Slimey

Another cold weather question.

I usually wait about a minute before I drive away. I figure this gives enough time for the oil to circulate effectivly. During the warmer weather after a minute the temp needle started to move; now that it's colder a minute isn't long enough. It probably takes three - five minutes before the needle moves.

I remember a mechanic once told me (in LA where in never gets too cold) to ALWAYS warm up my car for >10 minutes before I take off. He said that driving a car that is not fully warmed will warp the piston heads and eventually (>100K miles) lead to premature engine wear.

I've never thought this advice was too practical. I barely give myself enough time to get showered and dressed in the AM, let alone sit in the car.

As said, I usually wait about a minute and then take off. The first few miles of my drive in through residential areas under 30 MPH. I'm not racing out of my driveway.

Thoughts? Is there any danger in driving a with a 'cold' engine? Is there any danger of warming the engine by just driving away and 'earning' the warmth over the first mile of driving?

sidemarker

no warm up just start up and go

sidemarker

TypeSAddict

I've never heard that, I usually just start her up and go. :o

rise

I wait a couple of minutes, or if i must drive, I try not to take it over 2500

LegendC

A lot of people don't realize that a car just sitting there at idle does not warm up very fast at all. Just wait a minute for the oil to start pumping around and keep out of the throttle until it is warmed up.

This is advice from a Legend with 145K on the clock, rebuilt the engine to fix a headgasket problem and all the cylinders looked brand new....could still see the factory honing.

cmark

i count to 10 slowly and take off

EricL

Drive as you doing (easy) until temp is up and it has been up for 5-15 minutes (depending on how cold it gets overnight).


Depending on the overnight temps, the engine block and tranny can get pretty cold and it wouldn't hurt to wait a bit before stomping on the car.


It takes me 1-2 minutes to turn my car around in a long driveway.
I lay-off any hard driving for 5-10 minutes after the car has come up to temp

A brand-new Maxima, that had just pulled out of his driveway, had water and fumes coming out of his tailpipe (cold start w/engine in open loop) try to race me this morning. He made a nice burn-out as I sat there watching him drip water and exhaust from his "dead cold" engine. IMO, an extreme example of what never to do to a car…

Pappy

Here in Florida, it's warm anyway. I give it a minute, then go. You can't go too fast anyway, because you either wind up behind an old fart or a big shit kickin' truck. They clog all lanes so you are frustrated driving your CLS with mods and performance tires...all set up for high speed. 30 miles per hour is fast here.

DISRUPTV

I wait for a min. then drive away but heres the key thing to do:

for the 1st 5mins of driving don't go over 50mph

do that and u'll be str8 since it allows everything to flow properly

Pappy

Just move down here to FLA. and you won't have to worry about that.

Zapata

Cold weather 10 minutes WITHOUT question. I never even move the car until it's nice an toasty. Warm weather 5 minutes or so.
I will not take it over 3k for the first 5-10mins of driving. However once it's nice and loose...........WATCH OUT!!!!!!!

Sorta like exercising and warming up prior. I always do a complete warm up before ever workout.......i used to never warm up and wouldn't get loose until the middle of the workout. The car isn't any different.

Only the best for muh ride..........

Count Blah

Hmm, my commute is only 10-15 minutes.

I'm a block away from a street who's speed limit is 50mph. Then I get on the interstate where the speed limit is 65mph. Luckily I live in south FL and don't have to worry about the cold temps.

mickey3c

The thing about warming the engine up is that the engine is fine and the tranny is cold until you have driven it for a while. So if you take a nice warm engine and do the morning hole shot, you are beating your tranny.

The best way is to start the car and after several seconds of idle, start driving. Take it easy for the first several minutes until the engine and tranny are warmed up. This causes less wear and they both warm up at the same time/rate.

