Do you let the car/truck warm up in the cold?

[flatbutt]

I've always let my truck idle in the cold weather even after EFI became standard. The manual tranny was always stiff if I drove off too quickly so I let it warm up first.

I've often heard that I'm hurting the engine by doing so. I just don't buy into the argument.

What say ye?

[pksystems]

It's -31C here right now. Does anyone on earth think it's good for the car to start it up and drive away immediately? Every fluid in the car is significantly below operating temp.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by pksystems

It's -31C here right now. Does anyone on earth think it's good for the car to start it up and drive away immediately? Every fluid in the car is significantly below operating temp.

That certainly puts any *****es I have about the current temps here in Maryland in perspective

I have a 1/2 mile trek just to get to a small rural road so I just idle out in "D" to the pavement.

[GH85Carrera]

Nope, Just start and drive off. While the drivetrain is cold, I drive very laid back and relaxed. With the 911 I do not rev up beyond 4,000 RPM and the El Camino never about 2,000 but it never ever goes to 4,000 RPM.

Back in the bad old day when the Elky had the factory computer controlled carburetor it would not idle when cold anyway. I hated sitting in a freezing car pumping the throttle to get ti to warm up enough to drive. When I converted it to fuel injection, it runs like a modern car. Start and go.

The Macan of course fires up and runs fine, and has the most amazing heater ever. Go just blocks and warm air is flowing, and bun warmer seats of course will roast your nuts in short order.

But, no. Not since I yanked that awful carburetor off the Elky 15+ years ago.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by pksystems

It's -31C here right now. Does anyone on earth think it's good for the car to start it up and drive away immediately? Every fluid in the car is significantly below operating temp.

And therein lies one problem with warming up your engine: a false sense that lubricants in, for example, the gearbox and differential are also good to go. I suspect many people, after warming the engine, just hop right in and drive normally, paying little-to-no mind that those other critical components aren't ready for prime-time.

To be clear, I do warm the engines in my cars when they've been sitting out in severe cold, but I take it very easy on drive train for several minutes after getting underway.

_

[slow&rusty]

When I lived in Colorado and Toronto, I always warmed up the car for several minutes until I could detect some warm air in the cabin (or the engine temp gauge was off the peg), that way I knew the engine was getting up to operating temperature.

[billybek]

The duramax lives in the garage so the initial start up from 40 deg F isn't bad. I take it easy on it until it has some heat in it.
After leaving it outside for the day at work, I let it warm up before moving it. Don't want to stress some very expensive parts.
I am really regretting selling my commuter car at the beginning of covid/lockdown. Driving the one ton around town isn't too bad but certainly not ideal.

[oldE]

No longer than it takes to clear frost, snow or ice off the car. Drive gently until the guages show close to normal operating temps.

Best
Les

[David Inc.]

Originally Posted by Norm K

And therein lies one problem with warming up your engine: a false sense that lubricants in, for example, the gearbox and differential are also good to go. I suspect many people, after warming the engine, just hop right in and drive normally, paying little-to-no mind that those other critical components aren't ready for prime-time.

To be clear, I do warm the engines in my cars when they've been sitting out in severe cold, but I take it very easy on drive train for several minutes after getting underway.

_

Yeah the best for the engine is to put some load on it from the get go to bring the temperature up as soon as possible, but only very little load. If I get above 25-30% throttle or 2,500 rpm in my Alfa Romeo Giulia DD before the oil temp is at least 80F it's because I'm about to get hit by a truck.

[VINMAN]

I always let my vehicles warm up a little before I drive off, even in warm weather.

I have a remote start in my fire chiefs vehicle. Soon as a call goes off I start it, so by time I get out of my house, it's been running a couple minutes and I'm not just flying off with the engine ice cold.

The diesels I keep the heaters plugged in once it gets into the 20s. It takes them long enough to warm up with the 500 gals of antifreeze in them.

.

[911 Rod]

Pretty much just start and go.
I keep it under 3,000 rpm until temp gauge is up to normal.

[unclebilly]

-37 here this morning. My plugged in tractor won’t start (I’m going to put a propane grain heater under it shortly). I gotta feed cows.

The Tundra is next.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by oldE

No longer than it takes to clear frost, snow or ice off the car.

Best
Les

I'm assuming as a Canuck, you clear snow and scrape ice off the windows before driving off.

Growing up in Boise, I value a good scraper and the best ones have a brass blade. I've had mine for decades.
Living in Portland, (where there's now platoons' worth of transplants from the South,) I watch people defrost their windows to a bare minimum standard of just basically a peephole out the front windshield, and it kind of irks me that there is no education or enforcement of this bad behavior. But that's a whole 'nother rant.

(And like someone said above, I warm up the engine long enough to get the needle off the peg, then drive slowly till the rest of the drivetrain has time to build some heat.)

[unclebilly]

[JackDidley]

Originally Posted by pksystems

It's -31C here right now. Does anyone on earth think it's good for the car to start it up and drive away immediately? Every fluid in the car is significantly below operating temp.

I agree. The owners book for my Cayman says, start it and drive away. Seems wrong to me. I warm up a car if its below 20* F. Never seems to hurt anything.

[RANDY P]

Engine runs really rich during warmup, risking cylinder wall washdown, dilution, and wastes gas.

I start, idle it settles down just a bit (15-20 sec) then drive away easy. I don't beat on it until fully warmed up.

On a carbed car, I drive away as soon as it will idle on it's own, usually a minute or so.

You need to get the fluids moving and heat generated ASAP to minimize wear.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by RANDY P

Engine runs really rich during warmup, risking cylinder wall washdown, dilution, and wastes gas.

I start, idle it settles down just a bit (15-20 sec) then drive away easy. I don't beat on it until fully warmed up.

On a carbed car, I drive away as soon as it will idle on it's own, usually a minute or so.

You need to get the fluids moving and heat generated ASAP to minimize wear.

This is what I've been told would damage my engine, but I've been following this practice my entire driving life and have never had an engine blow up or need a re-build. I'm no mechanic so I don't get how running rich can damage the cylinder wall outside of the rings.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by pksystems

It's -31C here right now. Does anyone on earth think it's good for the car to start it up and drive away immediately? Every fluid in the car is significantly below operating temp.

Yes, plenty of people do, including me and most experts. While there is no harm in letting an engine idle for a minute or two, they warm up a lot quicker under even light load. Obviously, you want to keep the rpms as low as possible and really baby-foot it until the temp gauge reads something, but it's the better way to do it. This also begins to warm up the transmission, differential, brakes, etc. They all need to warm up, not just the engine.

Originally Posted by JackDidley

I agree. The owners book for my Cayman says, start it and drive away. Seems wrong to me. I warm up a car if its below 20* F. Never seems to hurt anything.

If it did hurt anything, you would not be able to see it unless you can see accelerated wear. The book is correct.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

The accepted wisdom on Cayenne bore scoring is you start and go when it's below freezing, warming up may cause/allow bore scoring.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

This is what I've been told would damage my engine, but I've been following this practice my entire driving life and have never had an engine blow up or need a re-build. I'm no mechanic so I don't get how running rich can damage the cylinder wall outside of the rings.

It would only be true if the engine was running extremely rich after warming up. There is no harm in an engine running rich while cold, every IC engine in the world does or it would not run at all.