Ok, I did a search and didn't find anything useful. My question is do I really have to warm up my engine by letting it idle for like 3-5 min. before driving? Is that really necessary? I was reading through my owner's manual the other day and it said it's better to just drive it right away because it saves gas and warms the engine up faster, but this one mechanic told me to let it idle until the engine is reasonably warm instead of driving right away when the engine is cold. I have a 95 civic ex coupe manual tranny with no modifications with 113k on the clock. What do you guys do/think?

 

I always let my motor idle for a couple mins before I drive it, it probably wont help much since your motor has 113k miles and its all stock but I'd do it anyway.

 

what i do is, in the morning or the first start up i let it idle for about 2-3 minutes and then drive off.

 

its always good to warm up your car. It will benefit you in the long run.

 

My Honda manual says 1 minute when engine is cold.

There is of course many worse evils you can do to your engine.

 

There was a post about this a while back. There was a counter argument that you don't get enough oil circulation at idle (with a cold start), which could actually be harder on your motor.

 

by letting my car warm up i have actually noticed an increase in mileage, because when a motor is cold it runs rich..

 

i've always thought that you let the engine warm up so the oil can circulate throughout the motor.

 

Basically were talking about if it will hurt the motor. Worst case is probably like losing a hundred miles on the life of your motor.

Sometimes I think people dont realize that by racing your motor it will effect the life of it.

 

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just keep letting it idle for a few minutes before I drive it when the engine is cold. Thanks.

 

I usually try and wait maybe a minute before i drive from cold but not all the time. Either way I never go above 3k rpm until its warmed up properly. I think the new BMW M5s do this, the rev couter redline lights up at 4k rpm until it warms up just to remind the driver. Certainly never floor it right out of your drive as you're likely to score some bearings/accelerate other wear. Gearbox's also take a while to warm up, maybe 15km before they reach operating temp. I can always tell my car is warm when I can't hear tappets at low rpm. If I can hear tappets I know its cold. Just take it easy until its warm and you'll be fine...

 

There are MANY misconceptions about the proper way to "warm up a car".

First is this. If you let the engine sit for 5 minutes and let it reach normal operation temperature, well....the tranny is still cold, so you'll need to let that warm up a little also before banging.

2nd is this. Oil circulation is reach seconds after the car is started. Letting it sit there at 1k rpm for 5 minutes, isn't going to do anything more than than warm the internals and warm the lubricants. Driving under 3k rpm for the first few minutes of driving WILL warm your car up faster as well as the tranny. BUT...

As far as emissions goes, it is best to let the car warm up for about a minute to drive. The catylitic converter does not do its job until it is warmed up. In other words, on average, 75% of pollutants from the cars exhuast are emitted at initial startup. So, if you fire up, then take off....more "non broken down" CO2 is escaping out the exhaust because of the increase in air/fuel consumption.

To better the environment and your car, a start up of 1 minute is more than enough to....
1. warm up the catylist
2. cycle fresh oil through the engine
3. warm up the oil
4. warm up the engine
5. enough time for you to buckle up, adjust mirrors, and throw in that favorite track

 

yeah, i usually warm up my cars for 2 mins before driving. havent noticed any difference really, but thats a good thing isnt it?

 

My brithers car wont go into vtec when the engine is cold. He has a new prelude.

 

My brothers car wont go into vtec when the engine is cold. He has a new prelude.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94hondaLS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My brothers car wont go into vtec when the engine is cold. He has a new prelude.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats becase it's nt supposed to

 

here is something i heard on a news cast, obviously, living in wisonsin, we have cold winters, so ppl wonder about warming the car up, and this is what the guy said, it take around 30 seconds to get the oil to warm and go through the engine, any time after that is just warming up your car.. as far as the driveline goes, i dunno, just a little info i knew on this matter any how

 

yeah i just let it sit for about a min or until the idle drops to about 1k cause my car idles at about 1400rpm when i just start up.

Then i don't go above 1/4 throttle or 3000 rpms till it reaches full temp. then i haul ***.



-Sketch

 

yeah, thats what i do too, because you can tell when it is ready to go, i idle about 2km then drops to 1k in about a min

 

although oil circulation is good as soon as the oil pressure light goes off it won't behave as it should until its warmed up... whoever found out that you don't get vtec when the car is cold by driving it is a dumbass, you should never rev that high before the engines warm...you'll probably be ok but do it on a regular basis and you'll end up causing all sorts of premature wear...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Emerika &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

As far as emissions goes, it is best to let the car warm up for about a minute to drive. The catylitic converter does not do its job until it is warmed up. In other words, on average, 75% of pollutants from the cars exhuast are emitted at initial startup.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol. Yep. That is why I see tons of college students in the winter spewing out **** everywhere from their damn cars. They just get in, turn the key, and floor it.

 

exactly. everywhere i go i let my car warm up and i see people just hop in there car start it upa nd spew outthe lot. they dont even care about warming up

 

yep, I see that ****, too. Whenever I'm leaving campus and start my car up, I see everyone just turn their car on and speed out of the parking lot. Makes me wonder if they even care about their cars.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlackJoker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yep, I see that ****, too. Whenever I'm leaving campus and start my car up, I see everyone just turn their car on and speed out of the parking lot. Makes me wonder if they even care about their cars.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Unfornutely most people don't. Then they call them pieces of **** when they break down.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Emerika &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There are MANY misconceptions about the proper way to "warm up a car".

First is this. If you let the engine sit for 5 minutes and let it reach normal operation temperature, well....the tranny is still cold, so you'll need to let that warm up a little also before banging.

2nd is this. Oil circulation is reach seconds after the car is started. Letting it sit there at 1k rpm for 5 minutes, isn't going to do anything more than than warm the internals and warm the lubricants. Driving under 3k rpm for the first few minutes of driving WILL warm your car up faster as well as the tranny. BUT...

As far as emissions goes, it is best to let the car warm up for about a minute to drive. The catylitic converter does not do its job until it is warmed up. In other words, on average, 75% of pollutants from the cars exhuast are emitted at initial startup. So, if you fire up, then take off....more "non broken down" CO2 is escaping out the exhaust because of the increase in air/fuel consumption.

To better the environment and your car, a start up of 1 minute is more than enough to....
1. warm up the catylist
2. cycle fresh oil through the engine
3. warm up the oil
4. warm up the engine
5. enough time for you to buckle up, adjust mirrors, and throw in that favorite track </TD></TR></TABLE>

Good stuff