Winter engine start up

[mdfortwoguy]

Originally Posted by jetfuel

...your engine wear occurs at star up, is accelerated by the lack of good warming procedures...5 min is a good time for the fluids to come up to temperature...

That is, 5 mins of slow easy driving. Idling a car to warm it up isn't that effective.

[Mike T]

Since the engine wear is accelerated when the engine is not at operating temperature, the only sensible thing to do is drive off immediately, to shorten the length of the warm-up period. Shift early and don't boot it until the car is up to the usual operating temp.

[Black-ohio-brabus]

I pick my brabus up wedensday 9-16-09

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by mdfortwoguy

That is, 5 mins of slow easy driving. Idling a car to warm it up isn't that effective.

This I can confirm via Scangauge. 10 minutes of idling or 2 minutes of slow neighborhood street driving (take the back roads for those 2 minutes) get the engine up to the same temp. The 2 mins of slow driving get tranny fluids moving; best not to take a cold tranny right onto 40mph traffic. Circle a parking lot or take a side road for a minute or two. If it feels gutless on the main road, you're probably punching it too early and aging the drivetrain.