What is your winter warm up procedure?

I don't warm up cars. It's a vestige of old car thinking that needs to go away like 3000 mile oil changes. Its actually more harmful to the car to let it sit idle to warm than to just gentle drive away. With a Prius, it's a complete non issue as the battery will help in propulsion while the ICE warms up. Since I have a PiP, the ICE comes on when I hit freeway speeds. There is a noticiable shift about 30 seconds after the ICE first turns on until the EV miles stops declining and switches over propulsion duties to the ICE.

 

Hi Roger! I'm out in the boonies of Pepperell, but drive to Natick for work. For some reason there's lots of blue ones out here. I once was in the middle of a group of 3 identical Prii driving through Groton.

 

The one reason I can see for stationary warm-up is frosted or heavily dewed windshield. Not an issue for us, having a garage, but a real mpg killer for people having to park outside.

 

Check out these new-fangled things called ice scrapers. They are awesome

 

Like most others have stated, I just get in the car and drive, being light on the gas petal as I always am (unless traffic conditions require quick acceleration, which is very rare in general and nonexistent in my neighborhood). Where I live, early morning temperatures may reach the low 30's, but almost never colder than that. Occasionally, I will need to scrape ice from the windshield & back window, but I don't turn on the car before doing so. I will then drive while bundled up in warm clothes (and sometimes gloves) rather than blasting the heat.

About 3 minutes after leaving the house, I reach the freeway, at which time I will turn on the heat and begin to take off my winter clothes as the car heats up.

Generally, the only time I idle the car is when I'm adding air to the tires, as my tire inflator runs much better when the car is in ready mode (in retrospect, I probably should have bought one that runs on both AC and DC power). Even so, since the car is not moving, the ICE will only run for a minute or so before shutting off.

As an aside, I was considering partially blocking my grill this winter, but morning temperatures have been a bit warmer this year. Thus far, December morning lows have not fallen below 42, and the average has been 45. All of the recent rainstorms (which California desperately needs) have provided a lot of cloud cover, keeping temperatures more moderate.

 

Synthetic 0W-20 oil used in Prius pretty much cancels out any wear concerns. It's quite a bit more cold-friendly than the dino oil we all grew up with.

 

My winter warm up procedure? Well I like a cup of cocoa... And then I bundle up in the appropriate weight coats and gloves.

But if you're talking Prius?

Being a Hybrid, with a eCVT planetary gear transmission, and a system that monitors it's own coolant temperature? I worry less about warming it up, than I use to with just my standard ICE vehicles.

As I did with all my vehicles, I try to avoid extreme acceleration for the first 5 minutes or so of operation, but given that The Prius will run the engine/not run the engine based on numerous and various factors including being warmed up enough to maintain clean emissions, and it has the planetary gear based eCVT transmission that works to keep RPM's in the most efficient ratio, automatically?

The Prius given it's technology is much more just a hop in and drive it regardless of outside temperature vehicle than any other vehicle I've owned.

On cold days with just an ICE? I saw and recognized real value in warming up the engine. The Prius monitors factors in it's own warm up, as well as being designed to operate as efficiently as possible. To me? This means outside of being a led foot for the first 5 minutes or so, I don't worry about it hardly at all.

 

I agree with jump-in-and-go.

A long warm-up period is a waste of gasoline and pollutes the atmosphere. I hit the remote-start button about 5 minutes before I go, when I want a warm car when I get inside, but there's no advantage that I can see for warming it up completely before you drive.

 

Get in and go. The only time I will use the remote starter is if there is a heavy glaze over all the windows that even after scraping makes it difficult to see out.

 

In my youth I slung a bearing on a truck by jumping in and revving it hard in traffic when it was still cold (I was in a hurry). Expensive lesson. So I am a firm believer in letting an ICE warm up before driving off. But I have never done this with my Prius. I just jump in and drive. Mostly because the car seems pretty stupid-proof. It won't let you break it unless you try really hard.

 

I keep hearing the turn-n-burn folks say go easy on the foot until it "warms up"...there's a reason for that. You never load up a cold engine. For those that say it's for the MPG , thought I remember Ken@Japan did a study resulting in better MPG allowing the ICE to cycle through before driving off. Even that's wrong, I am not going to try and save a penny of gas at the expense of my warmth and comfort (heater)...on a car that gets the best mileage out there to begin with. I say run ICE at least one minute on a cold motor before starting the day...especially if you have started burning oil. To each their own.

 

Remote start with key fob and wait 10 minutes, or park in the garage so I don't need to worry.

 

I'm a little surprised by the relatively high percent of responders who do let the car run for some time, before driving. I always take it easy on a cold engine, but never sit around idling.

Well, the one exception would be if it'd been parked outside, completely frosted up, inside fogged. And yeah, I know what an ice scraper is, but that doesn't do a complete job. But other than that, I don't think I'm able to sit there, idling, watching the liters per 100 km value going up and up and up.

FWIW, in all my Honda years, every Owners Manual advised against protracted warm up, sitting idling. The only proviso, if the car hadn't been run for several days, then they recommended a few minutes warm up.

 

It's about the resulting emissions.

Cold cannot cleanse.

 

I couldnt afford the remote start option on my 3. So I simply send my daughter outside with the keyfob and she pushes the button as I get dressed in the morning. Usually 5-10 minutes of ready time. I'd prefer to get into a warm cabin than a cold one.

 

Me too. In fact, I feel like I see more people idling their cars to warm up in temperate California than I did in fairly-cold Wisconsin. The sample size here is a little too small to draw any definite conclusions, but it seems like most of the posters here from Canada (and, to a lesser extent, northern states) just drive it, while a fair number of the people who warm their cars up first are in warmer climates (TX, CA, FL, ...). Being a Wisconsinite originally, though, I fall squarely in the "power on and drive it" camp, with a side of "go easy on the accelerator for the first minute for best MPG".

My brother used to drive a semi, and he said it wasn't worth idling; the engine is so large that it would take forever to warm it up with no load. I also recall him starting it on a particularly cold day, where he was cranking the engine for a good 15 seconds or so before the first cylinder started firing. He had to keep cranking for another 10 seconds to get a second cylinder going, then that was enough to sustain it until the rest of the cylinders started going. Some of his semis also had an APU for cabin heat, so there was no need to warm it up for the meat bag inside the vehicle like some people are doing.

 

I always start the engine and wait until the battery running sound goes away.

 

The fact that they warm-up at all in California boggles my mind. Today's run out to the store 3 miles away was without the heater or even a jacket. It was 35F. Temperatures above freezing are quite comfortable, no big deal for just start & drive.