ok, i've done my homework searching the board, but can't seem to find exactly what i'm looking for...do i really need to warm up the FEH on cold winter mornings? and when i say cold, i mean 20F, 10F and colder. if it's 50F and sunny, i might still be wearing shorts! and in michigan, winter means you start the car 15 min before you want to leave the house and hope the ice has melted by then...and being a creature of habit, my mind keeps telling me to get out there and start the car. the last few mornings have been in the low 40s i think.

i know idling in the garage kills mpg, but does 5 min help out the engine/battery? i've got the front seat warmers so my rear end is toasty. it's the car's rear end i'm wondering about! for reference, my drive to work is only about 17 miles (one way), but it's 40 minutes on surface streets, ranging from 30-50mph roads w/lotsa lights.

 

I wouldn't recommend warming it up at all. All that does is kill your gas mileage. I start mine up, let it run for a few seconds to let the oil pressure build and then I drive. Drive gently until it does warm up - no high speeds, no high rpm or hard acceleration. It will warm up faster with a load on it than idling in the driveay (true for any engine).

 

Basically no - the FEH engine is doing about the same thing if it's warming up or driving. When you are starting off most of the power comes from the large traction motor even when the ICE is running, so unlike a conventional vehicle there's very little stress to the engine from accelerating.

 

In general, with any kind of car and in any climate, warming up by idling is far worse than warming up by driving gently. Warming up by idling takes much longer, pollutes much more as the cat takes longer to come up to operating temp, and so you run the engine under suboptimal lube conditions much longer. The general recomendation is to warm up by driving immediately, just drive gently and don't rev the engine, that's the best you can do. The best part of that: you get better mileage too!

 

This was brought up at the FEH Experience, that you're far better off by just starting up and getting underway. Scrape off the ice as needed, get in and get going. On the plus side, so far, I've been shocked by how quickly that little engine heats up the compartment. I used to let the old Explorer idle during a typical January Michigan morning just to get heat in the compartment by the time I left.

Somewhat related, keep in mind that we're going to have a slight MPG droop, as the cold weather eats away at your FE. Already I think I've noticed a slight drop in performance, just as we've lost around 40 degrees from three weeks ago.

 

I'm considering getting an electric dipstick for my Insight. I think www.jcwhitney.com asks $16. Engine heaters are more work and run about $45 or more....

 

I have seen a few Electric Dip Sticks in my day !

Sorry.. It is Friday and I could not resist !

 

I lived in Ogden, Utah years ago. Cold winters there!
Worked nightshift, and had to often start the car ('79 Camaro) after sitting out all night.

The dipstick heater had little effect, but a pan heater and battery heater helped a bunch.

Check out: http://www.wolverineheater.com/index.shtml

Regards,