How long do you wait to warm up your car before moving. Do you let it get to operating temperature or just a minute?

Same thing on cool down. What is a good amount of time to cool down when you are just driving to work and arnt pushing the turbo hard? I drive about 10 miles to work for a reference of how far it is.

2003 wrx sedan

Thanks guys

 

I usually let the car idle for 15-45 seconds. Just long enough to watch the garage door close and to put on glasses. After the engine has been running 10 or 15 seconds (unless it's Alaska cold and you are using dino oil), oil pressure has built up. It is important to drive gently, off boost for several minutes. I usually do not give it more than 1/3 throttle and shift below 3,500 until 2-4 minutes after the coolant temperature guage has reached it's normal position. It's best to warm a vehicle up by driving it. It more evenly disperses heat in the engine and also warms up the grease in your CV boots and the fluid in your transmission. Again, if it's bitter cold this is not practical.

As for cool down, if I don't have the oppurtunity to drive relatively easy for the last couple minutes of driving, I'll let it cool down. Otherwise I just switch it off.

 

If I run the car hard right before I get home, I let it idle for about 1 minute or so before turning her off.

 

You really dont need to let modern turbos spool down, the way they are designed and with the newer oils its ok not to. If you feel that you must though, 30-45 seconds is plenty of time.

 

do you all think a turbo timer would be a good investment for cool down purposes or just a cool toy? I'm gonna get one just cause its cool to have one but I get a sense of security for using it. Might not really extend the life of my turbo but if I think it does , piece of mind is worth 100 bucks

 

I let my car idle for a couple minutes before i start driving about the same when cooling it down. It says above i should let it warm up for just a few seconds in the spring and drive it easy til temp goes neautral but in winter i should wait til temp is good before driving? does this mean i'm giving it plenty of warmin and cooling time, cuz thats what i'm shooting for

 

instead of a turbo timer...id go with an MBC and have a little fun...i dont think anyone here thinks its(tt) worth it...

 

A turbo shuts off as soon as you turn off the ignition (or very shortly thereafter). I think a more appropriate term (considering the topic) would be "cool down" instead of "spool down".

I guess you could consider it a cool toy. A cool down procedure is unnecessary for the WRX due to the engine's design. However, I never run any car hard and then just shut it off. I always allow a mile or so of "calm" driving to allow all of the vehicle's components to return to their normal operating temperatures.

As far as warming up the car, I wait a few seconds to make sure my oil pressure is flowing properly and then I'll start on my way. I keep the car out of boost until the engine has a chance to fully warm up. Since I don't have an Oil Temp gauge, I wait until my pressure drops to it's normal operating range before I push it. From my experience, the water temp will come up to it's operating range before the oil does (which is why I wait for the oil to warm up to make sure). My oil pressure will drop from 100 to ~80 when it's warm or down to ~30 @ idle.

Kean