I live less than a mile from work so my 2000TL never gets warm on the drive to and from. After work I usually drive far enough on most days to come up to temp but there are enough times I don't it makes me think this can't be good. Worried about the long-term effects to the engine/power train. Any suggestions other than walking? Should I change my oil more often? Let it idle up to temp when I get home at night? Move further away from work?

 

Let your car run for about 5 mins before you take off and let your temp raise up... I always turn my car on and run back inside to finish up getting ready for work before I take off. I only live about 2 miles from work also....

 

Just take it for a long drive every now and then and don't forget to floor it too so all that build up carbon can get out of there. I use to drive only 10 miles to work but during part of those miles when it was hwy, no less than 80 or 90mph so at least I was cranking it up for a few seconds and my car was in perfect condition and when I have the chance, took it for long trips. If you do this you should be good.

 

Ummm, not a good idea, if you read a lot of experts talk about this and none of them recommends that you leave your car on idle like that specially at warm up, everybody recommends that you drive without reving the car too much until is at normal temp and then you can go as you please.

 

the best overall driving for a car is hwy. take it out on the hwy occaisonly and cruise awhile

 

Yep, I've heard this too... I don't remember to terribly well why they said idling is bad - something to do with it sitting there and crud building up in the system??? Anyhow, I live less than a mile from work too and I just take off in the morning after I scrape the ice off my windows. I try to keep rpms under 2-3K and go out on longer (highway) drives at night a few times a week. But, it still really worries me that I'm killing my car...

 

Are there any mechanics on the forum to ask?

 

your main issue with short drives is that the moisture in the system (ever see a car peeing from the tailpipe in the morning) doesn't have a chance to burn of becasue the exhaust system doesn't get up to temp.

also, you should follow the severe maintinence schedule for the car, short drives or city stop and go driving are worse on fluids and wear then longer highway drives.

yeah, and don't let the car idle in the morning
1) it wastes gas
2) easier for you car to get stolen - geez, I don't even need to hotwire it
3) the oil isn't flowing around yet (especially when cold) so it's more wear

just try taking the senic route to work every once in a while and you should be okay. If you have errands to run, try to do them at a store a little further away.

 

baisicly what he said is good,
but as far as a car doing alot of ideling and it hurting the engine? you are going to get alot of mixed results. my car is barely ever turned off during the day, (usually only lunch) its harder on my car to turn it off and restart it every few min than to just let it run. i have 130,000 on it and every thing is fine on mine

 

I've heard the same thing about letting it idle. I read that you shouldn't let your car idle more than 30 secs. in the morning and that generally having your car idle more than a couple of minutes is not good at all. Basically turn it off whenever you can unless at traffic light or whatever. If i find this blurb i will add it to the post.

 

I never ever let my car idle for more than 25-30 seconds. It is better to get going with the car absolutely freezing, and not surpass 2500 RPM's. It is bad for your car because the oil is still cold and is not lubricating everything properly, resulting in some metal pieces to be rubbing with other metal pieces without there being any lubrication...

best thing to do I guess would be to let the car sit for about 20 seconds when you first get her started up. Then drive very very gently...and after about 5-6 min, even if the needle doesn't say it's at normal temp, you should safely be able to let the car idle to finish warming up. I generally take my car on a longer journey if I'm going short distances just to make sure she's being taken care of properly.

good luck...and be safe!!

 

crank it up before u brush ur teeth then go back inside and brush em and it will be ready to go

 

That is what I do.....

 

you guys are wrong. you should never have your car idling when it's cold. Drive it around to cool it off.

 

wrong, driving around with a stone cold engine does more damage than it does to let it idle. especially when its really cold out. all the engine really needs is just a few (10-secs at max) to get the oil to the top half of the engine, but driving it right away wul cause more damage due to the increased load on the engine than just letting it idle.

 

how can letting it idle at less the 1k rpm be worse then driving it at 2.5k rpm...theirs gonna be more movement at that rpm then at idle....

 

no...sorry about the second post I guess I wasn't detailed enough. What you should do is let the car idle for 25-30 seconds, then be on your way. I personally do that, but when the engine is cold, I take it easy until it warms up. I never will pass more than 2250 RPM from the line, and generally keep my foot off the gas whenever possible.

but keeping it to idle ain't too good. If your RPM's aren't fluctuating, you will have some metal components rubbing with other metal components, and this is not only very straining on the engine, it increases the wear and tear.

 

I let it warm up for a minute if it's cold outside and don't let it past 2k rpm. When its warm out, I let her idle for 30 seconds.

A little tip for you people with navi. When you turn her on, let her sit and idle...if you don't touch your navi. it'll go to the shutdown screen in 30 seconds. Shut down and count from there to see how long you've been idling.

 

if the car is properly maintained (good oil and such) ideling wont affect the wear, as long as you change your maintenance schedule to extreme. if the rpm isnt fluctuating doesnt meat that metal componants are rubbing, thats what oil is for and the lubrication system is for.