Hi, this question has probably been answered before, but without sifting through every post, I would like to know how long I should warm my car at night before driving. I have recently purchased my first ever diesel, (Skoda superb dsg auto 2014) many family members keep saying to warn the car for at least 10-15 minutes before driving. Is this true? They said if I don't I will damage the gearbox and the turbo kit. 

I warm mine for about as long as it takes to put my seat belt on (or clear the screen of ice at this time of year).

I just get in and drive my TDi. Obviously if there is frost/ice/snow/mist on the windows, that gets cleared first...

 

If you're going to drive it hard, wait until the oil is up to temperature.

Welcome AdamKhan

A diesel warms up faster getting driven not sitting idling
the above comment of gearbox and turbo are bo**ocks.

letting a cold engine idle is worse for it than driving it

Edited 30 January, 20197 yr by SuperbTWM

To "AdamKhan" - I think that, one or two minutes is enought to start driving but first few kilometers drive as slowly as possible.

4 minutes ago, tuningmania said:

To "AdamKhan" - I think that, one or two minutes is enought to start driving but first few kilometers drive as slowly as possible.

Completely wrong
what do you think is going to happen to the engine in these "one or two minutes" that wont happen if you just start driving and what will driving slowly for the first few Km,s do????

22 minutes ago, DEL80Y said:

what will driving slowly for the first few Km,s do????

Make you late for work! 

Why would you want to keep a car idling to warm it? In many continental european countries people put Webasto heaters into their cars which warm the engine from the waterside I think.

BUT coming back from winter holiday it was -9.5°C. It took 25Km or 30 minutes of driving down the mountains until the water and oil started to register the minimum of 50°C.

 

Use your heated seats if you are cold. The engine will be o.k. and cope

When the engine is idling, it's under very little load (basically only what it takes to keep the alternator and A/C compressor going) so it won't generate very much waste heat. It's that waste heat that warms up the engine, so under load while driving it'll get more heat into the engine that you ever will at idle. The engine has a warm-up mode that'll be helped along by getting it out on the road as soon as possible too.

 

Just start up and drive normally, don't baby it, and don't floor it from cold. You can monitor the oil temperature in the MFD and once it's up around 80-90 *C you don't have to worry about damage.

 

In frosty conditions, I'll only let it idle for a few minutes to power the heated 'screens and mirrors while I'm getting the kids into the car then it's go time.

 

To "DEL80Y" - I wait few minutes only in cold wheater because of the "DSG"-oil. I hope not to damage the engine this way :(

1 hour ago, tuningmania said:

To "DEL80Y" - I wait few minutes only in cold wheater because of the "DSG"-oil. I hope not to damage the engine this way :(

 

your wasting your time waiting a few minutes for your oil to heat up it will not heat up just sitting there for a few minutes 

Jump in and drive it

2 hours ago, tuningmania said:

To "DEL80Y" - I wait few minutes only in cold wheater because of the "DSG"-oil. I hope not to damage the engine this way :(

Your transmission fluid will never warm up while the car is not moving!

 

The DSG transmission has its own oil, separate to the engine oil.

To "DEL80Y" - 

1 hour ago, DEL80Y said:

 

your wasting your time waiting

I have "OEM" pre-heater with remote control. May be I need to use it sometimes

 

To "chimaera" - I know that the engine oil have nothing common with "DSG" oil, but, I do not know, may be I just represent to myself, that the "DSG" changes the gears more smooth if I wait few minutes before start driving..

47 minutes ago, chimaera said:

Your transmission fluid will never warm up while the car is not moving!

 

The DSG transmission has its own oil, separate to the engine oil.

 

Oil systems are separate but the DSG share the cooling system with the engine. In theory you could warm up the gearbox by idling the engine - but it would be a waste of time, money and environment.

The DSG isn't harmed by the harsh gearshifts when cold - it is perfectly normal for an automatic gearbox to be a bit sluggish and harsh when oil is cold. Just start the car and drive away without flooring the accelerator.

