How do you warm up your car?
 

Today was a rare case where I wanted to warm up my car in Florida. I proceeded to attempt my normal warm-up procedure: Leave my keys on the counter, pull my spare key from the drawer, start car with spare key, lock the car, and go back in to finish my normal routine of packing lunches and yelling at the kids to hurry up.

What I found is that my Mazda won't let me do this. It will not let me lock the car from the outside with the engine running. Despite several attempts to trick the car, I was unable to walk away from a locked and running car. I tried the fob. I tried locking from the passenger side, I tried manually locking. No joy.

Now I know that this is a safety feature to prevent the average dumb ass from locking his keys in his car, but what about us above average dumb asses? Let me lock myself out if I want to , dammit!

In the end, I'll get over it. I live in Florida, and might want to warm up my car one or two days a year. But for you clowns that live up north....how do you get past this?

Well, us clowns up here (at least this is what I do) just start it and leave it unlocked. nobody where I live knows how to drive stick, I'm good. Or we just bear through it and sit in it. Heaven forbid you guys get down to a chilly 50 degrees. lolol

Just started my car yesterday morning and it was -7 without the windchill.

This^. Manual transmissions are a great theft deterrent

I start it and leave it unlocked and doors wide open with a red carpet. PLEASE take my car.

i just jack off in the drivers seat. works every time

I unlock the door from the driver's side with whatever key(spare or normal). It only unlocks the driver's side door. I start the car with the spare. I lock the driver's door with the normal key. All doors lock for me this way. I have a genwon if it matters.

Here's a trick I didn't try. Maybe I'll give it a whirl......next year. :D

Roll down the driver side window. Hit the lock button and pull the window switch up "if you have auto up" and walk away...

Up here in N. Maryland i go outside about 15-20 mins before i need to leave and just start the car (key fob in my pocket). When i walk away it does that little beep thing but I just leave it open. I live around nothing but white folks (Im mescan) so if a car is getting stolen, its probably me going to do it. And you cant steal your own car!

But if i lived in da hood, yeah I would not do this! I would try the window thing that he mentioned earlier, that sounds legit.

Or while you are getting kids ready, send the wife/gf out there to sit in it while it warms up. If she not making sammiches at the moment, its best we keep them doing something productive....right?

Just out of curiosity, what was the temperature in which you felt it necessary to warm the car up in Florida? LOL

I've been warming my car up for like 5 minutes the past few days but it's been like -15 F in the mornings. I go out, start the car, scrape the ice off the windshield, go in feed my dog and then leave.

I don't bother locking the car with a spare or anything. I leave it unlocked. I don't even bother warming it up unless it's super cold and that's only so it's not totally freezing when I get in it. Letting the car sit idling for 15 minutes is kind of dumb and doesn't do any favors for the car. When it's really cold, you're better off starting it and letting it run for like 30 seconds and then babying it until it's up to temp. I laugh when I hear people talking about how it's bad to just drive it when it's cold out and how you should warm it up for several minutes.

Here in Chicago land it gets cold….. i usually start the car and sit inside for like 3 minutes before i start driving like a granny and shift below 3K RPM :)

Many people say that but I don't get the logic. -20C yesterday and I would think idling it for 10-15 mins will allow the components to warm up without much load on the engine. Running it at that temp with some load on the engine doesn't seem good IMO.

Install a remote start/alarm.

My key locks my door with car running. But I just go outside start car and go back into house. Here in nc temps been around10-20 degrees.in the morning

sent while tapping that ass

I just start it w/o key and walk off and let it beep at me too.
Has anyone tried driving the car away without the key/card on them? I wonder how far down the road it'll go before it shuts off...

HAHA I am riding the bike today. Fuck this 40ish degree weather.

haha, it really isn't necessary for me at all. I just assumed it was more "normal practice" for those who need to keep ice off the windows. But what do I know, I don't have those issues.

A coworker got caught riding in that hailstorm Tuesday with no helmet.......dumbass always rides on bad weather days.

auto start (courtesy of compustar)

Buy a house with a garage?

Flip the lock button by hand.

