You know you're an E46 fanatic when...

When you become enraged when someone takes your spot in between the two pillars at work. (My signature)

About the warming up the engine topic, 95% of the time I will sit there, let the engine warm up just past the blue, maybe give it a minute of 2k's. Then drive easy until I'm fully up to temp before doing anything past 3.

Originally Posted by Robaidh

When you take your own wheels off before the garage takes them off to change your tyres

haha, spot on. I recently repaired a puncture and did exactly this! After the repair the guy offered to put it back for me, but I politely declined.

Originally Posted by raymoon

When you become enraged when someone takes your spot in between the two pillars at work. (My signature)

About the warming up the engine topic, 95% of the time I will sit there, let the engine warm up just past the blue, maybe give it a minute of 2k's. Then drive easy until I'm fully up to temp before doing anything past 3.

So you do exactly what the manual says not to do. Just drive light.

Originally Posted by TonyJ

haha, spot on. I recently repaired a puncture and did exactly this! After the repair the guy offered to put it back for me, but I politely declined.

How do you take them off before they do it? You mean do that at home and bring the tires to them? Or are you leaving your car on stands in the parking lot? haha

damn^ 1111 posts in 3 months.

that means your a fanatics

Originally Posted by WDE46

So you do exactly what the manual says not to do. Just drive light.

Just read it. What could be the reasoning behind not warming the car up while stationary...? This doesn't make any sense to me.

Originally Posted by raymoon

Just read it. What could be the reasoning behind not warming the car up while stationary...? This doesn't make any sense to me.

according to a post I read recently, the engine warms up the oil in such a way that only a portion of it is warm or "free flowing". When you begin driving after you have warmed it up the oil moves throughout the engine. There in lies the problem when some of the oil is hot and some is not, the hot spots are more "flowey" and the cold spots are more thick. Think of sucking up mud through a vacuum, some spots flow easily some do not. This can harm your motor.

Originally Posted by jlaroc1990

according to a post I read recently, the engine warms up the oil in such a way that only a portion of it is warm or "free flowing". When you begin driving after you have warmed it up the oil moves throughout the engine. There in lies the problem when some of the oil is hot and some is not, the hot spots are more "flowey" and the cold spots are more thick. Think of sucking up mud through a vacuum, some spots flow easily some do not. This can harm your motor.

Interesting...Is this different than most cars? Or even motorcycles? I was always taught to warm my bikes (sportbikes) up to moderate temperature before riding (because of their tighter tolerances) in the same way F1, MotoGP etc. or any race auto for that matter. They always do warm-ups stationary.

Is this true with all modern road-cars? And this only has to do with the way oil is circulated while the car is stationary? I'd assume engine oil would be heated up pretty uniformly in any engine.

Originally Posted by raymoon

Interesting...Is this different than most cars? Or even motorcycles? I was always taught to warm my bikes (sportbikes) up to moderate temperature before riding (because of their tighter tolerances) in the same way F1, MotoGP etc. or any race auto for that matter. They always do warm-ups stationary.

Is this true with all modern road-cars? And this only has to do with the way oil is circulated while the car is stationary? I'd assume engine oil would be heated up pretty uniformly in any engine.

To be honest, I'm not informed enough to tell you. Like I said that was a recent post I believe in this thread. The explanation just made since coupled with the owners manual telling you not to warm the car up

Quick Google search:

AutoRepair.about.com

"I can remember my grandfather going outside 10 minutes or so before he left for work to start the car. He'd crank it up, then come back inside and eat a banana or something while he let his bright yellow Lincoln warm up. Back in the day, this wasteful ritual was practiced regularly by drivers around the world. It was rooted in practicality. Old carbureted engines functioned much better warm than cold. They ran more smoothly and efficiently once warmed up. So letting an engine warm up at idle was actually not a bad idea at all.
Fast forward to this millennium and we've got a very different story. Carbs are history, our engines use fuel injection systems that carefully monitor efficiency both in engine power and fuel delivery. These systems employ subsystems that compensate for things like temperature by making minute external adjustments to fueling. This means it will operate at optimum efficiency regardless of engine temperatures. First thing in the morning, it's adding a little extra to the mix to get things warmed up. It's also making sure that when you step on the gas there's enough oomph to get you up to speed quickly. This means that any amount of time you let your car sit in the driveway idling you're wasting gas. You're also not doing the environment any favors because your emission control devices (like the catalytic converter) only function properly hot, and they heat up much faster by driving than sitting still in the driveway. So even if you're a grandpa, don't watch your car warm up through the kitchen window, get going!"

