jasone36

Hello,

Back in the day people used to always warm up their car's engines before driving, apparently because that was the "best practice". I am wondering if this theory still applies to the SC430?

I have heard that some imports specifically should not be warmed up because it may cause issues with the thermostat when the car is running too long without being driven.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

bacardi

i always let my car warm up alittle, old school like you said.

VVTiBob

What warm up period are you considering? A minute or two in cold, should I say really cold weather places, is sufficient unless your car is literally frozen. Otherwise technology has taken care of the need for this past practice. Take a look at the info in this link regarding warming up cars.

bacardi

bob
i run the engine till the high idle kicks down. then i put it in gear.

VVTiBob

I do the same sometimes, just depends on if I'm late. Now that I'm retired I run late often as my attitude has changed a bit.
The "old school" warm-ups... I remember my Dad letting his 65 Caddy run for 20 minutes in the garage (overhead door open of course) had more to do with lubrication back-in-the-day then anything else. With today's modern motor oils, viscosity is not a problem, especially in colder climates IF you follow the manufacturers recommendations.

Here is a more technical explanation of Engine Idle components, cause and effect. Page 4 of the PDF applies to our discussion here.

bacardi

bob
i let my car run untill the fast idle ends and go. i remember them old days very well.
thanks bob

jasone36

Thanks for the detailed responses. It sounds like most folks are doing what I am doing, which is to run the engine for just a bit before driving it.

kjcole

Bob,

You are a wealth of information. And I have quite a nice collection of great PDFs thanks to you!

And to stay on-topic: With high quality lubricants that are clean and matched to vehicle requirements and temps, the days of warming up are gone. Synthetics provide a little more reassurance on those really cold mornings.

Kelly

Harold57

The reason behind warming a car up in the past was that the engine's physical configuration and the oil type and grade. After the car sat for a while, all the oil returned to the oil pan leaving the moving engine parts dry. The oil back then didn't have all the additives that are in today's oil so it would tend to thicken up more when cool/cold versus when it is hot. So to give the engine time to relub itself after first started, it was advised to let it idle for a bit after first starting it up to not only relub the engine but also allow the oil to warm up enough to not be as thick and flow better to provide better engine part coverage. The main argument for this procedure was to prevent hard acceleration on an engine that wasn't properly lubricated yet. Everything that I've read indicates that today's cars no longer need the startup idle time. The engine is fairly well lubricated within seconds rather than the minutes of yesteryear.

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

The SC430 has A/F ratio sensors. They immediately go to closed loop within seconds. It's not necessary to leave it idling for long period of time. Some would say wait 15-30 seconds and lightly throttle it. But for me, I prefer to let it warm up from 1-3 minutes depending on the weather and then drive it.

braheem

iTrader: (4)

Start, Reverse, Drive all within 5 seconds for the past 400K Miles.

If I wanted a car starts to act normal after 5 minutes I would have gone back to Mercedes.

sixonemale

I agree with much of what has been said in regard to not having to warm up your engine for an extended period of time. First off, it’s much more environmentally sensible to only let your car idle a short period of time due to the incomplete combustion - high emissions (unburned hydrocarbons), lousy fuel efficiency, etc. I also agree that with today’s lubricants, fuel injectors, etc., it also makes sense to warm up the car for a short period of time. The only caveat that I would add is the difference between warming up and standard operating temperature. If on a cold day the engine is only warmed up for a very short period of time, it would seem counter intuitive to run any car hard each and every time, due to the fact that metal expands as it is being heated up and over time and repetition could possibly cause internal damage. Therefore, with a short warm up period and then driving your car gently, so to speak, and bringing it up to standard operating temperature would then allow it to be driven however you’d like IMO.

TxPhantom

I’ll say this... Until recently, I had an S2000, and the car had a safety feature to limit the revs in cold weather when the engine temperature was not high enough. That being said, warming up is not a bad idea, or in the least take it easy while running it cold.

harleydjce

Where does this sort of thing come from? Warming up a car's engine went out when the Dodo bird died out!

Engines warm up faster and the oil and other lubricants react better when you simply start the vehicle and drive normally.

I can't believe there are still people doing this sort of thing!