Trust me on this - I develop software for automatic transmissions for a living...  

2 hours ago, tuningmania said:

To "DEL80Y" - 

I have "OEM" pre-heater with remote control. May be I need to use it sometimes

 

 

Ooh, I wish, don't think cost effective on mine though.  

 

I remember back when we were kids back in the '70s my mates dad, who was a good engineer, mounted some sort of heating element (from an iRon I think ) on to the sump and used to plug to in for about half an hour before he went to work, so that when he set off at least the oil was war if not the water.

Don't know how much good it did but his mk1 Escorts seemed to run forever without much problem 

To "Joakim" - Because You Work this, I believe you. Do you know "TVS Engineering"?

 

To "Gdcobra" - The People in 70's was not been stupid. Just, now some other People think and believe yourself, that they are more smarter. Often, we believe them too and make a mistake :(

Edited 1 February, 20197 yr by tuningmania

On ‎30‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 19:45, SuperbTWM said:

letting a cold engine idle is worse for it than driving it

how so?

Im not saying this is wrong but wonder why?

25 minutes ago, superbdreams said:

how so?

Im not saying this is wrong but wonder why?

Because it doesn't warm up much at idle it spends longer running on cold oil.

thank you. that makes sense.

 

13 hours ago, tuningmania said:

To "Joakim" - Because You Work this, I believe you. Do you know "TVS Engineering"?

 

To "Gdcobra" - The People in 70's was not been stupid. Just, now some other People think and believe yourself, that they are more smarter. Often, we believe them too and make a mistake :(

Well, as I said, my mates dad was a good engineer and he had that car as long as I knew him and don't recall him having issues. Warm oil has got to be a good idea and probably more important back the when oils were not as advanced as now. 

He was a smart guy and I learned a lot from him. May be responsible for the care'er path I took.

The vast majority of engine wear occurs during the first few minutes after a cold start.

 

I'm sure oil technology and the ability of the engine to pump the oil around as quickly as possible has improved, but there'll always be metal to metal contact.

 

Warm or hot oil is less viscous and therefore it is likely to reach those exposed or vulnerable components quicker than if it was very cold and gloopy.

 

I'm no engineer, but I try to set off as soon as possible but keep the rpm's low until the engine is more or less up to operating temperature.

 

I change the oil regularly too (not a fan of leaving engine oil in for up to 2 years / 20,000 miles i.e. variable service intervals) which hopefully, especially at this time of year, helps reduce engine and turbo wear.

 

 

About 7 years ago, a TDI/CR specialist told me this (matches most if not all of the advice above):

 

1) If temp above 0C then start and drive away, if  temp is below freezing then idle for 15 secs and then drive away.

2) Keep the revs below 2500 when changing gears & accelerating  and cruise in the 1500-2000 rpm until warmed up.

3) He was quite keen that being warmed up meant the oil (not coolant) was up to 80-85C. If you can tell the oil temp, then wait until the temp gauge (i.e. coolant) is in the middle (90C).

 

On the first point, the 15 secs was based on an assumption that this was enough to throw the cold oil around the engine - after that it is more important to get it warm and that is best done when moving.

On the last point, he was assuming that the intention was to drive the car hard (3000+ rpm on the gear changes). I've heard the advice that you can consider yourself "warmed up" if you are getting warm air from the vents. I'm not sure about that - with my 1.6 I get warmish air when the MID says the oil has only just hit 50C.

 

Being under some load seems to be the key thing in getting warmed up - this week I've had my car hit 70C driving at 80kph, only to drop to 65C when held up by slow moving traffic.  

A Euro 6 2.0 TDI SCR DSG can take 6 miles before the indicated oil temp gets to 50*oC driving at 60 mph, and as much as 20 miles to get to an indicated 90*oC.

I get warm air before 1 mile has been driven from starting and driving off from cold at around 0*oC.

Edited 1 February, 20197 yr by Skoffski