[Undies]

i give it a min.

i understand these are turbo cars, but i think they still use a conventional combustion engine and a tranny....so i let it warm up a bit.

[aspiring335]

I recently moved from a condo with heated parking, to a house with street parking only. Not looking forward to scraping the ice and sitting on freezing cold leather when winter hits. I've always been told that the best way to warm up your car is to drive it gently rather than sit there with it idling, but what I usually do if it's parked outside is start the car, turn on the heated seats and rear defroster, then scrape the ice of the windows while it warms up.

[MTV]

Most of the strain is put on an engine when cold. I always let the car warm up in the mornings and then take off slow, keeping the revs low till it hits normal operating temps.

Everyone's gonna have a different theory on this. One thing to keep in mind is that it's not good to let it warm up and then take off fast. This is bad for the tranny, dif and all the other drivetrain components.

[02themax]

Always warm up for at least 2-3mins and cool down by driving slow for 3-4mins before I get home.

[F104]

Everyone might have theories but fact is engines don't warm up very well at idle. This is not the same as a hot engine sitting it a traffic. You're trying to warm up at least 300 lbs of metal from cold, while pulling in at idle some 20ltrs/sec of cold air and warm that up to at least 200 degree C too - while burning next to none fuel - get the picture?
The engine will warm at idle to some degree but will ruin it in the process. For example, some injected fuel will condensate on the too cold cylinder walls.That condensated fuel does an excellent job of washing down the oil on the cylinder walls = increased wear and increased blow by.

Cold starts are the very worst for your engine. Minimize it by getting a resonable minimal load on asap (lights, seat heaters), and start driving asap

[max_asdf]

dont lights and seat warmers just have a load on the battery? nothing to do with the engine?

[SSD]

I wait for a short while (1-2 minutes I think) as it'll start with around 1k rpm, then will steadily drop to 700 rpm, then I'll start to drive.

[aspiring335]

Originally Posted by max_asdf

dont lights and seat warmers just have a load on the battery? nothing to do with the engine?

Yes, but the reason for putting the heated seats on is so the seats are warm by the time you're done scraping the ice off the car...

[F104]

Originally Posted by max_asdf

dont lights and seat warmers just have a load on the battery? nothing to do with the engine?

sure - but it will also result in the alternator starting to charge the battery at max rate. On mine that is 180 amps * 12V, 2kW+, or up to 3HP constant load on the engine. On ED cars it should also result in raised idle speed (to get alternator speed up). My point was there is nothing else you can do to put load on the engine when idling.
And the cabin heater has an electrical grid heater as well.

[cmj0606]

start the car, take a fresh morning stog, and go

[2kaccordocoupe]

winter or summer I just wait until the revs settle down to idle - which does not take long

[CPI]

I usually wait a minute and im off.

[DaRickSta81]

Originally Posted by HD335

Same.

In addition to the heated seats and heated steering wheel, I think they should also offer a heated stick shift. It only makes sense.

+100000!

[T i h o r]

Apparently as long as you don't push the car right away you don't really have to let it warm up.

I however, always let the rpms stable before I beat on her. lol

[catch]

i wait for my revs to drop and the exhaust note to change before i drive