is it possible for me to start my car let it warm up and close the door and not get locked out of the car?

 

^yes. butt, warming up your car has no benefits to the car.

it only benefits the occupants.

 

there was a thread a couple days ago about this. you can close the door and it wont lock on you . even if its locked and you close it, it will unlock. i tried it out the other day, while sitting in the car of course just in case...

 

then why is there that thing in my options and settings or whatever on the dashboard gauge thing it says you can change the re-lock time to 30 seconds or 60 seconds or something whats that for then

 

^ That's for when you had pressed unlock and didn't open the door. After that amount of time had passed, it'll relock itself. Had you opened the door before it had timed out, it will stay unlocked until you get in your car to drive off and it gets relocked if you had set up that option in your MID.

 

isnt it better to warm up your car before you drive instead of driving it straight when the engine is cold?

 

^It is technically the same thing.

All you need to know in cold weather is to not surpass 3.5K RPM at any time until the engine has fully warmed up (10-15 min of DRIVING)

 

Um no. Well I guess maybe in the lower 48, but I'm from Alaska and you'll blow your engine in a heartbeat if you don't let it warm up when its cold. I see this guy is from Jersey which probably doesn't have anywhere near the extreme cold I've seen in Alaska. Basically to put it really simple. Cold weather makes your oil thicker. (I know synthetic is thinner blah blah blah) but basically there is a point where its like sucking honey through a straw. I live in Oregon now and I still let my car warm up. Better to let it warm up than blow an engine. Sorry if I came off aggressive or anything but I just kinda saw this as bad advice.

 

^we dont live in alaska.

 

its actually better if you get in your car, turn it on, let the idle drop(1-2mins or until the Nav OK nag button turns off). then, drive off. not surpassing 3.5k.

your car will warm up the quickest this way.
by the time you reach the entrance to your neighborhood, the car should be fully operational.

 

As said warming up the car is just a comfort type of deal so you can get in and have A/C getting cool or heat getting hot.

The best thing to do is let it run and circulate the oil for a minute or two and then light driving until it reaches temperature.

 

Oh i know haha, and yeah I just meant let it warm up for a couple mins.


But I've literally been in a car a friend didn't warm up, he started it at -55 and tried to drive off, yeah bad things happened.

 

I call bs!!!! Warming up a modern engine is pointless!!! Start you r car and drive!!!!

 

Justin (crab boy) hit the nail on the head. It is best to warm up a car for 1-2 minutes at most before you start driving and then take it show for the first 10 minutes or so.

Keep in mind this goes for warming up the engine and not your ass on the seat warmers or heater. Personal comfort to me is not worth letting my car warm up for 5-10 minutes.

 

^RaviNJCLs is right but i like to warm up my engine almost to its operational temp.

thats why i slapped a auto start under the dash, warm her up every morning before driving for about 10-15 min i know that too long, but being really cold in the morning I always let the temperature of the engine get to half or to full operating temp. before I start driving.
Just hate to get in the car start it and drive it on cold, tranny feels like its lagging on shift and engine keeps it revs up higher

--> (crab boy)

 

Why is it pointless as it doesn't hurt anything with the modern electronics? Old carb cars yes, as the high idle wouldn't drop until the throttle blipped, but the new cars, other than wasting fuel, no problems and two of the cars had over 250,000 miles and the daughter's Maxima is standing at 194,000. Actually in exceptionally cold weather I've seen the coolant temp drop when driving the car as the frigid air coming through the rad actually drops the coolant temp and takes longer to warm up. Ever see trucks with covers over the rad?

I've had remote starters on our cars for about 20 years and I let the car warm up until the interior is nice and toasty, glass and mirrors defrosted, whether coming out of the house, restaurant, movies, office, or anywhere. The TL sits in the garage alongside another car that isn't used in the winter, but the other 4 cars in the household all have remote starters and on the '08 knock around car, the fuel mileage will see a drop from 29 to 24/25 and sometimes as low as 23 if idling a great amount of time. The open loop will drop off around 140-150 degrees and closed loop will take over, so no problems other than wasting fuel.

 

I wouldn't feel comfortable driving my car in -30 celcius without warming the car up first. I think it just depends on what temps you are talking about.

