I am wondering how to warm up the car in a proper way? should the car be warm up in the moring or just drive the car right away. It is because if i did warm up my car in the morning it drive much better especially with the transmission is not jerking. But many others says that we do not need to warm up our car. Furthermore in Audi manual Says that DO NOT WARM UP your car. so it makes me confuse. Pls help thanks you.

 

you don't really need to warm it up. let it run for 30 seconds or so to get the oil flowing but after that you can just drive it normally, the car is designed to take longer to shift so the engine warms up quicker (higher rpms). i wouldn't recommend drag racing it when it's cold though. the only cars you really need to warm up are carbureted cars, and even then they are fine to drive slowly as long as you can keep it idling

 

I am not sure if that's true or not, but a tech told me there is oil pressure sensor. When you start the car in the cold morning or ANYTIME it might start up little over 10,000 rpm. After it back down to 8000 rpm, it is "safe" to drive.

 

Do you mean 1000 rpm and 800 rpm? This ain't no indy car, you know.

 

i am still debating though.... looks like if i warm up my car until it reaches about 70 F. the car runs more smooth especially if i am driving in Sport mode. Is it true that if the car is warm up in the morning, the transmission oil is not as hot as the engine oil. so if i drive it slowly it will heat up equally.??

 

By letting the car sit and waiting until it gets warm, you're wasting gas, harming the environment and putting more wear on the engine. Sitting there does not get it warmed up as fast as if you were driving it easy for a few minutes to get it up to operating temperature. The car is going to be a little more sluggish when first driving off because its still cold but driving around for a few minutes should get it warmed up and normal.

The computer is programmed to hold shifts a little longer to warm up your catalytic converters quicker to reduce emissions, that's why you might feel a slight jerk because its holding the gear longer then shifting...not as smooth as when warmed up but its normal.

After starting, either drive off or wait for the RPM needle to drop below 1000 RPMs and go. I usually get in, start it up, seat belt, radio and I'm off...about 10-15 seconds is all it needs. Keep the RPMs below 3500 for the first few minutes till the coolant needle is up to temp.

 

LOL! I'm pretty sure he meant 800 - 1000 rpm. Hell, I redline around 6500-7000


But back to the original post....I usually warm up my car for about a minute or two, but if I'm in a hurry, I'll drive slower than normal just to get the fluids warmed up to operating temp.

 

I usually start my car, turn on the heated seats and go back inside. Just for the simple fact that it gets cold as hell in Maryland in the Winter and I like driving in a warm car.

 

Start the car, put it in gear & drive with gentle acceleration untill you feel heat coming thru the heat system. Then drive normally. Warming up a car became unnecessary when carburetors and metal temperature sensitive coiled metal automatic chokes were replaced by fuel injection and computers. (My MBs have never been parked in a garage, just my driveway strip.)

You HAD to warm those cars up so they wouldn't stall on you in a dangerous unexpected location on the street while driving away. Hell back then, it was a test of your manhood to see if you could start your car, put it into Drive & drive it away without it stalling at all. It took a good ear, fantastic foot ankle and calf coordination, and a good ear to hear the car hiss just before it shook iinto dead silence.

If you're talking about waking up in Minnesota after a -40 Degree night, I'd wait about 30 seconds after starting to let all the fluids move around a bit. If you think 30 seconds isn't long enough, get in & sit in a stone cold car without starting it... no radio, no heat, nothing. 30 Seconds is an eternity.

Don't burn fuel for no reason. If nothing else, its zero MPG.

 

I've always used the exercise analogy: you wouldn't start off running full bore early in the morning without a little stretch and easy warmup. The same for your car. As was said, no need to sit in the drive but after the rpm automatically goes down, just cruise out of the neighborhood like you would start a run. Watch the temp and 3-5 minutes should get you where you need to be.

FYI, back in the day, we would put our cars in gear and hold the brake to allow the oil to cycle through the gearbox. Barry is entirely correct regarding the art form of the old cold start.

 

I keep my cars in the garage and I have the heat set to about 40 degrees (F) even when the outside temperature is -20 F. I have a garage heater so that I don’t have to worry about starting my cars in bellow freezing temperatures every day. I usually start the car, then I immediately open the garage door, then I buckle up and turn on the seat heater. Then I have to probably wait about 5 or 10 seconds more for the RPMs to drop bellow 1000. I then put it in reverse and I drive off. This whole procedure probably takes just over one minute (if that).

I usually drive it in "C" mode so that the 2nd gear start will make my RPMs stay bellow 2000. I only work about 2.5 miles away, so it takes a bit for the heater to start working, but I still try to keep the engine bellow 2,000 RPMs. When I drive longer distances I usually let the engine rip after it has been warmed up.

I have probably let the car idle and warm up three times in the last 2.5 years. These have been exceptions when I have parked outside and I am scraping snow and ice from the car. I don't worry too much about doing this a few times a year since after letting the car idleI then drive about 190 miles to get back home and I know that will clean out the engine.

I think that the key is NOT to put the car in gear when the engine is above 1,000 RPMs and then drive it gently trying to avoid going much over 2,000 RPMs until the heater is blowing a good amount of heat. Even when the heater is working well, I wait to pass 3,500 RPM's until the temp is up to 1/2 for a little while.

My Audi has two temperature gages; one is for the coolant and the other is for the oil. It is interesting to see that sometimes the coolant can be warm, but the oil is still bellow 60 degrees (C). Since I have a turbo on this car I rarely ever use the turbo hard when the oil is not at least a bit over 60 degrees. Since my Audi is also a stick shift, I usually roll it out of the garage immediately while it is still cold so that the fumes don't stink up my garage. When you drive a stick you have a lot more control on how hard the gears engage and how much you rev the engine. But Audi does specifically want you to drive off and NOT warm the car up.

I think that most people are in agreement on this one, letting you car idle for more than 2 minutes is really a total waste of time, fuel and damages the environment. However, there are extreme cold temperatures when two minutes is not a bad idea.

Steve

 

Ding! I only let it warm up in the Winter time because I don't have a garage. When the car is covered in snow and ice, I start it up, hit the defrost and go to scraping the ice and removing snow...probably about 2-3 minutes. By then, the heat is up working away at melting the remaining ice and snow and I'm ready to go.

 

thanks guys for the help. i will try to warm my car up for maybe about 2-3 minutes and dive it right away slowly. As i live in San jose California. there isn't snow at all and the weather is fine here.

 

2-3 minutes is forever! way too long!

 

30 seconds should be plenty of warm up time before taking off.

 

I give it a minute or two and then I'm off. 3-5mins is too long.

 

In the winter, I give it maybe 3-5 minutes to let it warm up slightly since it's freaking cold then. In the summer, I take off after the initial high idle.