[Misc] Random question - do you warm you car engine up

Icy Gull · Dec 18, 2020

before you floor it?

I am shocked at how many people get in their car and accelerate away very quickly. Things may be different with modern engines but I was always told that the worst thing for an engine (apart from shit gear changes) was to not let the engine warm up before you gave it high revs.

Obviously not a problem for you electric car owners.

So, are you unwittingly knackering your engine by hard acceleration from cold? Maybe you don’t care because you change cars every couple of years and leave the problem for the next owner? :wink:

Bozza · Dec 18, 2020

I don't warm it up, but neither do I floor it immediately, if ever.

How long are you leaving it idling for before you drive away?

hans kraay fan club · Dec 18, 2020

Bozza said:
I don't warm it up, but neither do I floor it immediately, if ever.

How long are you leaving it idling for before you drive away?

This. I have to reverse out of my drive, for starters, and then it’s a minimum 5 minutes of slow residential roads before I reach anywhere you could open up.

I’m ready to stand corrected by the petrolheads, but I’d imagine the need to warm up an engine is redundant in modern cars. Not that you’d have known it, from my **** of a (former) neighbour, who insisted on starting his car and leaving it chugging on the drive for a full ten minutes, at 6am every morning. The absolute cock.

hart's shirt · Dec 18, 2020

Icy Gull said:
Maybe you don’t care because you change cars every couple of years and leave the problem for the next owner?

This spark might ignite a combustible thread.

Bozza · Dec 18, 2020

hans kraay fan club said:
I’m ready to stand corrected by the petrolheads, but I’d imagine the need to warm up an engine is redundant in modern cars. Not that you’d have known it, from my **** of a (former) neighbour, who insisted on starting his car and leaving it chugging on the drive for a full ten minutes, at 6am every morning. The absolute cock.

It's a shame you didn't know [MENTION=19]Icy Gull[/MENTION] lived next door - you could have shared lifts to games.

Is it PotG? · Dec 18, 2020

As Swiss Tony might say, you should treat your car as you would treat a lady.

beorhthelm · Dec 18, 2020

yes, not long though, then a gentle drive through estate. its probably not so necessary with modern synthetic oils. not just engine, catalytic converters dont work properly at low temperature, so chuck out lots of nastier stuff especially diesels.

MattBackHome · Dec 18, 2020

I pedal very slowly to the end of the road before I 'open up' on my morning commute

Johnny RoastBeef · Dec 18, 2020

I believe modern fuel injected engines no longer need warming up, only carbureted engines do.

zefarelly · Dec 18, 2020

modern toss I don't care about, I do keep revs down until its warmed up a bit though.

the reace car and older stuff, yes, always warm them up, at £10k + a pop, and highly strung you'd be a fool not to.

I've wrecked a Lambretta piston/cylinder this year by thrashing it hard before it properly warmed up, the underlying problem was fuel starvation, but never the less, it wouldn't have killed it had it all been up to remperature. Disparity in expansion rates of differing materials, iron cylinder, aluminium pistons.

As an aside, its quite possible to wreck engines if they get too hot as well. modern fuel is rubbish. , although modern management of engines compensates for most things. I've learnt quite a lot about that in recent years on Dynos and rolling roads.

zefarelly · Dec 18, 2020

Johnny RoastBeef said:
I believe modern fuel injected engines no longer need warming up, only carbureted engines do.

Do you work for Ricardo ? :lolol:

Diablo · Dec 18, 2020

Johnny RoastBeef said:
I believe modern fuel injected engines no longer need warming up, only carbureted engines do.

From really cold they do it is the cylinders/pistons that need to warm before they are under load or rev highly. Realistically however no one starts car and within 30 seconds is gunning it up the road.

grubbyhands · Dec 18, 2020

I let them warm up whilst I'm unlocking the gates and demisting them. I say "them" because I'm lucky enough to own a few cars of varying ages and mileages .Although modern ,fully synthetic engine oils are much, much better and engineering tolerances closer, some manufacturerers have very long oil change intervals. 18000 miles is not uncommon. After that sort of mileage / time I reckon the oil is shot. As I tend to buy my cars and motorcycles new I also run them in and have an earlier than recommended oil change. Am I weird or just protecting my investment in my vehicles?

Icy Gull · Dec 18, 2020

Bozza said:
I don't warm it up, but neither do I floor it immediately, if ever.

How long are you leaving it idling for before you drive away?

Explained myself badly. I drive off immediately but keep the revs low until the engine is warm before I give it the beans, which I do but only when warm :shrug:

LamieRobertson · Dec 18, 2020

Give it a cup of tea every morning and an electric blanket for night times

dazzer6666 · Dec 18, 2020

I think warming the car up is up there with 'use the engine to brake' in modern vehicles. Only time I'll do it is if it's iced up, then it gets a few mins on the drive to thaw. Can't floor it immediately even if I wanted to as it takes a few mins to get to anywhere that you could.

Icy Gull · Dec 18, 2020

Bozza said:
It's a shame you didn't know [MENTION=19]Icy Gull[/MENTION] lived next door - you could have shared lifts to games.

I am offended :down:

I love how some owners of diesels leave them to warm up before driving away as I’m not convinced they do unless you leave them for ages

Papak · Dec 18, 2020

I think OP means do you let the engine warm up naturally through normal driving before reaching higher engine speeds, not leaving it idling to warm up.

If the former, yes always. The latter, only for a few minutes on the coldest mornings.

Worried Man Blues · Dec 18, 2020

I drive at 40 mph max before firing it up, ie when the temp guage is high. It was born in 1997 though so I think it needs caring for.

oxymoron · Dec 18, 2020

I keep my cars dry stored at 62 F winter and summer.

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[Misc] Random question - do you warm you car engine up

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