Driving at Cold Start of a car

[Dhaham]

Dear Friends

I have a Peugeot 3008 (from Car Mart). Normally when we cold start a car its engine RPM will be little bit high (around 1,100RPM) for about one minute. My practice is, I keep the car idle until it becomes normal idle speed(750~800RPM), without driving. Is this practice good or bad or useless? Thanks in advance.

[Hyaenidae]

Good, keep doing it. Furthermore, avoid sudden accelerations (like overtaking) until the engine reaches operating temperature

[Dee Jay]

1 hour ago, Dhaham said:

Dear Friends

I have a Peugeot 3008 (from Car Mart). Normally when we cold start a car its engine RPM will be little bit high (around 1,100RPM) for about one minute. My practice is, I keep the car idle until it becomes normal idle speed(750~800RPM), without driving. Is this practice good or bad or useless? Thanks in advance.

Yes, that would be a good practice plus follow what @Hyaenidae has said.. Since, the 3008 is a small turbocharged vehicle let the engine cool off for a bit before you shut down the vehicle as well to help the longevity of the turbo..

[trinity]

Its not necessary for modern cars. 

Read the below article.

https://www.torque.com.sg/advice/do-you-need-to-warm-up-your-car/

[Twin Turbo]

Your car will keep on chugging along till the end of time. !

and make sure  you keep up with the services.

?

TT.

[john cooper]

2 hours ago, trinity said:

Its not necessary for modern cars. 

Read the below article.

https://www.torque.com.sg/advice/do-you-need-to-warm-up-your-car/

This might be the reason for a lot of SG import cars to suffer engine failures  ?

[Hyaenidae]

2 minutes ago, john cooper said:

This might be the reason for a lot of SG import cars to suffer engine failures  ?

@PreseaLover can concur

Bugger blew the engine of his SG-imported Cefiro in less than a year

[trinity]

7 minutes ago, john cooper said:

This might be the reason for a lot of SG import cars to suffer engine failures  ?

Not only SG bung, I've read many US, EU articles as well and seen you tube videos confirming that its pointless waiting for car to warm up before driving it in cold start. Anyways, Lets see what others have to say about this.

[iRage]

Actually...for modern cars it is not necessary to wait until the engine warms up especially in conditions like Sri Lanka. In severe winter countries...maybe...a little while until the fluids reach a proper viscosity and can circulate through the engine (many wait till the engine is fully heated but that is mainly to get the cabin nice and warm) depending on the state of your car and the oils being used....but SL does not have that (in Utah I had to wait a bit because it asily reached -20 to 013 degrees for days unend). So it is not necessary to wait till the engine fully heats up and idle is at normal.

What is recommended is that you give it a few seconds for the fluids to start circulating before driving off and until the engine and oils are at operating temperature you do not drive hard. 

It is not fair to say that about SG cars...if that was the case then SG would have a whole heap of cars with busted engines which is not the case.

 

[hrm]

Always better to give couple of seconds before driving off in the morning. Especially if you have inclines to climb just after leaving drive way. But I don't think it's necessary to wait all the way until car reach operating temp.

[Hyaenidae]

On 9/23/2020 at 9:12 AM, hrm said:

Always better to give couple of seconds before driving off in the morning. Especially if you have inclines to climb just after leaving drive way. But I don't think it's necessary to wait all the way until car reach operating temp.

This, I just wait till the temp gauge shows a reading. No reading=too cold to drive by my standards  takes about a minute and half maybe

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by Hyaenidae

[hrm]

24 minutes ago, Hyaenidae said:

This, I just wait till the temp gauge shows a reading. No reading=too cold to drive by my standards  takes about a minute and half maybe

By then the engine reaches its normal idle rev range (around 750rpm)

Me too. In my case I would wait until digital display shows 1 bar high. Engines with aluminium blocks usually come to working temperature fast.

[john cooper]

In my Subaru Forester XT, I can't engage the S# mode if the temperature hasn't reached out to 67 Celsius and it was mentioned in the owners manual too. Subaru recommends to warm up the engine for best performance.

 

[Crosswind]

2 hours ago, Hyaenidae said:

This, I just wait till the temp gauge shows a reading. No reading=too cold to drive by my standards  takes about a minute and half maybe

By then the engine reaches its normal idle rev range (around 750rpm)

Err.. my car here takes about a 5-mile drive during the cold season to give a reading on the temp gauge. I must be doing something wrong noh!

Not really... its the car that decides when to start. I just push the button and wait. Usually starts within 60 sec even during the dead of winter (its a diesel btw).

For a country like Sri Lanka, this is never a problem. Just like irage and trinity mentioned... don't worry about it.

 

[Hyaenidae]

34 minutes ago, Crosswind said:

Err.. my car here takes about a 5-mile drive during the cold season to give a reading on the temp gauge. I must be doing something wrong noh!

Not really... its the car that decides when to start. I just push the button and wait. Usually starts within 60 sec even during the dead of winter (its a diesel btw).

For a country like Sri Lanka, this is never a problem. Just like irage and trinity mentioned... don't worry about it.

 

Well if I were you I'd still wait for the car to give a temp reading before start driving

2 hours ago, hrm said:

Me too. In my case I would wait until digital display shows 1 bar high. 

#metoo 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Hyaenidae

[AVANTE]

It takes a minimum of 12 seconds for the oil to fully circulate and touch every part of the engine that needs lubrication in a modern engine. 

