a load on a engine is far better than drawing out he warm up time...



I think WO from an 80F start or hitting the rev limiter constantly in the first 2 or 3 minutes everytime you start the car would damage some car engines quite quickly, especially those with more hp/L. But on a warm day using 80% throttle to 80% rpm after a few minutes of normal driving isn't going to hurt anything IMHO.

 

[XCELERATIONRULES]

I drive it hard right out of the garage.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: XCELERATIONRULES
I drive it hard right out of the garage.


Any problems later on as the car gets older?

I have a neighbor who leases cars so they never have them more than 3 years. Each morning she starts the car, then floors it, then takes off. She has been doing the same thing each time she starts her car for the 14 years I'm living here. I guess with the lease cars they'll never know if it has any long term effects.

 

[mjf6866]

thanks everyone...i would say the engine was at idle speed for 3 min and i did a bit of low speed driving for another minute or 2, so about 5 mintues total she was running and temp needle moving before jumping on it in 1st and took it easy immediatly after, switching gears into a low rpm cruise level.

i dont want people to think i started her up, pulled out and stomped on it. i know not to do that even though it was a warm day.

ps- i know i'm mental about my car. i can admit that.

 

[SteveSRT8]

I'm wondering with newer oil tech that warm up is becoming another myth.

 

[rslifkin]

I wouldn't say that warm-up is a myth, but the oil probably doesn't need to be fully warm. As long as the coolant is up to temp, things have expanded to tolerances, and the oil is warm-ish, it's probably fine.

 

[lexus114]

I dont get on it until the water temp rises,and the oil pressure falls.

 

[CATERHAM]

Originally Posted By: TJPark01
Motor Oil Articles by Dr. Ali E. Haas
"People think that taking the car out for a 10 or 15 minute spin will keep it in good shape. Well that is better than nothing because at least everything is splashed down with oil in the engine and some switches are activated that helps remove corrosion. But to burn off excess fuel and water from the oil it must be brought up to full operating temperature. This takes 20 or 30 minutes. Your coolant heats up in as little as 2 – 3 minutes but oil takes up to half an hour to get up to full operating temperature. You should drive the car for another half hour or more after the oil is up to temperature...
People start up their cars and rev up the engines. They impress their friends with the Vroom, Vroom, Vroom over and over again. Then they take the car out for a spin and rev up the RPM. They do this immediately, while the oil is well below operating temperature and relatively thick. I know of engines ruined in this very manor.

The moral of the story is drive your cars often and do not rev them up until the OIL is fully warmed up. Using an oil that is not as thick during the start up period should minimize the effects of cavitaion. This is why I advocate the 0W-XX oils, they are less thick at start up."


Ali, is correct.

Since you only have a coolant temp gauge, like most people you are really driving blind as far as knowing when your oil is up to temperature. And yes it can take 20-30 minutes for the oil to get up to temperature in the summer and in the winter it may never get up to temperature in many situations.

In your example of extracting close to full performance from your car shortly after starting it with not even the coolant up to temp', the 5W-20 oil you're running will be way too thick and not much more than 5 degrees warmer than ambient. If you can't wait the 15 - 20 minutes too at least get some heat into the oil before using high rev's, you can offset the problem by switching to an oil with a very low start-up viscosity.
The lightest oil on the market currently is Castrol Edge 0W-20 which would be a good choice in your application.

 

[Craig in Canada]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
I'm wondering with newer oil tech that warm up is becoming another myth.


Newer oil tech doesn't fix the fact that when the engine isn't at its designed operating temperature all of the pieces don't fit together like the engineers want them too. Some clearances are tighter, others looser. Pistons may be oval instead of round for a little while etc.... The oil isn't the only thing involved in proper "warm up". Don't forget the rest of the drivetrain too, although in summer conditions the engine is of more concern than the rest IMO.

If it's an everyday thing that the highway is close to where you cold start, is it realistic to drive down to the next onramp? If it's a once in a while thing - don't worry about it. In typical conditions are you really stomping on it, or just not babying it? I've read posts from people here with automatics that have never exceeded 2500rpm and still think they're "stomping on it".

The amount of extra "stress" you're exerting on a cold engine is proportional to the capabilities of the car. You can still get up to speed pretty quickly while "babying" a V8 BMW, for instance, while a 3cyl Suzuki may need to be flogged no matter what in order to merge onto a highway. To put things into perspective, the BMW E39 M5 has LEDs to mark yellow and redline on the tach. This RPM range changes with oil temperature according to BMWs maximum recommended RPM for a given oil temperature. The recommended redline is still 4k when dead cold. You can still do a lot with 4k (especially with an M5).

My advice is to keep the revs and throttle angle "reasonable" (short shifting but going WOT is arguably worse than being in the power band of your engine even if that means slightly higher revs but less throttle angle) Try to spend just a little longer at city speed and drive down to the next onramp if that option is available to you. I don't recommend idling to warm up in any season. My car warms up exceptionally quickly in anything resembling summer weather.

Most of all, don't get into or cause a collision trying to baby your engine until it warms up. Do what you need to do to drive safely.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Craig in Canada



The amount of extra "stress" you're exerting on a cold engine is proportional to the capabilities of the car. You can still get up to speed pretty quickly while "babying" a V8 BMW, for instance, while a 3cyl Suzuki may need to be flogged no matter what in order to merge onto a highway.



That's one thing I love about my Corvette, is that I can merge onto the highway quite easily without putting too much stress on my engine. Where I work is only about a mile from the freeway, so in the winter time the oil temperature is not even up to 50 degrees by the time I get there. But it's a pretty long onramp so I can easily get up to the speed limit (or above) by the time I need to merge, and without having to go over 2000 rpm as well. In fact, in most of my driving situations I can keep the rpms under 2000, and throttle position way less than 50% and still leave a lot of cars behind in the dust, long live the LS1 V8!

 

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

you have an oil pressure gauge right? find out what hot idle is and then you can compare before you launch

i saw on their site, the 2010 has an oil pan heater option. i'd love that. i'd do a couple UOAs on that beaut