Quora.com

"At idle, very little gas is going into the engine, so it takes a long while to get warm. Meantime, all the bearings are working with cold thick oil.

Driving gently requires a lot more gas than idling, and the engine thus warms up dramatically faster (it's at best 25% efficient in putting power to the road, the rest is all heat). As long as it's gentle driving the net wear on the bearings is much less (heavy acceleration, even with moderate speed, is a bad idea, since it puts high loads on the bearings while lubricated with cold oil)."
- Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer, Netflix <---


CivicInfo.com

"The reason you are not meant to warm the car up stationary is engine wear.

Phase 1, no oil delivery.

When you start a car, there is no oil pressure. So any bearing that requires a film of oil that must be supplied under pressure is only going to have residual oil. This is not as bad as it sounds, but it is not ideal. Oil delivery starts in about a couple of seconds, but it may take up to a minute for the oil to find it's way to every corner. So this phase is short, but is responsible for nearly all engine wear.

Phase 2: Engine parts the wrong size because the engine is at the wrong temperature.

Next comes the bit when the engine is running but there are uneven temperatures in the engine causing uneven sizes. There are a few minutes when some bits are cold and other bits are hot, and you need to get out of this phase as quickly as possible. If you leave the engine running when stationary, it is going to warm up very slowly and you will stay in this phase for a long time. If you just drive off, then the engine does more work and you will warm everything up quicker. Leaving it to idle can also cause bore wash (not enough oil at the rings) and will glaze your bores. There is some wear in this phase - but it can get bad at high load or high revs. The water should warm up in 5 minutes, but the oil can take up to 15 or so.

Manufacturers sometimes tell you to drive off immediately because of fuel economy, but I suspect that this is to avoid using the term "engine wear" in an owners manual.

There is one caveat to this, and that is that in extremely cold temperatures (Scandinavian) then it is advised to let the car warm up a little more before driving, because it takes even longer for the oil to circulate and the temperature differences in phase 2 are just too extreme."
-Some Admin




If this is all true, I assume Formula 1 does something to mitigate this issue, by prewarming fluids that aren't being simultatenously warmed during their engine fire-up/warm up. I remember watching a quick overview of F1 warm-up procedures with Martin Brundle I believe, where the engine goes through a bunch of pre-prescribed revs to warm the engine to specific temperature. I could assume they wouldn't put the car on the track just for warm-ups to save tires.

Originally Posted by jlaroc1990

damn^ 1111 posts in 3 months.

that means your a fanatics

It means I don't like my job and I distract myself during the day on E46Fanatics. My job is so up and down in terms of load. I have lots of free time and then all the sudden there are 10 things to do that are time critical. I don't think I've ever posted this much on any forums ever.

Raymon, thats pretty good info

When you get a scratch or small dent and you think "I wonder how much it would cost to have the car repainted?"

Originally Posted by WDE46

How do you take them off before they do it? You mean do that at home and bring the tires to them? Or are you leaving your car on stands in the parking lot? haha

Well, I said it was a puncture (a nail) repair, not to replace the tyre. So you do the usual, swap with the spare. All I want to avoid is their rattle gun.

Originally Posted by Constantine

When you get a scratch or small dent and you think "I wonder how much it would cost to have the car repainted?"

Lol.... absolutely.





And I did that three years ago. Maybe I will start looking for more scratches, kinda want to get it painted again.

When your sitting in McDonalds in your E46, behind another E46 and on your fanatics app searching this forum as you wait for your food...

when you park at a lot, you always seek out another e46 and park right beside it.

Originally Posted by WDE46

It means I don't like my job and I distract myself during the day on E46Fanatics. My job is so up and down in terms of load. I have lots of free time and then all the sudden there are 10 things to do that are time critical. I don't think I've ever posted this much on any forums ever.

Thought I was the not the only one...

when you walk by another e46, you peek inside and if it has a manual knob. If not, walk away and never look back.

When you park all the way in the back just because you spotted an e46.