im already in reverse by the time the tach needles are done doing their start up routine

 

i see that most of you guys commenting are from down south; cali/florida.

here in chicago and some of the people who commented from NY, weather gets extremely cold here during the winter. i let my car sit for 5-7 minutes and then drive.

but in the winter, i let it sit for 10-30 secs., then i drive.

 

Here in the Bay Area, I usually let it warm up for a minute or so and then I'm off to the races

 

IDK how much I believe Lobux's post THAT much.

1st of all, I doubt THAT much condensation builds up in the cylinders overnight or in short periods of time.

2nd of all, I doubt there is that much blowby in our cars. That would cause a very rough idle due to the lack of compression. Maybe with a built engine where the pistons expand and contract 3x the normal amount, but our cars are probably built with pretty tight tolerances. Blowby causes blue smoke and choppy inconsistent idle, neither of which Lexus owners would happy with.

And let's understand blowby a little bit more. Blowby is compression forcing air down past the piston rings around the pistons into the oil pan. There is not such a large gap that water is just going to drip down past the rings. Anyone that has installed rings knows that rings must be compressed themselves to even install them. Water is not dripping past them. Additionally the friction from the first 100 revolutions in the first 3 seconds (of cold start idle) would remove any water anyway.

And even if a tiny bit of water (with organic acids?) that DID get into the pan, would simply be burned out when the oil was squirted into any part of the block or head.





Just ask the millions of people in colder parts of the world with remote start that use it 1x-3x daily for tens of thousands of miles. Why aren't their motors blowing?

I warm my car up because I like the heat to be warm. I also don't want moving parts in my engine and transmission to rely on a thick viscosity fluid to lubricate them at extremely high speeds. Try swinging a golf club through water and then through mud 100 times a second, then at 500 times a second and see what puts more stress on the club.

 

^^i was thinking the same thing...although i couldnt really explain it to myself as well as u did. but anyway what kurtz quoted seemed a bit far fetched....i think im gonna do some research on this one!

and im not saying you NEED to let it warm up but it just doesnt make sense that it would be bad for your car if you do...

 

No need to warm up start and go

 

Here's some relevant information -

"SHOULD I SHUT OFF THE MOTOR WHEN I'M IDLING MY CAR"

Myth #1: The engine should be warmed up before driving. Reality: Idling is not an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to do this is to drive the vehicle. With today's modern engines, you need no more than 30 seconds of idling on winter days before driving away.

Myth #2: Idling is good for your engine. Reality: Excessive idling can actually damage your engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs, and exhaust systems. Fuel is only partially combusted when idling because an engine does not operate at its peak temperature. This leads to the build up of fuel residues on cylinder walls that can damage engine components and increase fuel consumption.

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/myths/idling.html

 

For those in the "idling is good" camp, do you have any sources to back up your theory?

 

well just from personal experience, my dad has been delivering pizza for the last 9 years, leaving his car idle every time when he gets in it to go to work and on every delivery he goes to. he has used two cars a 99 toyota rav4, which now has 230k miles and no problems and a 2006 rav4 closing up on 100k with no problems.

 

^ There are smokers that live to 100+ years old too, but that doesn't mean smoking is good for you.

I'm just curious to see if there are any articles or technical explanations (based on more than just anecdotes) that claim idling is good in a modern car. I couldn't find any...

 

I don't really consider letting the engine heat up much before moving the car(other than letting the tach come down to normal).

Personally, I just like to let the fluids in the trans move around a bit before popping mine into R or D. Is that completely pointless too, I imagine?

 

Again, even the owners manual is pretty clear on this-

No warm up required, and excessive idling explicitly puts the car into the "severe duty" maintenance schedule because it's bad for the car (the oil especially).



that's not to say that idling is going to blow the car up in 10k miles... any more than running 87 octane will these days. But both are bad for the long-term life of the engine and provide no functional benefit whatsoever.

 

i have to wait a bit..because my baby needs to be put in his carseat

 

Max of 30 seconds and I'm off though I try to be light on the pedals (below 2000rpm) until the vehicle has fully warmed up.

 

I just drive around in 4th gear so it stays at 2.5k rev and it will warm up quick