Ok so i have always wondered if this was true and many people have different opinions. Someone else told me that for our cars you have to warm them up for 5 minutes. So i usually wait for the rpm to go down to normal before driving in cold temps. But I found this article on yahoo today and thought it would clear up this question and just wanted to share it:



http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...car-in-winter/

 

I let mine come to idle because the SRI acts up if I take off at high revs, but before the intake, I used to just fire up and go all the time.

 

I don't wait because a few years ago a read an article in "sports compact car" (I think) that explained that you don't need to warm up you car and the importance of using thermostats.

 

I let mine warm up to get the juices flowing, usually 2-4 minutes until it rests at idle and the coolant level gets above the first two Cold lines. I want the oil to get moved around and do its job lubricating before I hit 3,000+ RPM



I keep my car garaged at home, and in a parking garage at work. Home garage stays around 45-55 degrees in the winter, @work it's around 35-40 degrees.

 

I give mine a few mins mostly for comfort and to ensure the defog is warm. Also I tend to hit high revs before the stupid auto shifts so I want that oil nice and hot before I got tearassing up and down the highway.

 

As long as is required to remove ice from the windows, hood, and trunk. Otherwise, as long as it takes to buckle up.

 

it depends usually in the morning before school i let it warm up for like 5-7 minutes so my car isnt freezing and for the ice to melt, but if i just try to leave its really hard to change gears so i have to wait for the lube to warm up (stupid cheap gear lube)

 

What really bothers me is that most of these fact finders either live in a climate that rarely requires cars to run with full blast heat to make them tolerable, or have heated garages to park in and get into a warm vehicle anyway. Try hopping into a car sitting outside all night in -30 C(-22 F), after 10 minutes of idle.



You can still see your breath. Furthermore, after driving for 20 min, you still feel like your in a freezer. The moisture in your breath frosts up the windows and makes it a hazard to drive.



Depending on the temp in the morning is what I base my idle time on. I'm out the door by 6 in the morning so usually there hasn't been much of a chance that the air warmed up too much from the evening before.

 

in the winter (we actually had a pretty bad one here this year) i usually would go out, start my car, lock the door and come back inside, and i could hear when it went to idle so when it would (usually about 3-5minutes in the cold) i'd go outside and turn on the defrost and sh*t on and wait till the coolant was heated up enough for the heater to work. in the summer i just wait for it to settle to idle