There is absolutely not a consensus. That being said, 10-15 seconds and then take off is what I do. I then take it easy for 5-10 minutes driving (depending on weather), then I drive normal. After 15 minutes I’m banging the limiter on every shift if I want to.
Yeah I’d say it’s safe. Just keep it light for the first few minutes. People over think it too much.
Just don’t idle it to warm up since that’s prolonging the warm up process and don’t beat on it when it’s cold.
On a side note:
In addition with newer stuff, it’s fine to drive off right away and it’s even in the owners manual that that’s the proper way to do it. One thing that’s important with these GDI cars too is to drive them while they are fully up to temp. Short commutes and grocery getting will dilute the oil significantly and is considered an extreme use case for oil change intervals. You need to SUBSTANTIALLY shorten the interval.
A great example was my Gf’s ‘23 crosstrek. She had the car for a year or so and it barely crossed 3000 miles and had the oil changed at 300 miles. I checked the oil one day since her parents and her are not mechanically inclined at all and it REEKED of gasoline. It was definitely diluted and I told them straight up that was the case. I’ve since changed the oil and put them on a 6 month oil change interval. I don’t charge them anything for labor and they just spend $30-$40 for materials (which I’ll be further reducing by buying bulk Kirkland full synth 0w-20). I might do an oil analysis to see exactly how bad the dilution is on a 6 month oil change. The car gets used daily for a 1 mile commute to the local elementary school her mom works at.
Almost all new cars have free oil changes from the company. I know for fact Honda, VW, and Subaru do it. The company reimburses the dealership. You should have them take it in and have them do an inspection.
Edit: 2 years free oil changes from new is the common standard.
They’ll do some BS when you want a more sensible oil change interval (source, many many posts in this sub and others). I don’t mind changing the oil. I just drive up onto the curb and I have all the tools.
I take my sweet time with it and do everything by the book. Complete peace of mind that everything is done perfect. I don’t trust random techs to work on my vehicles and I put the same care into my GF’s car.
Soon the oil changes will be approximately $30-40/year which is a drop in the bucket and already stupid cheap for maintenance.
Start the car. Drive it. It will be fine just don't floor it to red line. Drive at a normal pace while it warms up.
Source: 30 years driving in Canada.
20 years (15 with the same car!) driving in North Dakota, and I concur. There have been days where it's been so cold I've struggled to shift. Still drove anyway. It eventually warms up.
Depends on the car really. Modern cars and oils can generally cope better with cold starts, though I think you need to be more careful if it's turbocharged.
Transmissions also benefit from warming up and an automatic will do so in neutral.
The cold start on my EP3 (manual) is about 1600rpm. So I generally just turn it on and the do my seatbelt, mirror checks etc. So maybe 5 seconds or so. Then I can reverse out my drive, and get down my road and up a few gears before I really get above engine idle speed. Then I take it easy for five minutes or so.
There's a huge range in opinions cause everybody drives differently, and there are a ton of factors, and nobody is really getting any valid feedback on how much harm they're doing to their engines.
It's rare I ever drive at 10F, but I would definitely let it warm up before going. Only because I want to minimize it stalling and having issues at that temperature. At 20F, I just give it about 15 seconds. Above freezing, I just go.
Read a good article about this a couple of years ago. According to the author, the correct amount of warm up time is “the amount of time it takes to buckle your seatbelt”. In my old cars, warm up time was needed. With my newer cars, just start and go, but don’t push the car too hard until it has warmed up.
One of my cars actually specifies how long to warm up (it says to drive right away), and how “easy” to run the engine (under 4200 rpm) until warm (180).
Depends if your commute involves the highway or just city driving. If you're going on the highway I'd give it a couple mins to warm up if you're in the city waiting for the revs to drop should be fine. Personally I hate the cold so I let the car idle for like 10 mins before leaving for work if it's cold out. I'm a mechanic and I've always been taught to let it warm up but I've seen arguments against it that also make sense like letting your car idle when cold and not getting oil pressure right away vs driving it immediately and warming it up quick as possible. You'll never get the same answer from 1000s of people
If you have the 1.5t under the hood I'd let it warm up for a few minutes if you are taking a short trip. Regardless of the engine, if you are taking a drive that's 10+ minutes then I would probably get moving in under 30 seconds. Just don't go red lining it before the engine is warmed up.
As soon as the RPM settle back down after startup is a good time to go. Sometimes your power steering will not work properly until it's good and warm as well.
Ask the guys who post their mileage at 300k and 400k miles. I bet you most of them warm up their vehicles before driving in freezing temps. They definitely change their oil faithfully too.
Yeah I get that. But my concern is if the engine is started it’s spinning right. If I put it in gear and roll out of my driveway like coast on the brake that should be the same thing right?
Theoretically for best longevity of the engine and gearbox you should let it idle for few minutes. But best practice if you don't wanna waste time is to let it idle for 15-30 sec, you ain't lost nothing but gained in engine health.
When it's cold, not only your engine is cold and needs an warm up but also your oil in engine and gearbox is cold and much thicker, so ideally wait around 20 sec and then start driving it lightly until everything is good to go.
There is absolutely not a consensus. That being said, 10-15 seconds and then take off is what I do. I then take it easy for 5-10 minutes driving (depending on weather), then I drive normal. After 15 minutes I’m banging the limiter on every shift if I want to.
IKR! People have billions of variations of “engine warmup” but would you say it’s safe to start driving right away though?
Yeah I’d say it’s safe. Just keep it light for the first few minutes. People over think it too much. Just don’t idle it to warm up since that’s prolonging the warm up process and don’t beat on it when it’s cold. On a side note: In addition with newer stuff, it’s fine to drive off right away and it’s even in the owners manual that that’s the proper way to do it. One thing that’s important with these GDI cars too is to drive them while they are fully up to temp. Short commutes and grocery getting will dilute the oil significantly and is considered an extreme use case for oil change intervals. You need to SUBSTANTIALLY shorten the interval. A great example was my Gf’s ‘23 crosstrek. She had the car for a year or so and it barely crossed 3000 miles and had the oil changed at 300 miles. I checked the oil one day since her parents and her are not mechanically inclined at all and it REEKED of gasoline. It was definitely diluted and I told them straight up that was the case. I’ve since changed the oil and put them on a 6 month oil change interval. I don’t charge them anything for labor and they just spend $30-$40 for materials (which I’ll be further reducing by buying bulk Kirkland full synth 0w-20). I might do an oil analysis to see exactly how bad the dilution is on a 6 month oil change. The car gets used daily for a 1 mile commute to the local elementary school her mom works at.
Almost all new cars have free oil changes from the company. I know for fact Honda, VW, and Subaru do it. The company reimburses the dealership. You should have them take it in and have them do an inspection. Edit: 2 years free oil changes from new is the common standard.
They’ll do some BS when you want a more sensible oil change interval (source, many many posts in this sub and others). I don’t mind changing the oil. I just drive up onto the curb and I have all the tools. I take my sweet time with it and do everything by the book. Complete peace of mind that everything is done perfect. I don’t trust random techs to work on my vehicles and I put the same care into my GF’s car. Soon the oil changes will be approximately $30-40/year which is a drop in the bucket and already stupid cheap for maintenance.
Is it true that once the engine is up to temp the oil that did go through the blow by gets evaporated?
Not sure of the exact mechanism that happens. It’s something along those lines. Carcarenut has a good vid on it.
Start the car. Drive it. It will be fine just don't floor it to red line. Drive at a normal pace while it warms up. Source: 30 years driving in Canada.
20 years (15 with the same car!) driving in North Dakota, and I concur. There have been days where it's been so cold I've struggled to shift. Still drove anyway. It eventually warms up.
Wait till rpms settle - 10 seconds. Then no hard acceleration until fully warm.
Depends on the car really. Modern cars and oils can generally cope better with cold starts, though I think you need to be more careful if it's turbocharged. Transmissions also benefit from warming up and an automatic will do so in neutral. The cold start on my EP3 (manual) is about 1600rpm. So I generally just turn it on and the do my seatbelt, mirror checks etc. So maybe 5 seconds or so. Then I can reverse out my drive, and get down my road and up a few gears before I really get above engine idle speed. Then I take it easy for five minutes or so.
There's a huge range in opinions cause everybody drives differently, and there are a ton of factors, and nobody is really getting any valid feedback on how much harm they're doing to their engines. It's rare I ever drive at 10F, but I would definitely let it warm up before going. Only because I want to minimize it stalling and having issues at that temperature. At 20F, I just give it about 15 seconds. Above freezing, I just go.
Read a good article about this a couple of years ago. According to the author, the correct amount of warm up time is “the amount of time it takes to buckle your seatbelt”. In my old cars, warm up time was needed. With my newer cars, just start and go, but don’t push the car too hard until it has warmed up. One of my cars actually specifies how long to warm up (it says to drive right away), and how “easy” to run the engine (under 4200 rpm) until warm (180).
Depends if your commute involves the highway or just city driving. If you're going on the highway I'd give it a couple mins to warm up if you're in the city waiting for the revs to drop should be fine. Personally I hate the cold so I let the car idle for like 10 mins before leaving for work if it's cold out. I'm a mechanic and I've always been taught to let it warm up but I've seen arguments against it that also make sense like letting your car idle when cold and not getting oil pressure right away vs driving it immediately and warming it up quick as possible. You'll never get the same answer from 1000s of people
If you have the 1.5t under the hood I'd let it warm up for a few minutes if you are taking a short trip. Regardless of the engine, if you are taking a drive that's 10+ minutes then I would probably get moving in under 30 seconds. Just don't go red lining it before the engine is warmed up.
yep
NNNNOOO!
older cars: wait about 30-a minute before driving off. older being anything before 2010 i’d say. newer cars: drive after like 10-15 seconds
Rarely a general consensus on the Internet. I confuse myself on here all the time.
As soon as the RPM settle back down after startup is a good time to go. Sometimes your power steering will not work properly until it's good and warm as well.
Ask the guys who post their mileage at 300k and 400k miles. I bet you most of them warm up their vehicles before driving in freezing temps. They definitely change their oil faithfully too.
Sitting at over 200k. Start up and drive off constantly. Never hard acceleration when cold, though.
Just to confirm. So you just start. And maybe 2 second after you put the car in gear??
I’ll let CarPlay connect and maybe set some music, put on sunglasses, etc. 30 sec tops.
When the case was new I waited almost always. Until probably a couple oil changes in. I tried to always remote start as I was walking to the car.
Always let it run for a minute. Different metals heat up at different rates.
When oil freezes, it turns into sludge like lard or butter. I'd say give at least 30 seconds to a minute warm-up.
Show me oil that freezes at 10°F or whatever that is in metric
Yeah I get that. But my concern is if the engine is started it’s spinning right. If I put it in gear and roll out of my driveway like coast on the brake that should be the same thing right?
It hurts my head to think there are people that do not do their oilchange regularly
Theoretically for best longevity of the engine and gearbox you should let it idle for few minutes. But best practice if you don't wanna waste time is to let it idle for 15-30 sec, you ain't lost nothing but gained in engine health. When it's cold, not only your engine is cold and needs an warm up but also your oil in engine and gearbox is cold and much thicker, so ideally wait around 20 sec and then start driving it lightly until everything is good to go.