With these cold mornings we have at the moment, what is best? Driving as hard as poss to warm the engine asap but increasing the wear or driving carefully and allowing the engine to warm up slower but reducing the wear on the engine?

its got to be warm it up slowly hasnt it i try to start mine up then have a brew before i go in the morning

ln cold morning i start the car up in the drive way then plug in the 2kw fan heater and place it on the rear parcel shelf pluging it into the outside socket of the garage.

cars warm when i get in and engines warmed up...

Ice Bandits Warning

I believe (though have no evidence!!) that it's best just to not make the engine work too hard to begin with.
If you sit with the car idling it'll take ages to warm up and the oil won't be moving round the engine very quickly.
Drive off, just don't rev it hard or start pulling caravans until you're warmed up.
The only time I sit and let the car warm is if the heater isn't working yet and I'm getting serious misting.....

Lol at the ice bandits if your stupid enough to leave your car running unattended you deserve to have it stolen. As for warming the cars up i dont run my cupra r past 2.5-3k for the first 10 mins to let the oil get up to temp and operating viscosity or it wont get fully round the engine.

The best thing to do is to start it up, let it idle for no more than a minute and then drive off. Its not good for the engine to be cold and just sit at idle and equally its no good to rev the nuts off it straght away. I just start my car up and drive as I normally would in the morning.

The best thing you can do for your car at this time of year is to check the coolant and screenwash are up to scratch.

Agree with Ben and Mark G.

Load on the engine will encourage it to warm up more quickly. So driving it normally at low-mid revs will get the oil warm and flowing fully around the oil ways nicely.

It even warns in Haynes not to idle it cold because of the wear caused.

Idling it cold just causes wear.


Cheers,
James

One of my friends aunts had a Ferrari. Never drove it on the road just used to start it up every now and again and listen to the noise. After a few years went to finally drive it and the engine was toast.... Doh!!

You'll be waiting a very long time for a modern diesel to warm up just idling as they are so efficient on fuel.

As others have said just drive off and keep the revs down til at least the coolant comes up to temp (oil can still be a long way behind but not many tin tops these days have oil temp or pressure gauges).

Kenlowe make a hot start pre heater - warms up block and engine oil via a water heater which plugs into your domestic supply -this is suposed to result in very little engine wear,as fitted to Rolls Royce and Bentley (allegedly)
There is one fitted to our jeep and I plugged it in once and it blew all the fuses, I'm now relying on the choke!

There are kits available from places like demon tweeks for rally cars and such which don't have time to drive to temp before the stage. They simply plug into the water hoses as stated above which then run hot water through the engine to get up to temp.

When the engine in an F1 car is cold it is impossible to turn over because the tollerances are so small the engine is actually siezed up. They have to run hot water and oil into the engine to bring it up to temp just to make it possible for the engine to turn.

Road cars are all designed to be used in temperatures like what we'd see in the UK.

As I said above earlier, just treat it like a normal day. You may be colder but the engine doesn't notice it that much.

I used to be a firm believer of letting the engine idle a while for it to warm up, then I looked my Volvo owners hand book and they say not to do that; just drive off without going bonkers (my words not theirs) as that is best for the engine.

I start the engine, allow a minute for the oil pressure to come up and then drive. It's worked the same way with petrols or diesels, performance or std cars. My only major failures have been unserviced co. cars...

If it's a diesel though, go carefully as it'll take even longer to reach normal operating temp. I'd been driving my diesel tin-top round town to the motorway for over 15 mins this morning before the temp gauge got over 60/70 degs...

HTH.

Oil pressure in my engines hits maximum about a second after starting. Idling is always bad for a cold engine, just as it's bad on a freshly built engine.

My toy cars are left idling for a few moments whilst I do my harness up and get comfy. Then driven until the gauges say it's ok to start winding the revs up. My works van however, gets raged from cold, but mainly because there's a book running in the office as to what I'm going to need replacing next. Wheel bearings , brakes and tyres are the punters favourites thus far.

I have a remote start alarm on my tintop. It allows the car to warm up, but cannot be stolen because if you open a door, break a window or put your foot on the brake (automatic) without the ign key, it kills the engine.

i idle mine in the drive for 5 mins, with the interior heater on low. Nice and toasty when i come out! Might give it an oil change soon though to help it out.