2 bars on the temp and I go.

3 bars and I Vtec.

 

30 seconds and then I drive easy until three bars are showing on the temperature guage; and then I continue driving easy.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Seems like all cars work the same. Here is an article explaining why not to let your vehicle sit there during warm up. The article was from a Maxima website:

It seems that nearly every "non-car" person and even soon people in this forum think that the best way to warm up a car in the winter is to let it idle for 5-20 minutes. If these people only knew the damage they are doing to their motors. None seem to believe me when I tell them what happens by doing this poorly choosen warm up procedure. By letting a cold motor idle for a length of time, the oil does not circulate throughout the whole motor. Instead, it mostly "pools" around the lower half of the motor therefore increasing wear along cams and such. On a cold engine start up and under normal running temps, the ECU is running a very rich fuel program to make the engine warm up as fast possible. What does this mean for the motor? It means A LOT of fuel isn't getting burned and is seeping into the oil and degrading it quickly. Also, the rich exhaust will eventually foul the cat.

People just don't understand that you should start driving a cold car as soon as the oil pressure gets into the normal range which is about 30-60 seconds after start up. It sounds hard on a cold engine to begin driving nearly right away after starting it, but it isn't true. It is far less strenuous on the motor to warm up under load (ie driving). Why? Because the oil circulates better, the fuel program becomes leaner, and the increased tranny heat begins to help warm up the motor.

 

2 bars here

 

2 bars for you guys in Socal may only be a few minutes. At -30*C, we could drive for 10-15 minutes and still not see 2 bars. Waiting for 2 bars is just not practical. As already stated, as soon as you have good oil pressure, go.

 

The only thing I can think of that would hasten warm up time and better protect the engine during the most critical first few seconds where much engine wear occurs would be the use of a fully synthetic motor oil which is supposed to flow better at lower temps. Someone called into the National Public Radio program "Car Talk" and Tom and Ray both said to start an engine up and go. No need to let it warm up in idle. But they didn't go into details about why.

 

Good point XViper, I guess that's why Canadian cars have block heaters!

 

That is EXACTLY what I do...

separated at birth!?

 

i leave it till the heat gauge gets to 3 levels..

thats about 4 mins of waiting...its cause the car is new and i didnt finish the breakin thing

 

2-3 bars. I warm up the car and go back into the house to finish off whatever I need to do. By the time I'm back, the cars ready to go.

Better to warm up gradually then drive your car to accelerate the warm-up. Yes you use a little more gas, but keep in mind that your car burns more fuel when you drive it cold. So I would say fuel savings is small.