I've read numerous things about components don't get lubricated properly via coming to temp by idling and that it also stresses bearings. Also this quote for Mr. Bell

Quote Originally Posted by Corky Bell

There are things that can be done to increase forged piston life; driver habits and preparation.

The driver habits are to get the pistons warmed up ASAP. Start motor, move immediately, run modest rpm (say, 3000) max, use moderate boost (2 or 3) if desired, then after water temp needle moves, one good shot of boost will do the warm up job needed. The idea is to reduce the number of engines cycles to warm up.

My views changed when I became aware of the BMW sponsored efforts conducted by Southwest Research...... here in San Antonio, of course. The conclusion was slow warm ups increase wear significantly. How much, I do not know

+1 for the remote starter...

It was -14° here this morning. I got in my car, started it... waited for the hi idle to come down (roughly 15-20 seconds) and I drove away.

Ain't nobody got time for that warm up crap.

my buddy was able to drive my car a few miles down the road and back with no issues with the key in my pocket. the only problem is starting it back up again one you've killed the engine

doesn't work, at least for me. it locks then automatically unlocks itself. I haven't found a way to be able to lock the door with it running. I suppose you can if you roll the window down and lock it with the door shut as suggested before

Here in Ontario I just start my car and clean off the snow (obviously you don't have snow.. Lol) and then drive off. Idling to warm up the car apparently isn't good to do because it takes much longer to warm up and wears bearings faster. If I have no snow to clean off, I start the car, wait about 30 sec. and then just start driving. It's been - 20 degrees Celsius here lately and in those temps my car starts blowing out warm air within 8 minutes or so of driving.

It was 19 degrees or something this morning. Instead of wasting my gas by leaving it running for 15 minutes I just started it up and drove, not hard though. By the time I drive a mile or two the car is "warm" and the heater blows hot air

I just start my car in the garage and while I am getting my phone going with Pandora or putting stuff in my it gives me time to warm it up...

But then again I live in Texas... so what is all this negative temperature stuff?

I live near Montreal and its not rare doing cold start below -25C these days. I usually start and let the car run for a minute or two (and let the heated seat do their job :)) then baby it for a while (revving under 3k rpm), it does the trick and actually warms faster rather than iddling for 5mins.

What works for me is using the emergency key in the key fob to lock all doors.

2010 MS3

This... Also helps cool the car down in the summer.

I'm an anti warmup guy. 1 I'm impatient, 2 I'm lazy, 3 Its not great for the car. I give it 30 seconds and I'm off.

I have always been under the impression and been told that letting it sit there and warm up is a lot slower then just driving it easy. Car warms up a lot faster when you are actually driving and you drive it casually it shouldn't do any harm to the engine. I just let it sit their for a moment to make sure oil is flowing good and thats about it.

@crankshaft; Florida statute 316.1975

I just leave it unlocked...if someone wants to steal my car.... then damn, go for it.. there's not many MS3s in my town, and the ones that are (besides a murdered out one) is modded even appearance wise. anyway, I just start the car like 10 minutes before I have to leave. hahah.

What good would that do? Not a good idea to let a car idle in the garage with the fucking door shut. LOL

I use my remote start alarm. I can't start it remotely, but it has a convenience function that will leave it running and i can take the key out and lock it.

just tappin it in...

This. If I gotta walk outside to start the damn car in the cold, the tough part is over. Might as well just save time...start the car, curse a little for about 20 seconds and then just drive off. I can't justify buying a remote car starter that would honestly be used maybe 1 - 2 months out of the year.

I would never buy a remote car starter either. I'd rather put that money toward performance/power.

I usually give it enough time come off high idle, I use the remote start for the convenience of leaving it run while i run the kids into school out run in somewhere real quick that it's not worth shutting off and restarting.

just tappin it in...

I'm with most, start car, let high idle settle for 20-30 seconds and go.

All you have to do is set your HVAC controls to Auto and it won't send air through any of the vents until it warms up to the temp you want. I keep mine at 68 and by the time I reach the main road(1 mile) I'm getting nice warm air.

Good article to read
Should You Warm Up Your Car in Winter - Warming Up Car - The Daily Green

And some states are trying to make it illegal COLD SHOCK: Warming up your car illegal! :eek2: