0cean

My girlfriend and I have been in this heated debate about warming up cars in the morning or during cold temp. I keep telling her you have to let it warm up a little, to allow the oil and other fluids properly cover the engine.

Here in Germany most Germans just start and go, no matter if the car was been sitting around in freezing temp all night.

Any opinions?

jakko

or else the car will be very unsmooth for the first few minutes of driving.

as far as it being necessary, i'm not sure. i was young and impatient back when i owned an a4 and i never warmed it up. never had a problem with it.

April

(not exceeding 3500rpms and using slow throttle inputs to avoid a surge of boost) until the water temp is up to normal at the very least - of course you don't know about oil temps since there isn't a gauge.

I would imagine the frequent car inspections would tend to weed out older cars rather quickly, so people who live in that kind of market aren't especially concerned with longivity of the engine. The cars are either dismantled or sold off to countries with less stringent requirements.

Mark Sirota

The engine isn't the only thing that needs to warm up. The transmission, tires, wheel bearings, shocks, and lots of other things are also affected by temperature.

My usual routine when it's really slow is to get in and start the car, release the clutch (gearbox in neutral), then put on my seat belt and get everything else ready, then drive gingerly until everything has a chance to warm up.

intgr8r

Including powertrain, suspension, hubs etc.....

0cean

proving to be a little difficult.

April

Sometimes it's better to just say, "yes dear" and leave it at that ;-)

Patronus

more recent recommendations have been to NOT warm up the car. The arguement is that the drivetrain (including the engine) warm up much faster by driving it from cold, therefore minmizing the amount of time that the system runs cold. There is also an environmental up side to the faster warm-up rate.

I just start it and drive it, using heated seats for comfort.

Nuvolari1

Also, idling will produce a lot more toxic exhaust emissions than an engine will produce that is warming up faster.

0cean

Besides, I just cant bring myself to take off in any car in cold temp. Just seams like bad jeuu-jeuu.