Deerfield

I purchased my 997.2 C4S in April of last year so as of yet have not had the 'fun' of having it in winter. While it is my only car and daily driver - I don't intend to expose to the elements whenever possible (I can telework, etc.).


Today - I was greeted with 8 degrees (wind chill) temps here in DC area. My car is in a garage but - open on the sides.


There was a debate in my old forum (I had a BMW 650) as to whether it was better to warm up the car in the morning standing still for 5 min or to start and immediately drive SLOW. One camp felt the warm up standing still was actually harsher on the engine than slowly driving car - until temps got up where one could accelerate, etc..


I would appreciate the forums thoughts on this.


As well - the car is very creaky (turning, going over my speed bumps, etc.) in the cold. After reading several threads - this appears to be normal but would welcome experiences there as well.


Thanks - for the help and greet responses to some of my prior queries -

Carmichael

If I recall, the manual itself says to start and put the car in motion immediately.

I like to give any of my cars at least a minute or two to warm up in the morning, though, just to build up some oil pressure without any load on the engine. Especially when it's well below freezing.

Quadcammer

look at your gauge. There is no building of oil pressure. Its there a few seconds after the motor starts cranking.

I start it, wait till it comes off high idle (long time on the turbo), and then proceed slowly. Gearbox is the most recalcitrant part of the car.

Philster

Driving away immediately is nice because manufacturers want to play nice and not waste fuel, but the best thing is to let it idle for at least several minutes til all the metals are playing nice together.

You don't need to get the coolant up to temp, 'cause you'll be there very, very long, but give it several minutes to let the metals/alloys get warm so they fit right (the engine internals).

You'll be driving slow and easy for a lonnnnng time before the oil gets above 175. This is the downside to a high-performance engine built for harsh, hot use: You can't have fun in the cold for a long time, because there's a lot of oil to warm up and the coolant takes a while too.

Bore scoring affects cold-weather cars disproportionately for a reason.


.

Macster

While the owners manual states to not warm up the engine but to drive away immediately after starting and to keep RPMs down this is intended more for the emissions test tech than the owner.

I know. I know. Says me.

But the facts of the matter are Porsche and all makers (and VW is the very public example of this) "game" the emissions testing qualification test by the no warm up guideline and by fitting cars with multi-speed transmissions that have the transmssion in top gear in practically no time. (My loaner Cayenne diesel has an 8-speed Tip and it can be in 8th before I'm out of the driveway...)

All of this intended to deliver the best emissions numbers (lowest CO2 emissions) and best gas mileage.

What I have done over the years is to start the engine and let it idle until the cold engine RPMs drop to the near hot idle RPMs. I know from observating this via an OBD2 code reader the DME is in closed loop mode about the time this RPM drop occurs.

My experience is the engine is a bit more tractable and easier to drive smoother.

I still keep the RPMs below the upper limit (4000?) as per Porsche until the coolant temperature has been at the "180" hash mark for minutes.

Oh, with this loaner Cayenne that has both a coolant temperature digital display and an oil temperature digital display it is very interesting to see how much oil temperature lags behind coolant tempeature. From a dead cold (32F) start and just normal driving the coolant temperature is up to 200F in just a mile or two.

But oil temperature is way colder. It can take 10+ miles of my normal work commute drive before the oil tempeartuare is close to the coolant temperature.

The bottom line is it is your car and you can do as you want. Many follow the Porsche guidelines and drive off immediately. With a Tip or PDK car the transmission tends to help smooth out the cold engine. With a manual the cold engine and its reduced -- albeit not by much -- tractabilty is a bit of an issue.

My sympathies are with the engine and drivetrain so years ago I jsut got in the habit of letting the engine idle a short time before driving off. I feel this is a good trade off between being eco-friendly and doing what I can to prolong the useful service life of the engine, which is also eco-friendly.

kellen

Drive it and baby it while it is warming up. Shift around 3k RPM.

WV997S

Word of the day!

scottiemac

Cold! You guys don't know cold!
I got my '09 C2 in October and it's my daily driver. I have Sottozero Series 2 winter tires on it. The worst day was after a 4 - 6 inch snowfall but still only had an issue on one hill.
I keep the car in my garage (un-heated) and don't really warm it up before driving away. I short shift to keep the max revs between 2500 and 3000 until I start to build up some heat in the engine. My morning drive is in the 15 minute range and the oil temp is usually up to normal by the time I get to work.
So far it has been great. Some of my early cars were Beetles from the early 60's - this is just like a Beetle with 10 times the horsepower.
Cheers, Scott

Quadcammer

the longer it idles, the longer the pistons are banging around in bores too big for them.

30 seconds to a minute of warm up is fine, but any longer than that and you only prolong the period during which the fit of components is less than ideal.

LexVan

Your car does not care what the wind chill factor is. That was a funny notation.

Quad, awesome vocabulary word today!

Carmichael

That's exactly what I do.

Maybe "building" oil pressure was the wrong term. I just wanted everything spinning to get a fresh coat of oil before putting load on the motor.

So, maybe waiting for the oil to fully flow, or stabilize pressure would be a better term.

MaddMike

I'm new to P cars and as much as I wanted to drive this morning at 12 degrees, I took the BMW instead as I'm still not sure of the correct procedure.


On a side note, M cars let you know where you can rev to as the engine warms up. Wish Porsche had added that feature.

ace37

I drive it at 4k or less until the oil starts to show some heat. By that time the shifting action is getting good instead of notchy too.

I started to wonder about slapping a heater pad (like the Wolverine ones) on the car and plugging it in at home on a timer for the morning drive though. Haven't done anything yet but I suspect it would help and not be a great deal of trouble to plug in. Shifting would still be lousy for a while but it would be an improvement. Maybe if I add a smaller heater there too the morning commute would be more fun.

LexVan

I've played with this. I've used a small 1,500 watt ceramic heater parked under the oil pan. Overnight in my garage (air temp in the 50s) I can get the oil and coolant up to about 110-120. FYI.

KNS

You're right - wind chill is meaningless to engine operation. I think the OP was referring to his parking situation. Parking the car outdoors in cold temps isn't ideal, obviously. I've read that if you must leave the car outside, park it so it is blocked from any wind (against a fence, building, etc).

As soon as you shut down the engine it is shedding heat until morning when you go to start it. In a cold and breezy area the wind is helping to carry away any residual heat that much faster.

It may sound insignificant but I read that in a book about making your car and engine last way longer than your average car.