Running your car
 

How much do you guys wait for the car to warm up and cool down?


I wait 3 to 5 minutes before moving, and same goes for turning it off.

heh. I've only had one or two times when I had to start up the car to move it.... when I am in that situation, I use it as an excuse to take the car out onto the road and drive around for a bit.

May as well enjoy it :)

As far as I know, there is no reason to let it sit idling for 3-5 miinutes, unless you love burning gas. It will warm up much faster if it's doing some work than if it's just sitting in neutral, and it's not going to do anything bad to your car so long as you keep the RPMs low while the engine is still cold.

Dont worry about that. The engine will keep it's own RPM's low when it's cold :)

That's what I was thinking. It doesn't take long for these engines to warm up....and once oil has lined the housing, no reason to not just get moving, from what I've been told.

Re: Running your car
 

There's no reason for either... it's not like the 3rd gen RX7's with the finicky turbos. The only time I've let the rx8 warm up more than a minute before driving is when it was well below zero... but even then driving it was the only way to get it to warm up. Just don't rev it past 5k or so until it's moderately warmed up and you'll be fine.

Re: Running your car
 

Ditto to the others - you are wasting one hell of a lot of gas, and doing more harm than good to your engine!

You need to let your engine run for 30 seconds before you can drive off. Drive gently until the engine is warm (which is about 4 or 5 minutes after the coolant temperature gauge shows normal temperature), and then you can go full throttle and/or redline revs. That's actually easier on the engine than idling for 3 to 5 minutes.

Same with shutting off - if you drive easy for the last minute, then you don't need to idle at all before shutting off. Sitting idling with a hot engine will actually make your engine run hotter rather than cool it off, since there will be no airflow through the radiator (aside from the fan - but then that runs after you turn the car off if your engine was hot anyway!)

Regards,
Gordon

I let it sit for 2 minutes before driving, and when shutting off... I rev to 3.5k and after it gets to idle I turn off. Seems to work good.


Troy J.

I just do it like this because its brand new I really am not sure how to do it quicker yet but I read your posts Ill try using your methods thanks for the advice. Also I think letting it idle when just started let the needle drop to 1rpm to drive off which takes about under 2min. Although thanks.

Warm up - get in car. turn key to on. put on seat belt. press clutch to floor and start. wait 20-30 seconds and drive off. Take it easy for first mile.

Cool down - What? I'm in Florida and haven't heard the fan run after shut down even once. Even after giving thrill rides to friends for an hour.

if it's cold out side i let it warm up but other wise i get in and drive. but i dont get on it until the temp gauge is in the middle.