I wait till three bars before I move the car whatsoever. Have done it since I owned it..

Even then I still go easy till it gets warmed up.


Dont get me wrong I drive the thing like I stole it. But I baby the startups because this is where the most distress on an engine is.


Your putting the engine under load before the pistons have expanded within the chambers.

Im not saying this will cause it leave ripples in the head but revving the hell out of it with a cold start and or taking off with and revving the hell out of it will.


It takes about 2 mins to get three bars. Hardly 15 mins.

 

Putt around for about 10-15 min under 3500 rpm until everything is nice and warm, then mash to your heart's content. Just sitting at idle doesn't warm the trans or the diff. Coolant temp isn't everything, even with three bars of coolant temp the oil is still not to normal operating temp.

On a side note I've noticed that MY 03 shifts way smoother when everything is at full operating temp (after say 10-15 min of driving depending on ambiant temp) using the "New" Honda MTF, and Mobile 1 75W-90 in the diff. It doesn't grind when cold, it's just not nearly as smooth and takes a bit more effort to shift.

 

If it's below, say 10 degrees C, I generally sit in the car for 30 seconds before driving it off -- the engine should rev a little bit less furiously.

Then SLOWLY drive off and be extremely gentle till 3 bars on the AP2 gauge. Then drive gently till all the bar clear ...

 

dont be a sissy. drive it as hard as you can as soon as you can.

 

I try to let it warm up a minute or two, but most of the time I just hop in and go. I don't rev over 4-5000 rpms until all temp bars are light up and I feel confident I've driven far enough to warm the trans/diff up. Just use common sense.

BTW, I though the most important reason for letting a car warm up before reving high was to get the coolant and oil up too temp. That way you don't scorch the cylinder walls. I never heard anything about the Head/chambers expanding?

 

You guys do realize you're sort of "arguing" over two different points for different models, right?



AP2s might say to let it warm to 3 bars before driving. It would take just a few minutes to get to that point, if even that long since they have more bars to show smaller differences in temp.

 

I heard the manual states to warm it up for a minute then drive off and shift low until you hit 3+ bars. I usually warm it up for 45 seconds then keep my rpms under 3k until the bar hits 3 then under 4k until it gets to 6-8. I drive an ap2 btw. Also, for BMW M3's, if you read the forums over there, it is recommended to not let the car warm up at all but just drive easy for a bit until the oil temp hits 150-180. I heard its best to let the tranny warm up WITH the engine.

 

Don't think people were really arguing.

But yes, generally I treat anything under 3 bars on the AP2 as dead cold (i.e. accelerate slowly), and then between that to fully warmed up as a sign to keep it below 5000rpm.

Anyway, this just points out that AP2 cluster is better!!! hahahhahaha j/k

 

I've actually heard that it is a bad idea to "warm up" the car. By allowing the engine to sit at a cold temperature, the oil takes longer to circulate through the engine. Also, the extended colder temperatures causes extra moisture to condense in your engine/exhaust (extra wear on cylinder walls, exhaust more likely to rust). Additionally, by spending more time at a cold temp, you're polluting significantly more due to the catalytic convertor being below operating temperature.

Just drive easy until you reach normal engine temps.

 

i always wait till 3 or 4 bars when im warming up. thast what ive been doing and continue doing. everyone has their own opinion on how to warm up a car and from what people post it helps support their opinion. just do what you think is right and continue to. always did this with my previous car and had no engine problems what so ever when i sold the car so i feel that what im doing is correct.