ItalianStallion

where in FLA are you?!
granted i dont go on major highways, but i just take Tampa Road all the way to school, it changes from 2lanes all the way up to 8 and then down to 6, its a good road. i give it my best to avoid 1) toyota camrys 2) semi's 3) Buicks and 4) champagne colored cars. they spell disaster for young agressive drivers such as myself. try changing lanes and being a jerk about it. um, the other day i was doing 125 on tampa road for a few miles, fun stuff.

but to answer the question, i really wait minimal amounts of time, it doesnt get cold, by your definition, its cold to us, 70-someodd in the mornings. HAHAHAHA.

amir was here

damn..u guys are freaks haha j/k but come on..the car was not designed for u to wait 1 minute..or shit, definetly not 10 minutes..

i start the car and drive...never have waited...

but i will keep the car under 3k untill it gets warm.

EricL

Lucky about your fast commute time!

If the commute is only 10 minutes (or so), why not drive easy up to 50?

You can also drive the car "easy" at 65mph.

Heck, light throttle will get the car up to 80 MPH with little effort.

dhlesq

I let it warm up for a minute or two and I don't really hit it until I have a few miles.

I don't think it really makes any difference to the car, but for some reason it makes *me* feel better, so there it is.

darrinb

before school i warm up my car for like 10 min while i'm getting ready, but if i'm in a rush i just dont take it over 3000 rpm till its warmed up,

btw, my car always gets the garage over my parents and brothers car, even though they have better cars than me i car more bout my car than they car about theres so i get the garage, i think it keeps the engine cooler so it dont have to warm up as much

MiK3Y

did he also own the gas station that was right around the corner from your house that you always fill up? 10minutes?? you could be halfway to your destination by that time. let me know how many miles per tank you get after doing 10minute warmups all the time.

BC

30 seconds and take it easy for a few miles. Always have done it this way. I read years ago that extented warmups are not good for the mill as the choke is on too long and the excessively rich mixture washes the oil from the cylinders. F.I. may have solved this. That's my story and I'm stickin' with it until scientific evidence proves otherwise. Siezeya.

clsdave

My opinion is the car is ready to go within a few seconds after full oil pressure has been achieved. Maybe about 10-15 secounds. It should be driven normally and without wide open throttle or high rev's. I'm basing this on my previous experience and with these driving habits. I do use my cars hard but do good maintenence on them. The oil and filter get changed every 3-4 thousand miles, always!
I ran my 1979 Pontiac Sunbird 231CI for 224,000 miles on the original engine before selling it (in 1991) to someone who used it for a few more years. The only internals replaced were the lifters (left the cam alone) and oil pump at 180,000.
My 1991 accord is still running perfect at 95,000 miles. I take care of like all my other cars and hopefully will it last as long as the Sunbird. I'm hoping the same for the CLS.

6spdmanual

2 MIN.

ChucksTL_RENAMED

Synthetic oil helps on those cold start ups too. Run the engine one minute and go easily, wait fifteen minutes before asking alot of it since you're up north. Just my 2CW.

Slimey

This was my guess about the so-called right thing to do. Once you have adequate oil pressure you should be good to go.

I also agree with what some have said that you are really beating your tranny when it's cold. I've lived for a couple winters in the frigid midwest where there were days - weeks below 0ºF and months below 32ºF and noticed that moving the shifter was physically hard (it felt like you were moving it through molasses).

No one made any comments about what the mechanic said - can you physically damage the engine by driving cold (ie: bend or warp metal)?

EricL

Ask the US Army and Air Force about running equipment up in Alaska, and you get an idea of the "problem" with the question. (some of the stuff has to stay running or it needs special “heaters” or needs to remain in heated hangers or storage areas)

IF the oil is like glue, you can certainly get an engine to "just turn over" and then spin bearings, break rods, break oil pumps, etc...

It depends on how cold...

Just "driving cold" is more of an issue of "degree" and is so vague as to what the definition is, that it would really make a difference on what you mean by (1) driving and (2) cold.

Given extreme conditions, you can screw an engine up with high revs and load if the oil is barely flowing (that presumes that you get the engine to "turn over")

Count Blah

That might work, except I turn right on red onto a road where the speed limit is 50mph. Hard to not accelerate in that situation. Oh well.

BTW, I don't drive a CL (yet).

brianlin87

iTrader: (1)

i warm up my car for 3 mins and i let it cool down fer 3 mins as well... it's all good cuz i have remote start, so when i'm eating i press a button, and by the time im done eating, my engine is done warming up... and when i get outta the car, my engine slows itself down... Aladdin alarm baby! best $350 i spent on my car... comes stock with engine start, 2-way paging, trunk release and turbo timer...

