Cold Tacoma? Why You Should Let It Warm Up First

Best/funniest post I've read all day...ha!

 

Minus 32 C, here! When it's this cold, I warm it up 5 minutes, otherwise less than a minute for me. Thankfully my vehicle sleeps in a garage.

 

Mine sits outside. Makes some real clunky, creaky noises at 32 below. Tires feel like rocks. I'm thinking I need one of those taint heaters someone mentioned earlier.

My observation from living up here in Northern MN vs. the Twin Cities is that old habits die hard. Up here everyone leaves work 30 minutes before the end if their shift to start their cars. It's not unusual to see empty cars idling in parking lots during this time of year. My theory is that their parents did it with their old carbureted cars so they do it. In the Cities, people just get in and go.

 

I’m usually against warming up, Having said that I begin doing neither of the two and begin driving her once she idles down. ☺️ how about that ?

 

It was close to -40 here with wind chill last week and I had to leave the Taco outside to fend for itself with no cozy block heater.

Well suffice to say she was sloooowwwww as molasses for about 5 minutes until she reached temp. Clutch, transmission, engine, steering, it felt like I was driving a 10 ton diesel lol. Sounded like I was driving in 4 Low.

Anyways that was only with a few minutes warm up. When its that cold again Ill be waiting a few more.

 

No reason to let it just sit there and idle. Let it idle for maybe a minute, then drive easy for the first 10 minutes. Don't race it or anything. Engine oil, transmission fluid and everything else should be at operating temperature within 10 minutes.
Plus with the new synthetic 0 weight oil, there really no need.

 

Roll the windows down and stick your head out. But seriously, I remember dong that in high school since my parents only lived blocks away from school and I left a few minutes before class so not enough time to clean a windshield or warm up the car

 

What happens when my breath and body heat ices over the inside of the windshield? Drive it? That a big fat nope lol. Warm it up.

 

This is the winner by far. My favorite part is when the metal is on blast once the bluetooth kicks in! Happens to me all the time.

 

Often times for me with Music you regret playing.

 

For sure haha!

 

I start and wait until the coolant hits 70f. Last week coolant was at 0f at start up and within a few minutes it hit 70 and off I went. Once moving it warms up much faster but it still takes a few minutes to clear the snow off and clean the windows so I go with that as a time frame. Yesterday it started snowing at 2am and switched to freezing rain for so minutes before changing back to snow. When I left work at 7am I let her warm up for 10-12 minutes while I changed. Made the scraping much easier with defrost on full and the seat heater on full kept the rest of me happy.

 

A very unscientific article with a lot of I don’t really know attitude.

He talks a lot about wear and tear in the cold from oil being very viscous but fails to recognize oil doesn’t circulate well in idle. So.... warm up does what?


I’d rather a scientific artle written by someone with credentials. This is a good topic that needs some answers. Especially for those people who drop coin on remote starters. They could be sacrificing engine longevity (or not).

 

Nope nope. Just hop in and drive

 

Can we agree that it's good to at least let your oil circulate for a minute before driving?

 

I knew a guy that would let his Audi warm up to full temp no matter how cold or warm it was outside and no matter how long it took or what he was doing. He NEVER started moving unless that temp needle was at half. I kind of wish I still knew him so I could see how that worked out for him in the long run - probably no different than anyone else.

I'm one to let my vehicle warm up a bit. I'm not obsessive about it, but when it's less than 30 F outside, I let it idle for probably about 5 - 10 minutes then try and go easy on it (especially when it's newer <2k miles). I have no scientific reasonality as to why. It just feels like that's how it's supposed to be. My wife jumps in her Jeep and takes off literally immediately no matter what the temp is outside, makes me very uncomfortable. We'll see whose vehicle lasts longer

Edit: Grammar

 

it's become a joke of itself, which was kinda a joke from the beginning..

 

Exactly. They lost all the good irony and try to mix in half-wrong, serious posts as blank truths. Even in the linked article, misguided Jason ends up talking about his fleet of carb'ed cars as a rallying point.

 

It takes a minute for your oil to circulate ? Something wrong with your truck

 

On really cold morning, like -5F or -10F, I start the truck and scrap the windows. The drive slowly/easy with low revs for the first few miles. However, when we get toned out on these cold ass nights / days, I get a go.