 

Any of you who claim they are right have a reference?

 

I've noticed that in cold temps, the car dont have high RPM hangs then drops like those smaller engines as it gets warm.

 

I saw this a while ago and ignored it but it went down the path I figured it would.

I agree with Turbonut. These cars get into closed loop operation extremely quick, within seconds. In the old days with a carburetor, with the choke on you usually had a very rich mixture, washing down the cylinders and diluting the oil which caused a lot of wear. The TL is running near stoich in under 30 seconds.

Mechanically, the piston to cylinder clearance changes the most from hot to cold. If you're hard on it before things tighten up it's possible to cause a little extra wear since the piston will be rocking in the cylinder. That applies to the rings as well. You want to get everything up to temp as quickly as possible without too much load or too many rpms.

A good synthetic of the correct weight will pump ok in most areas but there are some extremes where warming the oil is is required. It it ends up too thick, you can cavitate the pump and lose lubrication to the engine. Most of the time the cylinders are only lubed by splash off of the rod bearings so cylinder lube can be difficult when the oil is very thick.

Then there's the oil itself, many additives don't start working well until around 160F. It's been shown that most engine wear does not occur during startup but rather during the warmup process.

While water can be to full temp in 5 minutes or less, oil takes longer and you won't hit full core temp until 20 minutes or so. The gauge in the car might read normal but the oil can still be cold.

 

^ +1 And like it was said. it really depends on the temperatures. I personally let it warm up for 1-2 minutes or longer depending on how cold it is for anything 32 and below. most its gonna do is eat .0000001 gallons of fuel and possibly save me costly engine repairs.

 

Just picture it as foreplay for your car =D

 

^nice way of putting that

 

If my car sits outside overnight, I'll let it warm up for 5 minutes or so if I can. I hate holding a frozen steering wheel.

 

^ and shifting with a frozen shift knob

 

I live in MN where we get stretches of -20 to -30F and I have NEVER warmed up my car. I turn it on, clear the snow or scrape the ice off the windshield (if applicable) and after 2 mins GENTLY drive off just like the Acura Manual states. Been here 16 years and yet to have a engine grenade on me. If you are really concerned you can get a block heater installed and call it a day... Had several cars with them, and never used it.....

Lettting a modern car idle excessively does nothing but make your car consume more gas and makes you change your oil sooner.....

Engine and trans actually reach operating temp SOONER if you start car and gently drive off

 

Plus its just more luxurious to drive a warm car in the cold winters. Touring Luxury.

 

No. Better to start moving soon after starting the engine. As was mentioned, there is a recent thread about this very topic which you might find informative.

 

There is a pretty good rule of thumb you can use as a guide for when to begin driving the car. After starting the engine, wait until engine steed drops down to around 1000 RPM before moving out. Letting an engine idle for extended periods of time after a cold startup is not a good thing. Much better to get moving and use common sense when you do. Don't hit an interstate a 1/4 of a mile away. Rather, drive the car for a few minutes through a neighborhood or on a safe piece of road where you can do this at a low speed (say not more than perhaps 25), keeping engine speed below 2500 RPM.

There are a host of reasons to do this (not spend excess time warming up the engine), and all make sense. As for folks in places such as Alaska, I was under the impression that engine heaters were fairly common there.

 

^ Quick question. The part of florida I live in does get cold. In the middle of winter it's somewhat common to see the temp in the teens. Anywho... what is a block heater? Never seen one in my life....

 

Block heater is something you plug into an outlet that warms up your engine with electricity. Useful in really cold areas such as Alaska to lower engine wear when driving in cold weather.

 

Yep, block heaters are somewhat common up there. Most are water heaters, just a freeze plug with a heating element in it. The nice thing is instant heat from the heater. The only problem with those is the oil picks up very, very little heat from it if any so you still have to take it easy for a while. I would almost want to try one of those stick on pads for the oil pan to warm the oil although you wouldn't get the benefit of instant heat out of the heater.

There's a big margin of error when it comes to cold start and warm up techniques. It only becomes critical when the oil is thick enough and the rpms are high enough to cavitation the pump. Then you run into near instant lubrication failure. I doubt there are many places in the continental US that get cold enough to cause this. Back in the old days people ran straight weight paraffin based oils in really cold climates and survived. Mixing kerosene with the oil was somewhat common in very cold climates which blows my mind but they survived. We have it easy these days.

