Practically a new car for me but i was wondering if this does anything harmful to the car or increase wear: during winter morning, I do not wait until car warms up then drive to work everyday, where is about 5-min driving. Therefore, the engine temp still remains kind of cold from the gauge showing. After work, it’s the same thing on the way home. During weekends I do travel quite a distance often. Will this be any harmful, or i’m just worrying too much
Walk to work or ride a bike…
With today’s electronic fuel injection, the computer does a pretty good job of controlling the flow of fuel to minimize wear in short trips. The biggest issue will be the exhaust system since it won’t get hot enough to evaporate the moisture within. You will probably need a new exhaust system sooner than someone who drives the same car on longer trips.
If you can take it on a long trip every week or two, you can improve your odds of making the car last.
Don’t worry a bit about warming up, driving distances etc in your case.
Your car is to SERVE YOU, not you serve it. You are worrying too much.
The only thing I would follow to the tee if no oil monitor(light to tell when to change oil) is use the severe oil change interval. And remember if your interval is say 4months/3750 miles and you only go 2500 in 4 months, you change oil as time has elapsed.
Actually you are going good. Letting a car warm up, is generally hard on a car and it is best to start it and drive off as soon as it is warm enough to run reliably, and that is usually about 10 seconds above -10? Letting the engine warm up does not warm up the suspension, transmission or other drivetrain parts.
Note: Being able to see is very important, If your driving habits result in frost or fog on the inside of the windows, I strongly suggest you allow enough time to keep the windows clear.
If you did not make those long drives on the weekend you could end up with a sludged up engine. As others point out, there is no need to warm up extensively to go to work; just don’t race the engine when it’s cold; easy does it.
The weekend drives with engine well warmed up will blow out the cobwebs.
You’ll be fine.
The carburated engines we had when I was young could build up carbon deposits from this type of use, but as Whitey pointed out modern engines are so good at metering fuel that this isn’t the concern it used to be.
And condensation on the inside of the exhaust system forming rust isn’t much of a problem either since most systems today are stainless steel.
The only sugestion I’ll make is to change the oil on the “severe use” schedule recommended in your owner’s manual.
I drive my car the same way during the week, and take it on a trip home every weekend (college student). I change the oil every 3k, so far so good.