How to keep the engine happy?

[NoVAphotog]

Non-M's don't have an oil temp gauge.

[gammagoblin]

I would aim to get the oil nice and hot at least once a week to burn any moisture off. I believe oil takes longer to get hot than coolant, so once your coolant gauge is sitting in normal drive some more, probably 30 min would do it. Anecdotally my dad drove a 1/2 mile commute to a park & ride station for years and never had a problem (I don't blame him for driving, very dangerous low viz/high speed road no space for bikes/peds, but he took longer weekend drives).

[LivesNearCostco]

I would have thought only 10 minutes easy driving needed to get oil up to temp once the coolant gauge is at the middle, but without an oil temp gauge, I will never really know. I plan to install some gauges in my E36, and then maybe later after that the E46.

[san]

Thanks a lot for the inputs guys, appreciate it...

[san]

Get a bicycle.

[san]

Or moped.

[llll1l1ll]

On a similar note to the OP, every other week I drive to the office (about 40 minutes each way). Since it's cold, my wife likes a toasty car and insists that I start the car to let it warm up. Despite my best efforts to tell her that it's bad to sit and let your car idle to warm up and that it really makes no real difference (and is actually damaging your vehicle), I've chosen to pick my battles a little more wisely. Anyway, I digress...

What I'm asking is if that once every other week idle warm up (it lasts about five minutes tops) is really going to damage the car. It'll last almost until March. Really just on the cold days is when I gotta do it. I treat my car nicely and appropriately, otherwise.

[SoDelBMW]

Interesting info, thanks for the advice!

[LivesNearCostco]

Remind me again, why is letting the car warm up bad for the car? I realize it isn't necessary with modern cars, but why is it bad?

[NoVAphotog]

Remind me again, why is letting the car warm up bad for the car? I realize it isn't necessary with modern cars, but why is it bad?

This has come up recently with articles on jalopnik and other sites. The main argument is that it is bad for things like cats and the exhaust system. It's just faster to drive the car and allows everything to warm up in a better way. So, as far as I understand, it's not necessarily bad but just letting it run for a little bit and then driving off is that much better.

I know before I used a garage and with previous cars, When it's cold as shit out and the car is covered in snow and ice, I cranked the heater and defroster and went in and had breakfast! No problems.