Yes - cold does affect the car and not just the engine.


Take it from a DD here in frozen Canada where it's been -40.

There is a reason most cars up north have block heaters...to ensure a safe and reliable start up each and every time. That said...I don't have a block heater on my 8.

Two big things that affect whether the engine will crank over with the cold. The first is how strong your battery is. An old battery or dead battery (as likely could be the case with a car just sitting on the dealers lot) will have a very hard time starting in warm conditions let alone cold ones.

The other is the grade of oil used. This is the main reason it's hard to turn over an engine with a weak battery. The oil in colder temperatures is much thicker and provides much more resistance on the engine.


Other items affected, transmission for sure. My clutch almost sticks the floor when pressing it in during very cold temperatures. It takes a long time to changes gears because I have to wait for the clutch to depress. The shifter itself can be hard to move between gear slots when it's really cold. Again, this is because the transmission fluid is much thicker and providing more resistance.
The other item is the steering wheel. It seems to move much slower and the resistance feel is very different once the temperature drops below -20 F or so. Eventually these all warm up as the car runs but at first you can definitely tell the car is cold.

All of this aside...if your not even in the negative F range theres no way it shouldn't start unless the battery is dead, engine flooded or other non weather related issue. That's simply not "Cold".

Bottom line on my 8 was this: battery was frozen and swollen, not sure if that happened before or after I attempted to start it. Had one bad coil and a spark plug that was busted in half, never seen that before.

Replaced battery, all coils and plugs and wires. Runs fantastic now, but keeping in the garage on the really cold days going forward. Sorry, but the wife's new(er) Elantra can sit outside.

Also, I agree with everyone on this site. As soon as you purchase your used 8 get new plugs/wires/coils unless you can confirm it's just been done.

Conventional wisdom tells us modern (i.e. fuel injected) engines don’t need much warm-up in cold weather... 30 seconds and off you go, as long as you’re careful to not push it too hard until fully warm.

But is this also true for our engines? My hunch is the answer is no. That rotary engines should be warmed up longer in frigid weather. Is that true?

I probably would have agreed with you however some of my newer cars have now started coming with some sort of temperature warning or at least indication that the engine was cold and should not be rev'ed high. My BMW had it and now my 17 CX-9 has an oil light that remains blue while the engine is cold. It goes away (like the bars on the tach of a S2 8) when the engine warms up. These are both Turbo charged engines so maybe that has something to do with it?

Several places including consumer reports said this: modern fuel injected piston engines only need about 15 s of idle warm up time prior to driving. It is actually worse to let the car idle for minutes while the cabin warms up. I have to retrain myself of this (living in MN) and simply wear the proper warm winter gear and startup the car while I load it then drive away. It is obvious (and for those with Series II S2 cars with built in rev limiters vs. coolant temperature) one should limit the acceleration and sported shifting until the fluids warm up.

These cars run pig rich at cold idle. Rich conditions lead to incomplete combustion. Incomplete combustion leads to carbon.

Letting the car idle only prolongs the amount of time it spends under those conditions.

Not everywhere in Canada. I'm basking in +10C here in BC south coast. :)

Anyway cold idling is worse for the car and your wallet. I literally start he car, put on my belts and just drive easy until the temp needle moves to the middle. S1 RX-8 limits rev to 4k rpm when it's cold.