aight so since day one of havin my car ive always let it warm to near idle temp's before i drive off...at most 2 notches below idle on digital coolant temp gauge...now im at almost 15k miles and im still doin that...jus wonderin am i jus **** or will this really have ne effect on how long the motor lasts and what condition the internals are in?

 

if your car is over cooling then that should show up on your spark plugs. they should be fouled. if they are not then I would say its somewhat of a good thing, since heat kills baby seals. lol haha jokin...

but seriously, your spark plugs are your first look. they should not be covered in any carbon or anything, they ceramic should around the arm and center should be still white and uncovered. our plugs / engine burn really clean

 

um im not having any problems im jus askin about lettin it warm up all the time before driving off..i reread my original post and saw it was kinda misleading..i fixed it to mean what i meant to say lol, sorry for the misunderstanding

 

I think the most important thing when warming up a car is when you first crank the car let it sit until the rpms go down some and let the internals get coated in oil before driving off. also if the car is still cold when you take off avoid hard acceleration if possible. thats my 2 cents.

 

for sure i figured as much already, im jus askin if it really HAS an effect long term for engines life/internals

 

the coolest thing i have saw was when penzoil had set up a live engine model and fired up the engine in a super cold state. you can actually see how long it takes for the oil to fully coat the piston. Ever since then I made sure i let my engine warm up for a few minutes before I drove off. To get the best out of oil, it should be warmed up to its normal operating temperature. Oil companies speak about their synthetics being engineered to flow better / easier in extremes, and i think it was Quaker state that made claims bout it being heat activated performance.

its hard to say how long you should wait. Also if its super hot summer day I dont think you have much to worry about. its those bone chilling ones that it might be prudent to wait a bit