Cold Weather Start

[Daedalus]

Hi all! I recently purchased a 2004 Camry SE and like all new car owners, I want to protect my investment. I live in the Canadian prairies where -35C temperatures are not uncommon. I was always told that when you cold start a car, you should let it warm up for at least 10-15 minutes so the temperature gauge moves and the oil has a chance to warm up. Recently I was told that you should only let the car idle for a few minutes and if you let it idle for too long, you will do more damage to your engine. Can someone please tell me which is correct and why?

My only guess is that if you let it warm up for too long and then you suddenly drive away, the hot oil circulates over the cold engine parts which can cause damage. But after 15 minutes, isn't the engine already warm enough??

Thanks for your input!

[GT4 BOOSTER]

i'd say drive off as soon as , letting it warm up is an old wives tale and wastes fuel , caused unnessasary wear on the engine as its standing still and not moving as such.its only good to stand still untill your screen clears and thats long enough but only if you need to.

you dont get hot oil over a cold engine its circulating around the engine from cold and heats up gradually ;)

please call back as you seem to be ill advised.

[Daedalus]

An old wives tale, huh? That's almost as good as the one where I was once told to put my car in neutral when its warming up so the oil is able to get into the transmission. :-) Anyone else heard that one?

[daktari]

As a rule i let mine warm up for about 30 seconds or so then drive off keeping the revs and boost down for the first 5-10 minutes until thoroughly warm and the oil temp is up. I want my turbo bearings to last.

Not heard the thing about neutral. Sounds like a load of :censor: as gearbox lubrication is not connected to engine lubrication. And being in gear or neutral wont make any difference if your stationary.

[GT4 BOOSTER]

the term " DIPSTICK " comes to mind

[daktari]

[Coyote!]

The real thing is, that you have to start it, let it idle for a few seconds till all the oil get to everywhere, and the start driving gently until the gauge gets up to the normal temperature.

If you live in a very low temp area, you probably have changed the coolant to the required coolant/water ratio and special oil for low temps... have you?

Cheers

Coyote from BA

Argentina

[T V O R]

After starting my engine I wait at least a minute before driving off especially in the cold weather. This is just to let the oil circulate all round the engine.

[LimeyMk1]

The old mini used the same oil for gearbox and engine, thats probably where your second post 'old wives tale' comes from Daedalus.

The car'll be fine to drive, just don't drive like a loon until the engines warmed up some :D . If your oil pump's functioning correctly (and it should be in a new car) full circulation should kick in quickly.

[michelepap2]

I just bought a v6 xle 2005 and the owners manual says to just drive. It says not to let it idle. :bookworm:

[Kelvyn]

I think you'll find that the reasoning behind driving off (gently) straight away is to make the engine work and warm up quicker and more importantly to get the catalytic converter up to temperature quicker. Leaving the engine idling means there is no load on it so it takes longer to warm up, if it takes longer to warm up then its running richer for longer and saturating the cat' for longer which will shorten its working life. In the old days that wasn't a problem of course as we didn't have cats', but the problem you had then was that if you left the car running with the choke on the extra petrol would wash the oil out of the bores and cause premature bore wear plus it caused a build up of carbon deposits which meant regular de-cokes (head off to clean up valves and combustion chamber). This was often like every 30 to 50k miles. These days modern engines run much leaner because we have electronic fuel injection amongst other things, you need to do hundreds of thousands of miles now before you need to de-coke

[CarinaNL]

I agree with Kelvyn's explination. But we're forgetting about the 3rd and best option: a parking Heater. These systems are mainly used in Sweden, Norway, Finland at least that I know of. Saab and Volvo even offer these as an accessory or standard on their cars in certain regions/countries.

Look at this site: Webasto Parking Heater and you'll find more info on the systems plus explanations about why it is better for you and your car.

[Kelvyn]

A friend of mine had one of those fitted to his Mercedes. Worked really well. We would all go to the car park after work inthe winter and stand freezing our nuts off scraping ice off, he hopped into his nice warm car and drove off. Pretty expensive initially though, his cost him about £1500 (5 years ago) so you need to be sure you're keeping the car for some time.

[CarinaNL]

The Webasto systems starts of at 1000 euro's (710 GBP or $1740 CAN, at least here in Europe, depending on what functions you want on it (timer, remote etc.).

[Kelvyn]

The Webasto systems starts of at 1000 euro's (710 GBP or $1740 CAN, at least here in Europe, depending on what functions you want on it (timer, remote etc.).

←

!000 euro's wouldn't be too bad but a lot of us live in rip off britain. You could probably double that price then convert it to GBP at a conversion of 1 to 1 then add VAT and fitting charges. Ahhh home sweet home!! :D :D

[CarinaNL]

Simply order it in NL and ship/send the whole lot to GB installment can be done by an average DIY!

The price was incl VAT 19%

[tom200]

How many minutes must Webasto normally work to warm the engine up to at least 50 C? When it's for example -10 C outside.

[Bee]

According to Shell,

"Always drive off straight after starting the car in the morning. The engine will warm up quicker, and a warm engine works more efficiently than a cold one."

http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2EE5523C

It has to be said it doesn't say that is in all weather! Still the rational is sound enough.

15 or so years ago, there was an electric (engine) warming gadget on the market. The heating module was basically an electric (kettle) boiler element that was used to heat up the engine coolant. 15 minutes would be sufficient according to the literature. The socket for the electric flex (to a wall mains socket, presumably in a garage) was meant to be located just behind the front bumper. I remember it cost about £180. It was a good idea though, as long as you don't drive away forgetting to unplug the electric supply!

--

Bee.

[popwud]

I agree with most of you, I used to let the car engine idle until it started warming up until recently, when reading in a motorcycle mag that you do more damage to your engine by idling from cold for more than a minute.