Slimey

I see what you're getting at.

It seems like if there was to be a failure due to the cold it would be within the first few seconds after the engine turned over and tried to pump the glue. If you make it past that point (assuming you don't peel out of your driveway) there shouldn't be more chance of damage as the oil flow should only be improving.

As we use multi-vis oil with (supposed) good flow at cold temperatures does our engine oil really get to be like glue? Let's say with an average NE low in the teens or 20s ºF.

Of course, I've never opened a bottle of oil tried pouring it at cold temps. Maybe it's time for an experiment.

I could see my wife now, "hey honey, what's this bottle of motor oil doing in the freezer?"

Tuboz

It mentions somewhere that the car should be warmed up no matter how hot or cold the temperature is. Warming the car up too long is basically a waste of gas. I usually check the time and wait about a minute or till the rpm slightly drops. Which usually equals about a minute.

-boz

Shawn S

Mine’s in a garage at home so it’s not as cold as sitting outside, but I rarely warm it up for more then one or two minutes even if it’s been sitting outside at work.
I do make sure not to REV the engine too much and always shift at like 2,000RPM for the first few miles when its REALLY cold out.

Shawn S

Wires

Ha ha ha......

I didn't realize that until I went there for work last year. I went to IHOP, and I think I found every grandparent in Port Richey!



Anyways, if the weather is above freezing, I just drive. If it's cold, I warm it up.

The pro's recommend at sub-zero temps to let the engine run for a minute or two, and keep the rev's low (i.e. less than 3000 rpm) until the engine warms up.

Keep in mind, unlike the old vehicles that had a choke, and a carb, and had a high speed idle of 1700 RPM (on a 4000 RPM engine), our CL idles really low, and doesn't generate that much heat at idle.

As proof, my 2000 Chevy truck actually prevents upshifts (auto trans) until higher revs when cold to bring the engine and tranny up to operating temp faster.

Nicky Pass

During the Chicago winter months, I start it.....then I let it run until the heat is HOT!!! When its above 50 degrees I'll usually give it a minute or so!!!

Wires

Keep in mind that's like 30 minutes to an hour of 0 MPG (and additional engine wear for nothing).

OUTRAGEOUS CL TYPE S

one word "AUTOSTART", viper 550esp, after you take a shower, hit the remote car goes on and everything will be warm when your ready to go, and if you decide on not going out then the car will shut off after 20mins.

JRock

This question is basically asking people how they treat their car - clearly some people will treat their cars like shit, and at the other end of the spectrum, some will be obsessive.

Basically if you can let your car idle for a minute at start up, you're being nicer to your engine than to just crank it to life and go.

John-K

For the first 2 years, I used to warm up until the revs came down slightly. Over the last six months, I have waited only 10 seconds or so. I think that there is a difference, though, so I am probably going to go back to longer warmups.

Zapata

In warm weather i can see waiting like 1-2 minutes but if you people are telling me you don't feel a difference in the way the car feels after good warm up you are nuts.

Prime example, last night the temp was 39 degrees and the car was sitting there for about 4 hrs. I got in the car and let it warm-up for 10 minutes. I could've gone at like 7 minutes but i waited. I merged on the street and accelerated briskly.......the car felt nice and loose, it reved without any hesistation and the tranny felt like butter. If i start right way.......crap the clutch grabs like a thief in a mall and the car feels like it's straining.

Take notice the tranny will start to rev at about 1.2k when the car starts and then slowly works its way down to 900rpm. If you think you're not doing damage to the car long-term you are fooling yourselves. Of course by long term i mean 100K miles.

I'd rather have the car warm and loose before i start driving because if i need to pound on it then i have no worries.

My did the same with my AT CLS when i had it.

amir was here

u guys leaving your cars on for more than 10 minutes EVERYTIME u drive...should look into getting more frequent oil changes.

Zapata

Why do you say that? Engine wear is worse when you drive when the oil, block etc., are cold......

Nashua_Night_Hawk

Read the manual.. 1 min max.... then drive slowly till the temp is normal... then drive the way you like it...