I've been carpooling, which means Mini sits in a park and ride all day. When I get back the engine is cold. The park and ride is right off the interstate, whch means that I'm at highway speed in less than 30 secondsafter starting the car. Is it ok to do this or should I let the engine warm up a bit? Mini sat over the weekend and it got down to around zero. The engine light came on for the first time this morning when I started the car, and then went right off. Made me wonder if I need to wait a bit before driving on a very cold engine.

 

yes.

 

FWIW the manual says not to do that, to just drive. I would avoid high revs, but I think it is best, after waiting a few *seconds* (you can even hear the revs dip a tiny bit after a few seconds after startup), to drive off.

 

My MC revs at about 1200 or so and then goes down to the usual level when started cold. I would take it easy on the revs too until the engine is warmed up.

 

You might want to take a short "excursion" on surface roads before hitting the freeway. In any case, try and keep the revs low (but don't lug) for the first several miles.

Another thing that would be helpful is to use something like Castrol Syntech 0W-30 European Formula oil when you do the oil change. This will be a little thinner at low temps than 5W-30.

 

I live next to the freeway on ramp (but the MINIs live in the garage), I just do what it says in the manual, drive a bit gently until they get warmed up. The problems these days is I'm just about at work by the time they're warmed up, so I don't get to have much fun.

 

Btwyx, exactly where I am - my commute is under a mile (!!!). I have been known to take a slightly longer route sometimes, and I make sure that on weekends, etc. it gets to go on highway.

 

One reason car manufacturers say to not let modern cars to warm-up is about keeping emissions down. The longer a car sits idling, the worse it's emissions to miles driven ratio is.

Here is what I do, in both of our generation MINIs at start-up. Start the car, then adjust the seat, mirrors if needed, get seat belt buckled, get iPod playing, set climate control to what is needed. This all takes a minute or 2, and allows oil to be pumped, tranny oil to slosh around a bit, and the seat heaters to take the edge off a little. I'm all for not polluting, but more pollution is created if you need to replace the car before it's time should be up, than to let it idle at start-up (in cold temps) for a couple of minutes.

Mark

 

Another reason is that carbon build-up from idling for long periods can affect engine performance.

It doesn't take long for the oil pump to distribute oil to the engine. Problem is, when the oil is cold and viscus, the pump may not be able to supply as much oil as is needed for higher revs. That's why you want to keep the revs fairly low when the engine is cold.

Driving at moderate speeds is the best way to warm up the oil.

 

Carbon build-up has never been a problem in my 03. I used to live where it was VERY BLOODY COLD. Weeks of -25F temps. I would go through my normal start-up routine, then motor at a gentle rate the mile or so to the highway, then run the little bugger hard up to speed, and cruise for the next 50 miles. When I changed plugs at 100,000 miles the OEM ones looked like new.

Mark

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...in-engine.html

 

With over 107,000 miles on my MINI, and giving it very good maintenance, I'm not sure what the point of that thread was to me?

Mark

 

The point was, what's true for your '03 may not be true for 2nd Gen MINIs. You had not problem with carbon build-up. It seems that the new engine does.

 

Thanks for letting me know, I'll keep an eye on the 08 Clubbie.

Mark