i wait 3 min every morning then baby it for the next mile, then i drive normally

 

apart from people living near the arctic circle, there's no need to idle until the light goes out (isn't that a long time anyways?). And really engine block heaters? If you start your car in subzero weather i can understand, but really??

I'm pretty sure they take these things to places like Death Valley and Norway to test them to the extreme. I have faith our fits can take what canada can throw at it.

 

Engine Block heaters would be nice. It does get below zero for weeks at a time here in VT and I'm a few hours south of Canada. It's gotta get cold up there.

~SB

 

So OP you've gotten three pages of replies, do you get it now?

No warm up needed, drive gently for the first five minutes or so, especially wait for the cold engine light to go off and you're good to go. If you're an anal type person you could wait 10 minutes before driving hard, but do not sit and idle at all. As everyone else has said you're wasting gas and polluting the environment. Plus you're just building up extra carbon deposits on your engine, something your engine definitely doesn't need. Get in and drive, gently at first.

 

So say we all (well except for a couple of us)!

 

The worse thing about idling a cold engine is that the air to fuel ratio is on the rich side which promotes wear by washing the lubricant off of the valve guides, pistons and rings diluting the oil increasing wear on all lubricated parts also causing oil seals and hoses to dry out, harden, crack and break causing leaks and an increase in oil consumption primarily through the valve guide seals.

 

We learn't that way back in the Dark Ages eh. More than 60 sec warmup is a waste.

 

I don't remember valve guide seals back in the dark ages, do you?

 

I realize I'm responding to an old post, however, this happened to me this morning and I couldn't find any information with the exception of an explanation of the symbol.

It seems to me that the suggestions although well intended have been just that suggestions (no offense). Honda should have set guidelines for this warning instead of letting us use trial, error and guess work.

I hope I didn't offend anyone for their well meaning posts, but my retort is more for Honda not addressing this issue (we can't be the only ones with this question) and letting it slip through the cracks. I will be discussing this with my Honda service department today (they are installing my hands free device).

In the future I will direct my diatribe and moaning to Honda directly.

 

Hitting vtec on a cold engine is known to damage seals. other than that its fine

 

I'm agreeing with Nightroad.

Here comes winter. Fall offers mornings of high humidity at cool/cold temps.
De-fogging the windscreen can be an issue, making getting in and drive difficult.
Here's where the AC-on w/ the defroster idea came from, and it works as intended. Swing the heat to max and turn it on speed 3.

Thing is it will take a bit to 'warm' up. That means I sit for a while till I see the bottom of the windscreen clearing. Then consider driving off.
Low sun angles can make 'seeing' impossible.
How many lower the pass window to check views?

You say wipe glass w/ anti-fog of something else. For me there's enough out-gassing going on in the cabin - I resist any spray/chemical stuff. The defrost will do it.

Come winter I expect it to be most like every other car I've started in all my up-state NY winters. First thing I do is start the car. No sense clearing and digging if the car's not starting is an old habit that's been engraved in my brain. When I'm clearing the car the engine will be on first and the defrost will be doing the thing it tries to do best.

I've driven an audi fox that required a jug of water over the carb to thaw it out. Six days of sub -15F will solidify things.
It was Lake Placid-1979. Used cold water and it still sizzled, but worked when using enough tact.

Block heaters, as others have mentioned, are not designed to 'warm-up' the engine. They're designed to allow you to start them. They too work - better on diesel - but they do work.

All this talk of wasting fuel is silly. You are starting an internal combustion engine that is giving you tremendous economy. Give it a rest...


Bottom line: No real need to warm up the Fit, but chances are you're going to. Sometimes it only makes sense to do.

 

I spoke with the service department and a service tech and they all said it's an idiot light and it's just letting you know it's cold.

Seems a little silly, when I get outside and need a coat I've already come to the conclusion that it's cold.

So now I have a car to tell me it's cold (I have a wife for that, nag nag nag).

 

 

Oil temp gauges aren't conventional, water temp gauges are.

 

time for some aftermarket gauges.......... pics anyone?

 

Advantages
Most automotive engines use aluminium pistons that move in an iron cylinder. The average temperature of a piston crown in a gasoline engine during normal operation is typically about 300 °C (570 °F), and the coolant that runs through the engine block is usually regulated at approximately 90 °C (190 °F). Aluminium expands more than iron at this temperature range, so for the piston to fit the cylinder properly when at a normal operating temperature, the piston must have a loose fit when cold.
In the 1970s, increasing concern over exhaust pollution caused the U.S. government to form the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which began passing legislation that forced automobile manufacturers to introduce changes that made their engines run cleaner. By the late 1980s, automobile exhaust pollution had been noticeably improved, but more stringent regulations forced car manufacturers to adopt the use of electronically controlled fuel injection and hypereutectic pistons. Regarding pistons, it was discovered that when an engine was cold during start-up, a small amount of fuel became trapped between the piston rings. As the engine warmed up, the piston expanded and expelled this small amount of fuel which added to the amount of unburnt hydrocarbons in the exhaust.
By adding silicon to the piston's alloy, the piston expansion was dramatically reduced. This allowed engineers to specify a much tighter cold-fit between the piston and the cylinder liner. Silicon itself expands less than aluminium, but it also acts as an insulator to prevent the aluminium from absorbing as much of the operational heat as it otherwise would. Another benefit of adding silicon is that the piston becomes harder and is less susceptible to scuffing which can occur when a soft aluminium piston is cold-revved in a relatively dry cylinder on start-up or during abnormally high operating temperatures.
The biggest drawback of adding silicon to pistons is that the piston becomes more brittle as the ratio of silicon is added. This makes the piston more susceptible to cracking if the engine experiences pre-ignition or detonation.

 

Eat Sleep JDM