Starting up your car
 

i have a 4 speed tiptronic engine and was wondering what happens to the car if i just start it and drive without like a cold start? will it damage my engine or no?

That's the best way to do it, Don't sit warming it up just waisting fuel. Read the manual!

So long as you keep your revs low you shouldnt damage it. However you need to remember that the lubricants in your car are designed to operate at a certain temperature. I am a firm beleiver that it only takes 2-3 minutes to bring a car up to reasonable temperature so its better to be safe than sorry.

There is a big debate over fuel wasting. Reason being that when the engine first starts up it is in Open Loop (An ECU mode that ignores O2 sensor readings and instead uses a fixed injector settings). Because Open Loop is a fixed Air/Fuel ratio rather than a specific one for the revs you are doing it is less efficient, therefore if you drive during the cars automatic warm up, you are driving in a less fuel economic mode anyway.

Make Sense?

Andrew

yea i guess... i was thinking about saving up for atuomatic start which is like 200$ and that way i dont really have to worry...my car will just start and still be locked and after 2-5 min ill get in it and go...much better than going outside to start it and watching it so it doesnt get stolen

I was thinking about getting an auto start...But ill be driving a manual trans, and i always park in gear :(.

wait waht is the difference between premium gas and V Power?

Huh? I think you have the wrong thread? In any case, V Power is the Shell catchname for their premium gas. Has to do with the additives they add to the gas. There was a lengthy, excellent discussion a while back on fuels and octanes that will answer your question in more detail. I suggest you do a search for "V Power". It will be well worth your time if you are really interested in the topic.

I start the car. If it's the first start of the day, idle usually jumps up to 2500 or so and drops to 1700ish, then coasts down to around 13-1500. All of this in about 25-30seconds. Once all that is done, I go keeping revs under 4k until the needle has been at normal temperature for about 5 minutes (to allow the engine to heatup somewhat evenly before stressing it). No point in waiting for the temp needle to move when idling, that takes forever and the owner's manual has no requirements for this.

35000 trouble free miles

I hit fuel cut if I go above 4-5K when it's cold. Driving it immediately after starting may not be a problem, but I agree that Mazda apparently doesn't want us zoom-zooming until it's warmer.

If the engine is running smoothly, I hit the road. I wouldn't bother with any extended warmup unless it was so cold that the engine was struggling. I haven't driven the 8 in very cold temps but with other cars the dividing line was around -10F for fuel-injected cars, maybe 0F for carbureted ones. I do keep the 8's revs below 5k and no WOT until it's warmed up.