hey guys:

just wanted some feedback
Unlike my corolla, it seems that in the cold weather you cant just turn on and start driving.
It seems the maz needs a good warming up in cold weather before taking off to zoom zooooooom.

My other car didnt require that much of a warm up..... so i guess im not used to it...

What do you guys find with your cars in the cold weather? A good warm up required? or do you just start and take off


Thanks

 

I have always let any of the cars that I own warm about 10-15 min when it's below 35 out. I have started and drove right away in certain circumstances but have had no problems.

 

There is absolutely zero reason to warm up a car these days (unless you do not like a cold butt or if you are running straight 50 weight racing oil in the engine or something). Simply jump in, fire it up, and gently drive away.Warming the engine up any more than about ten seconds is a waste of fuel and damaging to your engine.

 

While I agree with shipo on not needing any prolonged warm ups I would suggest you let the car idle for at least 10-30 seconds before moving just so the engine oil starts circulating well before you put extra stress on it. Generally in cold weather I have at least a thin skim of frost on the glass so I start the car, scrape quickly, get in and leave..... I doubt I'm taking more than a minute total.

If you're warming the car up for the purpose of having it warm inside then I'd suggest installing some seat heaters. They'll heat up way faster than the car's ventilation, and won't waste gas. The lack of warm air out of the vents doesn't matter too much to me as the car's always up to temp. and blowing warm air by the time I've made it a mile down the road.

 

if i start it up and drive it right off, i find the car to be very laggy and resistant to move in the cold weather.....

thats why it seems warming it up for a few minutes would remedy this

 

Funny, if I punch it right off the bat (well after a <30 second warm up) it's super peppy. Cold air is denser and more of it fits in the cylinder causing the computer to compensate by injecting more fuel. More fuel = bigger explosion. The same idea behind a CAI.

Are you running conventional, synth blend, or full synth oil?

 

I warm up mine just about that long too... usually less than a minute. When the engine idles down on it"s own, I"m off, but then am gentle on her for the first 5+/- miles to get the oil temp up. Running an engine too hard with thick, coldoil is one of the worst things you can do to it... worse than dirty oil.
If you are trying to warm the interior, it takes much longer and is much more wasteful to let it idle to temperature than it does to drive it a few miles.
As Spots suggests, get some electric seat warmers. A MUCH better alternative than wasting your time and gas idling to water temp.

 

Laggy? Hmmm, it was twenty-two degrees this morning when I headed off to work and had felt no such a thing after my obligatory "start the engine, click on the seat belt, release the parking brake, put her into gear and release the clutch" ten second warm up. Hmmm (again), correct me if I am wrong, your car has an automatic transmission, yes, no? If yes, what you may be feeling is thickness of the tranny fluid. I am rather allergic to cars with automatic transmissions, however, on the odd occasion when I have driven them in cold weather, I do notice that they feel a bit stiff when the car is first started.

 

A man after my own heart.....

 

I have an auto and haven't felt any kind of lag. My 'warm up' is only until the RPMs start dropping back down after start up (unless there's ice scrapping involved).