I picked my Prius up on Jan 2, 06 and am loving it of course. I wonder about the need to warm up the car before taking off in the morning. What is the advice on this. There is no temp gauge and the car seems to go from the get go. But, I am used to letting a car get a little warm. I am getting 45 mpg. Love the car.
Don't bother to warm up, it just wastes gas and slows the warm up. It's not necessary on modern cars in general, but the Prius manages engine loads and speeds even more. Warmups by idling just warm the engine, to warm the rest of the car you have to move it anyway. Since the Prius spins the engine so much faster than a normal starter, wear from cold starts is a nonissue as well. I try not to do high speed driving until the car warms a little, though I don't know if it makes a difference, just makes me feel better.
Thats why I prefer a Prius over my Lancer Evolution. You gotta let it warm up or you'll ruin the turbo. <_< Anyone wanna trade a Prius for a Mitsu Lancer Evolution 8 for a day?
I haven't driven the Evo 8 and would love to try it out but it's probably one of those things I'll regret, won't I? Like how you should never drive your dream supercars and that they should just remain as dreams? Owen, you don't really need to warm up the car. The Prius has a 3 litre thermos that stores hot coolant from the last run (hence the 'sucking' sound you hear at stop and start up). This coolant gets circulated into the engine the next time you start up so your engine will be partially pre-heated.
The car is ready to go when the "ready" light stops blinking. If it does not blink then just go...This is stated in the manual.
You can start up and drive gently right away. If you don't ream it, the hybrid system doesn't load the engine for the first 30 seconds or so, preferring to run it enriched and retarded to get the catalytics warm, so the battery will be powering the first little bit of your trip. Then the engine is allowed to send some power to the wheels. After the first half-mile or so, the engine temp is probably up close to 60 - 70 C and you can start putting a little more stress on it. [I *do* have a temp gauge, so I can tell when things have warmed up nicely..] . Oh, and of course I haven't mentioned the coolant-storage thing which greatly helps warmups, but if you've left the car in the cold for a couple of days then that doesn't contribute a whole lot. . _H*
I tend to let it warm up a BIT (like maybe letting the ICE run for 20 seconds or so), then drive it gently for the first mile or so through the neighborhood. It's really a matter of oil circulation, and it really depends on the car. I've had a few hi-perf vehicles that needed to warm up or you'd get stuff like valve clatter. You probably don't need to for modern cars as such (as someone else mentioned), but it makes me feel better... My uncle starts his CRV, immediately takes off and heads up a big hill at that, never had a problem, and he's up here in Boston where below 0F days aren't too uncommon in the middle of winter...
If it's a newer CR-V, then Honda recommends a 5W-20 oil. That provides much faster cold oil circulation and pressure than 5W-30. When I still had my home in the Burbs, a neighbor had a Honda Civic that was always parked outside. Even started at -40, it never knocked or clattered. She would usually brush the snow off, scrape the windows, and take off. Never seemed to have an issue.
