Why Should You Let Your Car Warm Up Before Driving It?

Have you heard that you should warm up your car before driving?  It was recommended for older cars to let them warm up before you drive them.  But is that still true with modern cars?  Can you damage your engine if you don’t let it warm up before driving it?

So should you let your car warm up before driving it?  Engine oil will thicken in cold temperatures not allowing it to properly lubricate your engine. Allowing your car to get up to warm up to operating temperature before driving it will allow the engine oil to be a thin fluid which is critical to allow it to properly lubricate the internals of your engine.  That’s why it’s best to warm up your car before driving it in the cold winter months.

Not allowing your car to get up to normal operating temperatures can result in accelerated wear on the moving parts inside your engine and can result in costly repair bills over time.  While this is not as important in the summer months you should still let your engine warm-up before revving it up to the higher rev ranges.  But how long should you warm up your car and what are the main benefits?

Benefits of Warming up Your Car

The main benefit of warming up your car before you go to take off driving allows your engine and oil temperatures to get to normal operating temperatures before you go to drive your car. This ensures that your engine is up to temperature and more importantly your engine oil is up to normal operating temperatures.

If your engine oil is not up to normal operating temperatures before you go to take off, then your engine oil may still be somewhat of a syrupy substance.  If your engine oil is still cold and not a thin fluid, then it will not be able to adequately lubricate your engine as well as if it was fluid.

If your engine oil is not able to adequately lubricate the internals of your engine this can lead to increased friction on the moving parts of your engine which will result in increased engine wear.  The main point of engine oil is to reduce friction as much as possible.

That is why it is important that you keep an eye on your engine temperature gauge when you set off in your vehicle.  You would want to make sure that your engine temperature gauge is in the middle position of your temperature gauge before you rev your engine to its full potential.

Why You Should Warm Up Your Car In the Winter?

In the wintertime temperatures outside are typically much colder than they are during the summer months.  That’s why it’s important during the winter months that you warm up your engine before you go to drive your car around.

If your engine does not have enough time to get up to normal operating temperatures before you rev your engine the engine may be starved from oil.  This is not good for the internals of your engine as you may know that metal on metal contact is not good for engine internals.

Over time your engine will start to wear down from the internal metal components touching each other.  Your engine oil is designed to lubricate the internal components of your engine but if it is not warm then it will not be fluid enough to be able to flow through your engine to be able to lubricate it.

That’s why it’s important in the wintertime that you warm up your vehicle before you go to take off.  Otherwise, your engine may not get up to full operating temperature for a long time as you drive around.

Benefits Of A Remote Start System In the Winter

One way that you can get around braving the cold in the winter months to warm up your car is by using a remote start system.  If you have a remote start system installed in your car you can remotely start your car from afar. This allows you to be able to have your car started and warmed up before you ever set foot in it.  

A remote start system is nice because it allows your car to get the engine up to normal operating temperatures.  Remote start systems also allow your car a chance to be able to get your heating system a chance to warm up the inside of your car before you get into it as well.  To check out the current prices of the Viper remote start system pictured below on Amazon click here. Having a remote starter really nice in the winter months if you live in a cold climate because you don’t have to sit in a cold car and wait for it to get warm.  The car will already be warm when you get inside it. If your car is like my car you can also have your heated seats on and already heated whenever you hop inside your car.

How Long Should You Warm up Your Car?

This question depends on a lot of factors.  How cold is it outside? How large is your engine? Is your car fuel injected (most likely it is)? All of these factors will impact how long you should be warming up your car before you go take it for a drive.

If it is the wintertime and it is negative 20 degrees F outside, then you would want to warm up your car for a bit longer to give it a chance to be able to warm up.  Generally warming your car up for about 5 minutes should be sufficient if it is not subzero temperatures out. If it is subzero outside, then you may want to warm up your car for 10 minutes to allow your engine to get up to temp before driving it. 

The type of oil that you go with also has an impact on how quickly it will go to fluid form.  Synthetic engine oil performs better than conventional engine oil at low temperatures.  To learn more about the differences and how often you should change your engine oil check out my other article.

One thing that you don’t want to do is let your car idle for a very long time.  There is a sweet spot that you want to try to get into. If you let your car idle for a really long time before you take off in it you would be wasting gas while it is idling.  

Letting your car idle for too long can also actually hurt your engine as well if it is not able to get up to normal operating temperatures quickly.  If your engine is not able to get up to the normal operating temperature, then your oil will still be thick until it can get up to operating temps.

If your oil is thick and not a fluid substance, then it will not do a very good job of lubricating the internals of your engine.  

Should I Warm up my Car in the Summer?

Obviously your car will get up to operating temperature a lot quicker in the summer months than in the winter months.  So is it important to warm up your car in the summer?  

While it’s not as important to warm up your car during the summer months it is still a good idea to get your engine up to normal operating temperatures before you rev it to the higher rev ranges.  Doing so will increase the lubrication of the internals of your engine and reduce the chances of engine wear.

BMW installed a temperature gauge on the tachometer of the E46 M3 that would light up in yellow and red indicating that the engine temp was still low and that you should not rev into that range.  As the engine would get up to temperature the yellow bars will disappear indicating it is now safe to rev to that rev range.

Benefits Of A Remote Start System in the Summer

What you may not know is that you can also use your remote start system in your car during the summer months.  While you wouldn’t want to let your car idle for a long time before you go to take it for a drive in the summer months it starting it before you take off does have some advantages.

The best advantage of starting your car up in the hot summer months is that it allows your air conditioning to get a chance to cool down the inside of your vehicle before you hop inside of it.  This means that in the hot summer months when it’s 100 degrees out you can have your car cooled off before you ever step foot inside it.

Being able to start your car remotely in the summer months is a benefit to anyone that lives in southern climates that may get temperatures reaching or exceeding 120 degrees F because you can significantly lower the temperatures of the inside of your vehicle before you get inside of it.  

Anyone that has hopped into a car that has been baking in the sun for hours knows how uncomfortable it can be to touch your steering wheel or gear shifter when it feels like it is on fire.  Having your air conditioning on your car running for a bit before you get into it can keep you from having to experience that again.

How to Warm up Car Engine Faster

You can warm up the engine if your vehicle faster by driving around if you really need to get it warmed up in a hurry.  If you need to get your car engine warmed up in a hurry you can drive around before it gets to full operating temperatures, but you should make sure that you are not revving your engine through its full rev range.

When you drive around before your engine reaches normal operating temperatures there may still be some risk to your internal engine components, but it should be fine for the most part.  Just don’t rev your engine out all the way until it has had a chance to properly warm up.

How Long To Warm up an Old Car?

Warming up your car used to be a lot more important on older cars that have carburetors. With older engines with carburetors sometimes your engine would not let you drive off before you fully allowed the engine to get up to operating temperatures.

If you have an older car with carburetors it would be a good idea to let your engine run for 5 – 10 minutes before you take your car for a drive.  That way it would allow the engine to warm up a bit and allow the engine’s carburetors to be able to deliver fuel to the engine efficiently.

In Conclusion

You should now know why you would want to warm up your engine before you go take it for a drive.  If your engine oil is not up to temperature, then it will not do a very good job of lubricating the internals of your engine which is the main purpose of engine oil.

If you have a remote start system installed in your car then it can make the process of warming up your car before you drive it a lot easier.  With remote start systems, you can start up your car while you are still indoors and you don’t have to sit inside of your car waiting for it to warm up.