Warming up the car before pushing it.

[bnightstar]

Do you know where in the manual?

• Avoid long idle periods.
  
  
• Do not warm up your vehicle on cold mornings.
  
  This is on Page 188 in 2017 Mustang Owner's manual in the section Driving Hints Economical Driving just after the Break-in chapter. I hope this helps.
  
  

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[Biggus Dickus]

• Avoid long idle periods.
  
  
• Do not warm up your vehicle on cold mornings.
  
  This is on Page 188 in 2017 Mustang Owner's manual in the section Driving Hints Economical Driving just after the Break-in chapter. I hope this helps.

I saw that - but warming it up on hot mornings must be OK

 

[Ed M]

I saw that - but warming it up on hot mornings must be OK

You betcha! Gotta get that A/C going to cool off the interior before getting in the car.

 

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

That's what I saw as well - But there is the vague recommendation of "Do not warm up your vehicle on cold mornings". Say what?

I think this is the advice of you don't need to warm up your car for 10 minutes on a cold morning. Best to start it, let it idle for a moment or half minute, then drive off, taking it easy until it's warm.

 

[thunderstrike]

Wait until the engine oil is at normal operating temperature. This comes must later than when engine temp achieves normal operating range.

 

[1MEAN18]

You want the engine itself to be at operating temp (~200* CHT) before pushing it semi-hard and you want the oil temp to also be in the lower mid section of the graph before going to redline.

The others (diff, trans etc) should be fine by those points also. The biggest thing with the engine is you want all clearances to be expanded to their normal range so you don't have cylinder wall scoring or excessive high oil pressure.

What you just said, to me, explains a lot of the "typewrite tick" and cylinder wall piston slap. Owners not understanding this, getting in a car, brand spankin' new, likely not even properly warmed up, running the shit outta their cars, then having issues that they wanna blame on Ford, or on anyone but their own dumb selves. That's why I say the "coyote tick" is a myth, and when you fight back by saying that, or questioning how well they care for their cars (or the common oil change did it, but they won't admit they likely didn't put enough oil in the engine). Man, this is especially bad with all these idiotic YouTube video makers who all seem to glom onto the latest daily clickbait BS, which a lot of them perpetuated, as a myth, this "typewriter tick" phenomenon, which to me is a made up thing, made up and perpetuated by total idiots, mostly its also just normal DI pump and injector noise, which also makes them newb total idiots, perpetuating crap. Rant over...LOL

 

[CB18]

To hell with that owners manual. As soon as that engine fires off, right foot all the way down, left foot all the way up.

 

[GregP27]

To the people that don't understand warm-up, think about the physics. Metal expands when it gets hot. Everything expands at a different rate if the metals are not the same type and thickness, and if the heat application is not uniform. If you run your engine hard before it is up to temperature, the parts can actually score one another and can create local hot spots.

In the marine diesel world, if you don't let a big diesel warm up before you make hard demands on it, you can cause your VERY expensive diesel to be overhauled VERY quickly. In the big piston aviation world, not letting the engine warm up can cause catastrophic failure.

While it is possible to hit the engine hard before it is warm, it just isn't a very good idea ... that is ... if long engine life is important to you.

What is the usual quote, "run it like you stole it!" That attitude makes a new car into an old one in just a few years. Don't get me wrong, it's YOUR car and you can trash it if you want to, and that's fine. But when I'm still have fun in mine down the road and you are buying a new one or prematurely overhauling yours, I'd say I'm getting a better deal for my money than you are while STILL having some high rpm fun.

Still, as I said, it's your money. Use it like you want to use it ... no particular advice offered. Just some info on metal expansion with temperature. Keep in mind, the best race cars in the world usually have a warm up lap before racing and they also usually take a cool-down lap when the race is done. Military aircraft ALWAYS warm up before launching. Heavy equipment always warms up before starting work. Big diesel trucks warm up before leaving with a load, and they can last several million miles. These people know a thing or two. Just saying. Your Mustang doesn't HAVE to warm up, obviously, but is IS a good idea, mechanically. It is a lot of things, but a waste of gas? No way.

 

[Hobohunter]

Your Mustang doesn't HAVE to warm up, obviously, but is IS a good idea, mechanically. It is a lot of things, but a waste of gas? No way.

I'm pretty sure the contention is whether to warm up at idle in the garage/curbside or warm up by keeping RPMs lower while driving. I don't think anyone who responded seriously here are actually starting up and redlining off into the distance immediately.

That being said, I start up and am backing out of the garage within a few seconds and off on my way. Everything warms up together, and even on cold days it's maybe a few minutes of cold cabin to deal with and that's not a big deal.

 

[Qcman17]

I'm pretty sure the contention is whether to warm up at idle in the garage/curbside or warm up by keeping RPMs lower while driving. I don't think anyone who responded seriously here are actually starting up and redlining off into the distance immediately.

That being said, I start up and am backing out of the garage within a few seconds and off on my way. Everything warms up together, and even on cold days it's maybe a few minutes of cold cabin to deal with and that's not a big deal.

I agree its pretty much what I do too. I let the car idle for perhaps 30 seconds to get my sunglasses on and get myself settled. Then I drive the car pretty gently for the next few minutes & after its been running for 5 or 10 minutes while driving I figure its okay to give her a little snap if wanted. I'm still going somewhat easy on my car as it only has about 400 miles or so on it. But it gets a quick romp here and there to remind it of what its intended purpose was when I bought it.

 

[BmacIL]

Good rule of thumb: when idle drops to ~1000 rpm, start driving away with reasonable/light load till you're up to temp.

 

[JKL1031]

Wait for the LC light..

 

[GregP27]

Hello Hobohunter, well, that makes large difference. I start up, pull out, and drive away slowly, staying at 2,000 rpm and under until I see normal operating temps. Basically, I "baby" it until it is up to temp.

I assumed "hit it right away" because that was normal for the 2002 Camaro SS I used to have, if you followed the forums. The engine has an aluminum block and always gave better 1/4 mile times if it was a bit cool at the starting line. Hence, most of the younger SS crowd at the time assumed that was better for street driving, too.

Perhaps we have a smarter bunch of younger Mustang drivers in here. I'd like to think so, at any rate!

Cheers!

 

[95CobraR]

I say warm up the engine properly before pushing it to high Rpm limits. [It's car 101]

Most of the possible damage to an engine is when the block and the rotating assembling is not up to a safe temperature. That would include the transmission and the rear differential.

On a cold morning in racing, I would jack you the car and warm the entire drive train including the oil in the rear differential.

On the street, I am always sure that the entire car is very warm before pushing the throttle.

 

[rocky5517]

I was surprised to see how long the trans temp takes to get into the operating range. you can look at the actual temp, or look at a range of "colors". To get into what I think is good operating range takes a good 10 minutes of driving around, nice and easy. Am I overthinking this?

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