JUST AN ADDENDUM TO THIS threat that i created:


I was told by Mazda and 2 mechanics (one of them my old one) and two of them who are relatives. That YOU SHOULD ALWAYS WARM YOUR CAR UP, No matter the make, no matternew, old or otherwise, They all told me the same thing, which was if you start your car in the freezing cold weather, or even Just Cold weather, and just start to drive it immediately after starting it, that you are doing a number on your oil and engine, and that doing so, is equivalent to putting 1000 miles wear and tear on your engine. Reconsider your theories .................[:-](i would think this would apply to the people who have the mazda engine that came with the car when you bought it, not a revamped engine)

 

Believe it or not, like it or not, you've been given some VERY BAD ADVICE.

From the Owner's Manual of my Mazda3:
[ul][*]After starting the engine, let it idle for about 10 seconds.[/ul]
From the Owner's Manual of my 530i:
[ul][*]Do not allow the engine to warm up by leaving it running while the vehicle remains stationary. Instead, begin to drive immediately at a moderate engine speed.[/ul]
The fact is, it is far better for a recently cold started engine to be driven gently than to let it idle. Regarding what you've been told by those two mechanics, all I have to say is that some of the absolute worst advice I've ever heard being dispensed regarding the care and feeding of an automobile has come from "Mechanics".

 

i let it run, brush off the snow and drive. and so far no problems.

 

I"ll second that.
With modern lubricants it is not necessary, and in fact harmful to let the car idle for long periods of time. This may have been good advice in the "50"s when 30w and excessive engine tolerances were the standard, but those days are long gone. Oil is much thinner than it used to be and tolerances are held to a much closer standard. The car will warm up much faster, and in a more linear fashion. The catalytic converter and O2 sensors will not clog with soot from an over-rich engine over a longer period of time. It is a terrible thingfor the emission control equipment on any modern car.
No sir, bad advice indeed.

Let me ask you this: How many race cars do you see allowed to sit and warm up in the paddock?
Answer: None. They pace the cars at relatively slow speeds to warm the fluids and the tires before taking off @ full throttle.

 

The logic behind that statement has been bugging me since I first read it, and so I decided to do a quick and dirty spreadsheet on the car I just traded in on my Mazda3.
[ul][*]For the first 45,000 miles the vehicle did "bus-station duty" and during the work week it was cold-started and immediately driven off roughly twenty times per 100 miles of actual distance, however, weekend duty diluted that a bit so I pegged this segment at 15 cold-starts per 100 miles.[*]The next 20,000 miles saw a change in venue as well as a change in usage, and the number of cold starts per 100 miles dropped to about 3.[*]The 15,000 miles after that were very hard on the engine as the vehicle had become our third car and was used very infrequently over a period of about 3 years, and when it was used,most trips were fairly short, just enough to warm the engine up and burn off any condensation that had collected in the oil. I'm figuring that the number of cold starts was about 10 per 100 miles.[*]The remaining 90,000 miles of its tenure with our family saw very heavy usage with the number of cold starts per 100 miles dropping to a very low 2.5 figure.[/ul]
In all, we logged 170,000 miles on that vehicle over ten and a half years, and according to my calculations, it was cold started and immediately driven off some 11,100 times (there wereanother 5,000 or more warm-ish starts as well), and if the mechanics that advised LPG are to be believed, that means that my engine withstood not only the 170,000 miles worth of wear that showed up on the odometer, but another 11,100,000 miles of wear due to all of the cold starts. Hmmm, that sounds like quite a lot, errr, at least to me.

Now consider the following points:
[ul][*]When I traded that vehicle in on the Mazda3, the engine ran as well as it did the day we drove it off the showroom floor with 4 miles showing on the odometer.[*]Over the life of the vehicle, it continued delivering better and better fuel economy, initially leveling off at about 20 mpg once the engine was broken in, and ending up being able to average more like 22.5 in day-to-day driving (I know this because I have a spread-sheet showing the details of almost every tank of gas put into it).[*]Over the life of the vehicle, in never increased its oil usage as the engine aged. When the van was new, it consumed roughly one quart of oil every 7,000 miles, and when I traded it in, it was still consuming at that same rate.[*]When the engine had 143,625 miles on it, I pulled the cylinder heads in search of an elusive coolant leak. Unfortunately the leak turned out to befrom a ten-cent "O" ringlocated in adifferentarea of the engine, rendering the head-gasket operation a waste of time. That said, I got a good chance to peek inside and assess how the engine was doing from a wear perspective.[*]Given that I used to be a professional wrench, I have been inside many-many engines, and to be quite honest, I was not at all prepared for what I saw. Not to put too fine a point on it, even after nine years and over 140,000 miles, I was able to see ALL of the honing marks on each of the six cylinders. Prior to that I had only ever seen a small patch of honing marks on a single cylinder wall from a single engine with over 100,000 miles on the clock. I was so stunned I went to fetch the camera: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/...67e459ae_o.jpg[*]One more point, even though the Owner's Manual of that car recommended oil changes every 7,500 miles, I would simply dump in an additional quart of oil and drive it until ~11,000 miles before would bother changing the oil and filter. That said, I did use Mobil 1 for the duration, and on three occasions I had the used oil analyzed (which is how I discovered the coolant leak was located in an area where it would end up in the oil). Each of the UOAs showed that the oil was pretty much good to go for at least 12,000 miles (which is why I decided on a "conservative" 11,000 mile OCI)[/ul]
LPG, you have my permission to tell the mechanics that gave you that bad advice that they do not have a clue what they are talking about.

 

I let mine idle until it goes down to 1500 RPM's. There is a very harsh shift from first to second if i don't let it warm up. I have the car shift a lttle above 3000 RPM's when the engine is cold otherwise i get the harsh shift. Also, the car doesn't start up so nicely in very cold weather (below 35 degrees F). It sounds as if the battery is dead and requires the ignition to be turned for longer. I have an 05 2.3 sedan, and i know other people have had this problem. I don't know if they have fixed it for the latter years.

 

As a suggestion, you might want to try switching to a 0W-20 oil for your engine.

 

thanks for the advice shipo