The steady state 1,800rpm very low load condition of the highway is an excellent way to warm everything up quickly without excessive wear as long as you take it very easy accelerating up to highway speeds.

I did a few tests a year or so ago, accelerating onto the highway just as I would normally from a red-light and kept the throttle in the same position the whole way. What was a bit surprising is holding the throttle in the same position and not letting up, the car would hit 100-120mph. We use more throttle than we think in normal driving. That's why I'm not against the highway driving right after a cold start as long as you can take it very easy getting onto the highway. You're most likely spinning lower average rpm and using much less throttle to maintain a steady state speed. On the flip side, I had an on ramp next to my old office that was uphill and short and required just about full throttle the whole way to avoid getting run over. I would let it idle for at least 10 minutes in the parking lot or drive around the block a time or two before hitting that one.

 

In the 60's, only a few cars were available with fuel injection and those were mechanical units. Which meant that nearly every vehicle used a carburetor(s). Cold starts on cold mornings, still worked fine. You just had to wait a little longer before heading out and you made sure you took it easy. Most common problem was bogging and sometimes backfiring through the carburetor.

Now cars with more aggressive cams could be interesting in these conditions and if you had removed the choke plates.... real interesting. Blocking the heat risers slowed and reduced warming of the intake manifold which on cold mornings made it fun.

Yep, our engines and their management control systems are marvels to be sure. But they are still mechanical contraptions which means a measure of common sense never hurts when applied judiciously.

 

I used to warm up the car when it was covered with thick ice. It made it easier to clear off the windows on a very cold morning.

 

It is better to warm up a car before driving it. Engine oil needs to be pumped through the engine and as the engine warms up the parts expand making it better for the engine to operate. accelerating hard on a cold engine can cause pre mature wear on the engine. also the engine computer goes into a different mode when the engine is cold. driving when it is cold could reduce your gas mileage a little. the computer stores your driving conditions and if you constantly start up in the morning and just go instantly then this can happen. Honda recommends you warm up your engine atleast 2 minutes in the morning before driving. you don't have to go crazy and let it warm up for a long time. just a couple of minutes.

 

Cite please.

It is not a good idea to let your engine sit and idle for more than a short period of time with a cold start. Two good guides to use;

• Wait until your Nav prompts you.
• Wait until engine speed drops to around 1000 RPM (this is what I use).

Then drive carefully until your temperature gauge is up to normal. This will not take more than a few minutes under most conditions.

 

Two things that I think need to be addressed is lube is near instant and idling to warm up won't hurt anything but it may not be ideal.

A positive displacement oil pump will pump the same volume of oil per revolution whether its thick honey or like water right up until it hits bypass. As long as the filter has a decent adbv you've got lube in under a second. Cam lobes up in the top of the engine sit in a puddle of oil so no worries there.

Idling won't hurt anything in the old sense. The TL is running near stoich in full feedback mode in under 30 seconds so you don't have to worry about a rich mixture and all of the problems associated with it. As SouthernBoy pointed out, these are still mechanical devices so a little common sense goes a long way. Manufacturing tolerances (not clearances) may have gotten better but not a whole lot has changed mechanically since the '60s.

 

Thanks, ihc. I was really happy to see you join in on this one.

The one 800 pound gorilla that is still in the room with all of this is condensation. As soon as the engine starts, the hear from combustion meeting the cold of the engine creates condensation. So the quicker the engine can be brought up to operating temperature, the less condensation that will make its way into the crankcase. Granted, much will burn of and/or evaporate but in this case, less is better.

But then there is the exhaust system and prolonged idling causes a continued buildup of condensation here. So getting up to temperature and driving the car will help to dry out this buildup. People who have short commutes tend also to have short lives with their exhaust systems. A lot has been improved over the years in this area, but still water does cause rust and corrosion.

Corrections, as always, are welcome folks.

 

Very true.

My wife commutes 3 miles to and from work. Maybe 5-8 minutes depending on traffic. We have been through 2 resonators and a muffler for her truck and I think we are going to have to replace the muffler again next year.