Even though it is said new cars dont need warming up for minutes, I still follow the 1 minute warm up habit to be in the safe side and don't push it until it's warmed up. But if you were in a hurry and can't even wait a minute, remember that 12 seconds is the bare minimum. 

[Dhaham]

4 hours ago, hrm said:

Always better to give couple of seconds before driving off in the morning. Especially if you have inclines to climb just after leaving drive way. But I don't think it's necessary to wait all the way until car reach operating temp.

Of course, I have a steep inclination to climb just after I left home.  That is the main reason I started this practice.  

Any way, waiting one minute is not a problem for me provided running engine at idle speed is safe instead of increasing the temperature bit faster by driving slowly.

[trinity]

Facts vs Personal preference. I think we can establish the following with regard to the matter in hand.

1. There's no harm in driving away after starting the car without putting much of a strain to the Engine. 

2. If you can spare the time, you can opt to wait till the car warms up/lubricate the engine block etc... 

 

[hrm]

15 minutes ago, Dhaham said:

Of course, I have a steep inclination to climb just after I left home.  That is the main reason I started this practice.  

Any way, waiting one minute is not a problem for me provided running engine at idle speed is safe instead of increasing the temperature bit faster by driving slowly.

Yeah. In your case it's better to stay put for a minute.

[Dee Jay]

Well, I feel since the OPs vehicle is a large vehicle with a small turbo charged engine and especially since he has to do an immediate climb better to let the vehicle heat up a bit.. Otherwise the turbo could get damaged.. Same with shutting off the vehicle.. 

[kush]

Get in to the vehicle and start the engine immediately.

By the time you get your seat belt done, get in to gear and release the parking brake it will be 10-15 seconds enough time to oil to start working. Any way current multi-grade oils take care of cold starts.

I would recommend to keep the revs below 2-3K for the initial 5-6 km or 5-6 minutes roughly the time taken for the engine to come up to optimum temperature. At lower temperatures gaps between the different metal parts could lead to premature ware if stressed too soon.

In SL context we hardly go beyond 60-75% of the rev-range in normal driving.

[Dhaham]

Dear friends.

Thank you very much for your valuable comments and advices.

[Hyaenidae]

7 minutes ago, Dhaham said:

Dear friends.

Thank you very much for your valuable comments and advices.

You could share the story of your ride here if you're feeling thankful  

 

 

 

 

[Kavvz]

On 9/23/2020 at 4:43 AM, trinity said:

Facts vs Personal preference. I think we can establish the following with regard to the matter in hand.

1. There's no harm in driving away after starting the car without putting much of a strain to the Engine. 

2. If you can spare the time, you can opt to wait till the car warms up/lubricate the engine block etc... 

 

This is what I do as well. If I can - I go easy on the car after I crank it up, but on modern cars 10-15 sec's of warm-up is sufficient to get all the parts lubricated...so no need to stress over it too much. 

As for Turbo's: I've had a Turbo diesel and 2 vehicles with Petrol turbo engines for some years now and I've never idled the engine before shutting it off although I have heard this is what you need to do (apparently idling it allows the oil to circulate and cool down the turbos etc). But I have never done it. Been driving these Turbo's (one car, two SUV's) for a combined total of around 5-6yrs now and I've probably put on over 100k on the vehicles when you add all the mileage up over the years and have h̶a̶d̶ Z̶e̶r̶o̶ i̶s̶s̶u̶e̶s̶. had zero issues on the petrol engines. So I wouldn't fuss too much about that either...

*edit1: Just realized I've been using fully synthetic fuel in these vehicles and I understand that synthetic oil has a higer tolerance and protects the turbo against the ill-effects of over heating much better than regular oil. 

**edit2: Also forgot I had to do a repair on the diesel's turbo seals a year or two ago which is caused by the turbo charger over-heating and melting the silicone seals. Not sure if this is caused by not cooling it down (idling for 30-60 secs after driving) or by just driving it hard like a maniac (guilty!) and reving the crap out of it trying to keep up with friends who have faster cars...

Edited September 24, 2020 by Kavvz

[Kavvz]

On 9/23/2020 at 4:38 AM, Dhaham said:

Of course, I have a steep inclination to climb just after I left home.  That is the main reason I started this practice.  

Any way, waiting one minute is not a problem for me provided running engine at idle speed is safe instead of increasing the temperature bit faster by driving slowly.

I live at the bottom of a hill too. I usually start my car and give it 10-15 sec while I put my phone away etc before driving off and generally take it easy in the first 10 minutes or so of driving till I see the needle hit the center of the temp guage. Has always worked out okay for me and I drive a SUV with a petrol turbo engine in it as well (for the past 4-5 yrs) with zero issues. Shouldn't be a dig deal at all...

[iRage]

6 hours ago, Kavvz said:

I live at the bottom of a hill too. I usually start my car and give it 10-15 sec while I put my phone away etc before driving off and generally take it easy in the first 10 minutes or so of driving till I see the needle hit the center of the temp guage. Has always worked out okay for me and I drive a SUV with a petrol turbo engine in it as well (for the past 4-5 yrs) with zero issues. Shouldn't be a dig deal at all...

Pretty much what I do....first the little kid gets buckled in the baby seat whilst the older one self buckles himself...then start the car..put on my seat belt, mount the phone and check the other passenger's belt status then drive off...takes about 20-30 seconds which is enough for the fluids to get going.

Edited September 25, 2020 by iRage