The manual is pretty vague. It definitely recommends giving the engine warmup time in the winter time. But it just says allow a sufficient amount of time for the oil to start flowing smoothly to parts of the engine, so thats where your judgement comes in.

 

a BMW engineer was once asked why they don't offer remote start like GM and some others.

his reply was: "the worse possible way to run a cold engine is with no oil pressure"

something to think about

 

so how are u supposed to warm up an engine?? i am soo confused

 

drive it normally until up to temp and not let it sit at idle with low oil pressure. but I will concede that at the end of the day most modern motors will take an amazing amount of abuse before death.

 

this is goin to go back and forth all day, with my own two eyes I have seen a demo at a car show of an engine running at room temp and - 40. with the correct oil. I beleive it was a penzoil demo, it was like 7 years ago. They showed an engine cut in half to give you an idea whats going on with the pistons and oil in the block bottom.

Was cool, showed how the oil shoots up there and how it comes back down.

You would be shocked to know how long it took for the oil to coat the engine piston, it was the coolest demo i have ever seen, i wish they put that on their website. or you tube.

I always let my car warm up, hurry or not. I plant my *** right there in the driveway till about 3 or 5 minutes in the extreme cold winter.

 

I dont disagree that there is low pressure but that is due to a few factors. Just looking at it scientifically, the piston and metal block is cold. its smaller size and the fact that oil is cold as well would probably cause a lower temp. due to the increased gap. But driving the car in the ops to warm it up under load is potentially not the best idea without proper lubrication. Remember on start up and for some time. Its metal on metal contact.

But your right about modern motors they do a much better job a deleivering oil properly in such senarios.

But the harms of letting your car idle has been reduced due to refinements to engine idling profiles, better spark designs to better aid anti fouling efforts, even the fuel used today is better.

 

I'm not saying drive hard... but idle will yield the least oil pressure... getting moving a little will raise that up instantly as the oil circulates.

another way to look at it is to say that anytime you run the motor while cold is bad -- idle-ing the car makes for a much longer warm up period.

 

I somewhat see what your saying, but a car under load vs. no load is night and day. With no or poor lubrication on your pistons under load is what can cause potential wear, free floating RPM revs should be fine. But reving the engine manually high is not good either.

Second is a transmission fluid has the similar properties to engine oil in terms of temp, hense the ruff shifting in cars that Auto. With our newer generation CVTs there is no planetary gear action, just pullies so its hard to assume with certainty that its better then a traditional Auto.

But to each his own, everyone has a different habit in the morning. I personally dont mind waiting. one thing i hate more is getting into a car that is cold.

Cold steering wheel, seats, cabin temp.

 

this is just like "regular or prenium" gas should i use or " SRI vs CAI" threat , getting poeple no where .

 

I dont know - the fact the manual specifically recommends allowing some time for warmup in cold weather definitely adds some value to one side of the arguement. Not to mention on -20c days when the car sometime struggles to startup, doesnt give me much confidence to load the engine up and drive off immediately. But hey go ahead with whatever warm up time you want man, its your car at the end of the day.

 

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The other day the temperature dipped all the way to -20 C. So of course I drag the wife outta the house with a flashlight on the search for the block heater cord. Well after some really cold fingers and some swearing I couldn't find it.

I go down to the delaer the next day and the girl at the service desk advised me that none of the new Mitsu's come with a block heater installed because you don't need one. Well her word wasn't good enough so I found my salesman in the showroom and he confirmed that the cars come with out a block heater and that Mitsubishi has done extensive testing and the engine is designed to start to -45 C without a block heater. He tells me that if I absolutely want they could install a block heater for $120 but it is not necessary at all.

I have never heard of a car comming without a block heater here in Canada. So, of course I start thinkin maybe this is a way for Mitsubishi to save money and offer the customer lower prices. I then called Mitsubishi Canada. The guy on the phone advised that the cars do not come with a block heater and in fact Mitsubishi does not even make a block heater. He also confirmed that the car has been tested and will start to -45 C.

I still wonder whats going to happen when we have about 4 days of -35 straight. Will she actaully start..... Thank god for roadside assistance, hopefully I won't have to use it.........

I also believe the manual advises warming up the car so the first bar of the engine temp is illuminated........

Also as an aside.. I bought the Michelin X-Ice tires and winter rims.... those tires make a huge difference. I am taking off faster than anyone else at lights and not sliding around corners.

 

LOL block heaters are not essential in canada there's no law to force the dealers to include them . ONly GM and ford as them from factory i think . All my previous car did'n have block heaters .

 

I think if you use synthetic oil you can get away without having a block heater. If not, it definitely does make startup quite a bit of a noticable struggle for your car in temperatures like -20c or below.

 

I live in California and I let it warm up for just about 1 minute. My car usually starts up at 1700 to 1800 rpm.. I"ll let it run down to 1000 rpm or 750...

 

Well as I have said earlier in this thread I don't have a block heater and we have had a couple of weeks now where the temp is around -20c every morning and not once has my car struggled to start. Actually my last vehicle (03 Mazda Tribute) had a block heater and I really can't tell the difference between them.