[Victorminator]

Hey folks,

My friend's dad is a mechanic and he was telling me that to keep my car well maintained, the Duratec V6s on my car need a good 2 minute warm up in normal warm climate, and up to 4 minutes in winter before I should take off after a cold start.

Is that true or really overkill?
Personally I'd rather take off after 30 seconds and avoid idling and wasting fuel like that, but I'm not a mechanic and really don't know my engine too well.

 

[rockdevourer]

It's not bad for your engine per se, but your fuel economy will suck if you take of immediately. The engine kinda has to work overtime and that's why it plummets.

What I usually do is wait til it gets to the 750 RPM range (in park/neutral) before taking off; it'll save your gas and the transmission since it's essentially dropping it into gear from whatever RPM range (~2000 when it first starts) it is in to 750 (idle speed).

Just find a good radio station and enjoy life while you wait

 

[SportWagonMike]

Owners Maunual

My owners manual says to wait until the idle stabilizes so I wait until I can no longer see the tach needle noticably dropping wich ususally takes about 2 to 3 minutes in winter and 1 to 2 minutes in summer. I'm at 90,000 miles with no problems and still get about 25 to 26 mpg city in summer and 22 to 23 in winter driving conservatively.

 

[Victorminator]

First off, thanks for the feedback. It's very helpful in letting me know what to do now.

Second of all, Mike is your vehicle a V6 one? I can't even touch those mpg values. In winter my V6 hatch gets me between 15-20mpg at best. It's terrible. In summer I got 20mpg consistent or less.
I don't flog the hell out of it, but I do enjoy the odd burst. I don't take off from stops like a souped-up ricer Civic boy does.
I'm kind of perplexed really.
Thoughts?

 

[rockdevourer]

My 6 posts similar numbers to yours (18 AVG), although when I filled up today I had 400 miles on the tac and only put in 14 gallons, which is roughly 28MPG. My driving is 90% highway and 10% city and I never get anywhere close to this. I think she just liked the colder weather

 

[Victorminator]

Mine got worse in winter. :S

I do probably 60 highway 40 city. My job relocated so it's more highway. Still, it doesn't seem to improve.
Maybe an oil change might help. Dunno when the last owner did it as I got it this September and it had 48500km on it. No records of oil changes in Carfax.

 

[rockdevourer]

I'll also add that "winter" for me is in the 40s F (4-5C) during "cold fronts" and 50-65 F(10-18C) normally during the winter. Summers are hot and start in late April and run through mid to late October and averages 90F (~32C)

I have about 100,500mi which is about 162,000 km.

All in all, I wouldn't really worry about your MPGs too much, they're about normal for your temperature range (based on your location of Quebec).

 

[Victorminator]

Ahhh so I see, your winter is the "wussy" winter!

Here it definitely goes down to -20C, dunno what it is in F but it's definitely around the zeroes.

Problem is even in great weather, the best I got on a near pure highway trip was 11L/100KM, which roughly equals 20-24mpg I believe. My average speed was between 65-70mph, or 120km/h.

I really thought the car would love winter more and feel stronger then, especially with the resonator removed, freeing it up a bit to breath colder air. Meh.

I am however convinced an oil change and the prescribed tranny oil change will help. They're all due.

 

[The Great NY]

warm up time is however long it takes for the RPMs to drop down to 750-800rpms

any sooner than that, the car is still going to be in open loop cold enrichment mode. time depends on temp. just wait for the idle to settle.



EDIT:

i honestly wait most times till my coolant needle is in the middle. but keep in mind that your coolant temp is COMPLETELY different than your oil temp which is whats most important. cold oil is too thick to get into certain orifices and bearing tolerances to do its job. so driving (putting load on the engine) on cold oil is only increasing the amount of normal damage (wear and tear) of a cold start up to begin.

if you value your car and motor. dont just pull off when you start the car. at least wait until the RPMs drop into idle position before pulling off at the least

 

[arkadius 73]

I'm waiting until after activating the rotation will come down to 800 rpm, and I'm heading for approximately 2 km does not exceed 2000 rpm.

 

[Victorminator]

Thanks all for the input!

 

[e4w]

warm up time is however long it takes for the RPMs to drop down to 750-800rpms

any sooner than that, the car is still going to be in open loop cold enrichment mode. time depends on temp. just wait for the idle to settle.



