What is your Warm-Up Procedure?

bigdaddy

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Mazdaspeed 3, True Red
So, let me start by saying, yes I searched and physically paged through a few of the forum topics.. anyways, what do you normally do to let your ms3 warm up/ cool down?

-I'll start'
for warm-ups I usually start it and let it idle for about 1-2 minutes, and then I keep it under 3K RPM's and no boost until the coolant temp is at normal. I usually dont boost for about 10-15 minutes so that I allow the oil a proper warm up.

For cool off, I put in neutral and open up the hood (only at home) and let it idle for a about a minute to allow the oil to circulate, and then I shut it off and close the hood about 20 minutes later
 
not an ms3, but my wrx.

for startup, I'll start the car and let it idle for as long as it takes me to buckle the seat belt, adjust the volume and put on my sunglasses. 30 sec maybe. I'll take it easy until the car gets up to temp.

for cool down, if I've been driving easy (99% of the time), I shut the car off and walk away. If I happened to get on it a little, I'll let it idle for a minute, shut off, walk away. I've never left the hood open for it to cool off.
 
not an ms3, but my wrx.

for startup, I'll start the car and let it idle for as long as it takes me to buckle the seat belt, adjust the volume and put on my sunglasses. 30 sec maybe. I'll take it easy until the car gets up to temp.

for cool down, if I've been driving easy (99% of the time), I shut the car off and walk away. If I happened to get on it a little, I'll let it idle for a minute, shut off, walk away. I've never left the hood open for it to cool off.

yeah...im a little OCD when it comes to my cars...my theory is that when you let some of the heat out...things in the engine bay deteriorate slower i.e. timing belt...i know its a little bit rediculous
 
what if, and i'm just saying this without any scientific knowledge, cooling things down faster is actually worse for the car. i.e. putting a hot ass plate in the refrigerator. like i said, i have no idea what i'm talking about, just postulating a bit.
 
what if, and i'm just saying this without any scientific knowledge, cooling things down faster is actually worse for the car. i.e. putting a hot ass plate in the refrigerator. like i said, i have no idea what i'm talking about, just postulating a bit.

had the same thought.

Rapid changes in temperature does more damage than letting things cool down slowly.
 
not an ms3, but my wrx.

for startup, I'll start the car and let it idle for as long as it takes me to buckle the seat belt, adjust the volume and put on my sunglasses. 30 sec maybe. I'll take it easy until the car gets up to temp.

for cool down, if I've been driving easy (99% of the time), I shut the car off and walk away. If I happened to get on it a little, I'll let it idle for a minute, shut off, walk away. I've never left the hood open for it to cool off.

+1 for all that. I've never let one warm up for the car's sake. I do it for myself when it's REALLY COLD outside, so I can have heat. Otherwise, it just wastes gas to warm one up. They warm faster under load.

For cool-down, if I've been leaning on it, I open the hood and set fans in the motor bay to pull the heat out. If it was a normal drive, I just shut it off.

I'm amazed these little aluminum motors retain so much heat. My Ram cools off faster.
 
during winter it is not better to warm up through load, cold air rushing into an ice cold block..
 
winter: start car, go back in and drink cup of coffee
spring: start car, turn on wipers, go to DD for coffee
summer: start car, go back inside and watch tv while drinking cup of coffee
fall: start car, go to dd for coffee
 
You don't need to "warm up" a engine before you can use it. You just need to let it idle long enough to get the oil circulated out of the pan. As far as cool down I alway let the engine idle down for a minute or two (N/A or turbo) and there is no need for a rapid cool down in fact you are better off to let it all cool slowly.
 
I always heard it wasnt good to idle the car when its cold. The car wants to warm up as fast as possible, not by racing the motor but through normal driving. It takes 15 mins or more to warm up at idle, while driving it only takes about 3-5. The less cold running wear the better IMO. In the winter you might want to give it a extra 30 secs to get all the fluids going but thats about it.
 
+1 for all that. I've never let one warm up for the car's sake. I do it for myself when it's REALLY COLD outside, so I can have heat. Otherwise, it just wastes gas to warm one up. They warm faster under load.

For cool-down, if I've been leaning on it, I open the hood and set fans in the motor bay to pull the heat out. If it was a normal drive, I just shut it off.

I'm amazed these little aluminum motors retain so much heat. My Ram cools off faster.

yeah...thats the other reason I open up the hood for a bit, so that the fans pull out that excess hot air in the engine bay
 
I brew some joe every morning and drink at home. DD and SB too $$ 4 me.

Winter: Drink 1 cup coffee, wait 5 minutes, take dump, start car, Drink 2nd cup coffee, go to work.
Spring: Drink 1 cup coffee, wait 5 minutes, take dump, Drink 2nd cup coffee, start car, turn on wipers, go to work.
Summer: Drink 1 cup coffee, wait 5 minutes, take dump, Drink 2nd cup coffee, start car, roll down windows, go to work.
Fall: Drink 1 cup coffee, wait 5 minutes, take dump, Drink 2nd cup coffee, start car, go to work.
 
Start it, drive out of the garage, wait until the garage door closes and hit the road.
Drive 25 mph through my neighborhood (takes 5 minutes), back into the garage, shut it down.
 
first thing in the morning i start it and leave it be. normally takes me 5 to 10 minutes till i go back out into the car and drive, so by that time everything is pretty good no matter what ambient temperature is

and about lifting the hood after stopping and shutting off, that is a good thing. after you shut off the engine you get heatsoak. this is when the coolant stops flowing and all the heat from the cylinders stays right where it is. the hottest time for the engine is after it has already warmed up and is shut off. so if you don't want heat accumulating for too long then lift the hood when you're done, but im not saying it's completely neccessary.

and i just don't get on it hard about 5 minutes from where i know im gonna be stopping, that way i can just park and shut it off. the only time i sit with it running after i stop is when i get gas at a particular gas station right off of I95. because i was already traveling at speed where the turbo is always engaged in some sort of boost, just pulling off the highway into the gas station and shutting the engine off would not be the best thing. so i end up letting it idle while i turn the blower off, open the gas door, unbuckle, and whatever else takes me a minute to do before i shut off and fuel up
 
I start my car up, go inside and make a cup of coffee, then I drive it with out going into boost for 5 more minutes, and then, I still won't rip it.
 
I start it up and go. Just no hard acceleration until the temp gauge starts to move. Winter gets a warmup because I start the car and scrape ice off the windows.
 
the other thing with lifting the hood is that Live in California...so ts not cooli g off super fast... Because it's usually like 80 degrees where I live
 
in the morning when it's a bit chilly, i'll wait for it to idle at around 1k then shift below 2k until warm.
 
i do the same ... if its cooler in the morning, i let the oil circulate and thicken up a little first usually about 1 minute or till about 1000 rpm and drive slow for a few minutes.

turning off the car i have the turbo timer set to 30secs for cool down or 1 minute if i was driving a little harder than usual.
 

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