Thread: To heat or not to heat!

My brothers have this very irritating habit of turning the engine ON and let it be for like 5mins. By that time you just sit like a idiot in the car. This gets on my nerves. They say its necessary to warm up the car before you drive off.

So i thought, why not get some expert advice over here from people who obviously knows more than me or my brothers. Help me!

Well it depends. If the temp is under 20 and the car sits overnight or out in the lot for eight or more hours it is always best to let the car warm up for a few minutes. Maybe not five minutes but more like three. I was told many years ago it is not good for a person to go out and start the car adn drive it on a very cold day without leaving it warm up for a few minutes.

I can understand if i have to warm up a car in the cold season...thats common sense...but here in Dubai the temp never goes below 45 degrees!!! I dont suppose u need to warm up then?

I am from the New England Area and it gets pretty cold in the winter.**I use to sit in my car and warm it up for five or so minutes on cold days.**But I was told by a friend of mine who is an auto mechanic that it is not good to let the engine warm up before driving the car.**The reason he told me is that the rest of the cars parts such as Transmission and Rear Axle fluids are still cold and stiff.**I have since just start my car put it in drive and let the entire car warm up.*Just remember not to drive the car too fast at first until you see the cold light go out or the degree gage move up a little. *I have also noticed that the car seems to warm up quicker when driving it.**I know that if you car is left outside you do have to warm it up so that you can defrost the windshield from frost in the cold morning, but if no frost I just drive off with a cold engine.**Have been doing it for years now and No Problems.**Just my 2cents worth.**JoeD

Yea I would say warm up is a good idea in cold temps, but in warm or heated temps, it really doesn't make sense since engine won't really be cold anyways.

Only when its cold very cold do I sit and warm the car up. Most of the time there is frost of the windsheild and I have no option. I would never let it warm up when its above 30 degrees.

Thanks a lot guys...now i do hope that my bros advice will change after reading ur expert comments...

Thats what i was saying them for a long time now...why warm up in this boiling country?? Foolish people lol

One more thing on to heat or not to heat. I recived a brochure from Hyundai today in the mail and inside they say the car does not need to be warmed up before you drive it. Just start it let it sit a few seconds and drive it.

It has been rather cold here in Ohio the past month or so and I noticed it doesn't take long for the car to warm up. Maybe five minutes and with the heated seats less than that.

I have a remote car starter on the Az and I usually start it when I am putting the milk and sugar in my coffee... i.e. about 2-3 min here in New England from fall to spring when it is cold.

If there is heavy frost or snow the warm up will be longer.

I'm going to take a stab here and say there are two things that need to "warm up" on a cold car, but that letting a car idle for several minutes is not really necessary.

The two things that need to warm up are the fluids and the metals.Â*Â*Most car fluids are fairly high viscosity, and they tend to thicken a bit in the cold.Â*Â*Motor oil, in particular, needs to be flowing smoothly over your engine if you don't want the engine to seize up.Â*Â*Thus, you want the oil to be flowing at a good solid rate before pushing your engine too hard.Â*Â*That said, there's no better way to warm up your engine than to run it, but running it at idle is probably not necessary these days.Â*Â*I'm not sure where the happy medium is, but as long as you're not "pushing the engine too hard", you're probably okay with three minutes of moderate driving to get all the motor oil to a good temperature for excellent flow and entering the "fun range" of RPMs.

The metals in the car are probably less of an issue, but they do expand with heat, and different metals expand at different rates.Â*Â*Modern automobile engines are built to fairly high tolerances, and engines can quickly reach hundreds of degrees (F, anyway, I don't know my Celsius conversions offhand).Â*Â*How fast the engine "warms up" depends on how hard it's being driven, but if the engine is very cold, and is suddenly made very hot, the cylinders will heat up much more quickly than the outside of the block, which can, in theory, cause stress fractures in your engine block.Â*Â*That said, we're probably talking about Alaskan Winter style colds followed by an immediate entry into racecar style driving hots.

In reality, in most temperate zones, the average driver really doesn't need to worry.Â*Â*On cars with "cold indicators", you should follow your manufacturers instructions and not drive too hard while the indicator is lit.Â*Â*Remember, the computer probably knows best.Â*Â*For everyone else, well, you're probably just wasting gas if you're letting your car idle for more than 30 seconds, so feel free to go, just go moderately at first.Â*Â*It takes a very short amount of time for all the fluids in the car to cycle, and only a few cycles for the ones that are warmed by the engine to reach a relatively uniform temperature.Â*Â*Once that's happened, your car is ready for whatever you can throw at it.

One final note: Never just put pure water in your radiator.Â*Â*Nothing will make you less happy than your overflow tank cracking because of ice, your coolant boiling over and leaking out, and your engine block cracking because there's no coolant flowing through it.