warming up in winter?

ok question- how long do you let your tacoma and it doesn't matter what kind, warm up in the winter.mine is a 2009 access cab 4cyl.and I let it go for about 2-4 minutes before I get going.that's with -18/-20 with a wind chill( I know wind chill has no effect on trucks).too long too short let's here you.

 

I do about the same with my 09 TRD OR. With weather like ours I need some heat coming out of the defroster before setting out.

 

I think the actual time is hard to judge, but I usually wait until the idle slows down, and the belts have had time to flex a little. This is when I'm in northern Vermont or Maine (family there)....not in CT where it is not a big concern.

 

It depends, but in the a.m. my scangauge on zero-ish days show the water temp @ startup in the teens. It takes about 2-3 driving minutes to get it up to 125 degrees which just gets the temp needle moving.

At full warm up it registers between 181-185 degrees operating temp. That is the halfway mark. These numbers are pretty consistent over the last 2 winters in Northern VT. My driving time to work is not that far, 3 miles tops & so on really cold days I let it warm up longer or take it for a longer drive.

Usually after work, I get it in and drive away without a warm up just to get out of there but take it easy on the throttle. It warms up pretty fast. My 2 cents.

 

Used to be it was better to start driving as soon as you could. The engine warms faster under load than idle. I generally only wait until the windows are clear then go.
Sitting there idleing was more harmful as so much fuel is not burned with the old carburators anyway. Probably a lot different since Throttle Body Injection has coame about.

 

2-4 minutes is good when it's really cold out. On an average day, like -10c thirty seconds to a minute is good. The faster the engine warms up the better, and it will warm up faster if you drive it. Just go easy on the gas while it's warming up. Long idle times put wear on the engine and wastes gas.

 

My normal routine is to unlock the doors, throw my lunch in the truck, scrape all of the windows, get in, start it, adjust the climate controls, buckle up, start playing some music and go. I figure at most, it's like 30 seconds.

If it's really cold (say -30C or colder), I might let it run a little longer, but honestly, I don't think it makes a difference. The truck warms up MUCH quicker by just driving it so I normally just get in and go. In very cold temps, however, I do go really easy on everything. Easy on the brakes, easy on the gas, no really quick manoeuvres, etc. It does take time for stuff to loosen up but I don't think that sitting away idling for minutes really does all that much. I'd actually prefer to have everything "break in" at the same pace, as opposed to having a completely warm engine and a frozen solid tranny, suspension, etc. I figure taking it easy on everything is a good way to go when the temps are like that.

 

I usually let it warm up between 5-10 minutes. I try to avoid scrapping as much as possible. I notice the glass really gets scratched easily.

 

crank mine and go,hardly ever gets to freezing here.

 

Whether or not you have a child would play into this.

 

5-10 min if it's really cold.. God I hate winter

 

5 mins is usually my time, just enough to drop rpm and get a little heat going.

 

10 usually

 

i only let it idle for about 30 seconds then just drive it easy until its gets warm.

 

Usually 30 seconds, sometimes a couple of minutes if I'm brushing snow or scraping ice.

 

till the tach reads under 1000 rpm, in neutral so the tranny warms up at the same time.

then take it easy for the first couple minutes once i get going to let the drive train and other moving parts warm up too.

 

A couple minutes roughly only if its really cold. then i just take it easy on her until she gets warmed up.

 

if it's really cold, I let it warm up for a few minutes atleast, and usually give it some time the first time I drive it for the day.

 

Just wanted to clear something up because i hear a lot of people around here talking about how it warms up faster if you just start driving it?!?!? That jsut doesnt even make any sense, of course it is going to warm up. but your components will be under stress when they are cold and more easily broken.
warming it up by driving it is not the goal people who like to "warm up" their engine should be trying to achieve.

youre not trying to just get it warmed up, your supposed to be letting the engine run and warm up a under low stress situation, ie at an idle, so that the belts and engine "inards" (if i may use that term ) are warmed up and ready for action when put in higher stress situation ie actually driving it.

your gear boxes will take care of them selves when you start driving there is nothing you can do except spend some money and get one of those highspeed warmers. jsut dont take off and do agressive driving right off. in about a couple minutes or so your gear boxes are going to be warmed up.

hopping in and taking off will allow for the cold components to more easily break one day. Its not going to hurt you "right now" but one day when your components are getting older and more frail, hopping in and taking off before the belts can properly warm up and expand is gonna leave you with a broken one.

with that said down here in there is really no scenario for me to need to warm it up more than a minute or so but if i am back home in northern Idaho then i wait until the temp actually rises close to normal operating temps and by then everything should be nice and warmed up and ready to operate.

 

I've seen vehicles up here that simply can't get up to normal operating temps WITHOUT driving them, it's just too cold. In those cases, the temp gauge won't budge more than marginally, you have to put a greater load on the engine to get it into the range of its normal operating temp.

I can totally see not hopping in and driving off like a demon, but I don't buy that gentle driving when the engine is cold will cause any more damge than letting it idle away for minutes. I just don't see there being that much difference between a 1,000 RPM idle and a 1,500 RPM cruise.