some people say you should warm up the car for about two minutes in extremely cold weather. The manual says to warm up the car for approximately one minute. One of my friends tells me that it is bad for the car to idle and that warming up the car is not necessary at all and that all you have to do is take it easy when driving with a cold engine
until it is warmed up. So whose advice should i be listening to? I've been listening to my manual since it seems like the most sensible thing to do but I was wondering what my fellow Maxima owners do.

 

I warm up the car from anywhere between 1 to 2 minutes (30-45 degrees outside). That length of time should be enough to warm up your fluids. If you take it easy on the throttle, you should be fine.

 

Warm up the car for a minute or two. The oil is thick when cold and you want that nice and warm to flow. Another factor is metal expands when hot, so I imagine a little more tolerances in the moving parts when cold. I keep the car below 2500 rpm until warm, which in the Maxima does not take long.

Mark

 

<B> There's two sides of the argument:

Pros of idle warm-up:
-Warming up your car will allow the oil to circulate before you start putting the engine under load, allowing the parts to be lubricated.

Cons:
-Warming the car up at idle has the engine run without oil, which will cause more damage to the internals.

What i do is warm the car-up while i get situated with my work "equipment" (office job = id badge, pager, cup of coffe =)). Then i go to let the load help circulate the engine. Idling it for too long without oil circulating under load has been proven to cause problems in the long run (ie. idling for 15mins). So, use your own judgement. I would say no more than 5mins, but, no less than 30seconds. </b>

 

thanks ppl....sounds like good advice

 

Once my car is started I go to WOT and hold it there for 5 minutes.


Well.. actually I do like SCCA Solo2. Start the car, put in a CD, arrange my stuff, put it in gear and take it easy until the temperature guage moves up a little (~5 minutes).

 

I've searched the forum, and the net. Just what the heck does WOT mean? I know it has something to do with planting your foot on the floor/redlining/etc.

 

I start it up and wait anywhere from 30 sec to a minute before going. Then, until the temp needle reads normal, I keep the revs under 3k rpms.

BTW, WOT = wide open throttle = flooring it.

 

WOT stands for wide open throttle. basically flooring it like you said