EDIT:

i honestly wait most times till my coolant needle is in the middle. but keep in mind that your coolant temp is COMPLETELY different than your oil temp which is whats most important. cold oil is too thick to get into certain orifices and bearing tolerances to do its job. so driving (putting load on the engine) on cold oil is only increasing the amount of normal damage (wear and tear) of a cold start up to begin.

if you value your car and motor. dont just pull off when you start the car. at least wait until the RPMs drop into idle position before pulling off at the least

man, i aint tryin to start no sh*t but i thought the oil was thinner at lower temps and had additives, causing the oil to thicken when the temps rise. the reason why we have xw 30 &40 oil.

i'm easy on my car at low temps too though; driven -3500 rpm then shift. no ticking so far @107k miles!

 

[rockdevourer]

man, i aint tryin to start no sh*t but i thought the oil was thinner at lower temps and had additives, causing the oil to thicken when the temps rise. the reason why we have xw 30 &40 oil.

i'm easy on my car at low temps too though; driven -3500 rpm then shift. no ticking so far @107k miles!

Nah, think about it this way: frozen water (ice) doesn't flow very well, while regular water does. So the oil starts off cold and it's thick, but as it heats up, it flows better.

 

[Jeffthecrowna]

I never let my engine warm up, and this was the first really cold week we've had, and i only got 18mpg. Guess im gonna wait till the 750 rpm now :/

 

[rx7turbo]

Since your in Canada it's probably not overkill in winter to warm up a few minutes parked. You might want to get a good 0W synthetic oil for winter.

According to this video the air temps are -40F. Interesting video on oil flow when cold - Bob Is The Oil Guy

NJ winter is different. I drive almost immedietely after start with an average speed of 45MPH. In 20F cold start and driving almost immediately after, the Mazda 6 temp gauge gets to nomal when scanguage says 155-160F which takes like 5 minutes. Scangauge settles to around 180F after another 5-8 minutes of driving. Motor oil temps usually will take longer to warm up. Not really sure how much longer. I keep engine load low and RPM's below 3000 when engine is cold.

For my area, i'm speculating that idling until it's warm wastes fuel since it's getting 0MPG. How much more, I don't know. But I know it takes longer for the engine to warm up. I'll let the fuel I buy do some work moving the car while at the same time warming the engine quicker.

Hey folks,

My friend's dad is a mechanic and he was telling me that to keep my car well maintained, the Duratec V6s on my car need a good 2 minute warm up in normal warm climate, and up to 4 minutes in winter before I should take off after a cold start.

Is that true or really overkill?
Personally I'd rather take off after 30 seconds and avoid idling and wasting fuel like that, but I'm not a mechanic and really don't know my engine too well.

 

[1Kris06]

depends on how big of a rush i'm in.

i don't drive the 6 in the winter, but i try to let my winter cars oil temp warm up and become liquid vs sludge.

 

[fly757]

This is one of those age-old debates that might never end. Just like debating about which oil is the best, or which brand of gas, or what the best way is to break in your engine. I certainly don't know which method is "the best," per se. There are pros and cons with each one.

Most would agree that it is generally good practice to allow some warmup before driving, but a complete warmup at idle is totally unnecessary. Somewhere in between is the sweet spot. A little common sense goes a long way here.

 

[barriectaylor]

I am with you fly757. The car reaches its ideal operating temperature under load. Sitting there idling wastes gas and does not help get the temperature up quickly. Having said that, make sure you get some movement from the temp guage before hitting the freeway.

 

[Victorminator]

Thanks for the input guys.

I've been basically allowing it to stay on for 4 minutes or so, at the point where the temp gauge starts to nudge from the outer C mark. Once I get going, within 5 minutes it reaches the middle where it's considered normal running temp. I think it's more than reasonable, and the RPMs have settled to 1100. Doubt 300rpms more than the normal idle will make the tranny or engine weep.

 

[aztrojans12]

I read some article the other day talking about this. The article basically said waiting any longer than 15-30 seconds is a waste. The author said the 15-30 seconds is only needed to allow time for the oil to circulate. The article mentioned that with todays fuel injection systems, it is unnecessary to wait any longer than that. In fact, idling can cause the engine to run rich, and with our precat issues who knows what negative effects that may have. Again, that was just what the article said, and not my own personal belief. I usually let the car idle for around 2 minutes or so.