I see that blue cold engine light on in the morning. When it goes out, is the engine completely warmed up or would the "needle' still have some distance to travel upward?

thanks,

 

I'm no expert, but my brain says it's not fully warmed up. I assume that the the light is tied to a sensor meauring the coolent temp and goes off once the coolent reaches x degrees.

I don't think the oil temp figures into the light, but I could be wrong. Of couse the oil is so thin on the Fit that its temp may not matter much. I was pleasantly surprised at how little relative warmup time the Fit needed to feel normal at -20F here in MN last winter.

I think for normal driving, when the light goes out, you're good....

 

I bet it is not fully warmed up, but not cold either..Im sure the needle would have some room to go up if it had a actuall guage, but when the light turns off its all good to drive i belive..

 

You are right, it is not fully up to temperature!
As per ScangaugeII, blue light goes out at 125*F while engine "normal" working temp is between 175-205*F(depending on altitude, ambient temperature and how hard you are ruining it). At idle it will reach 185*F.
Engine being so small and aluminum it warms up very quickly which is awesome for cold weather.
Engine also cools off very quickly during coasting moments, which is great for efficiency too.
Hope it answers your questions!

 

I don't need to wait for it to go out before I start driving do I? Just take it easy on the engine acceleration while it is blue, right?

 

It is actually better for both the car and the environment if you start driving as soon as you start it up, but keep your revs as low as possible (lets say under 3000 or 2500 rpm).
Engine will warm up much faster, get off "cold start mode" (remember or are you aware of choke on older cars or current motorcycles?) much faster (which shoots more fuel in the engine to keep it from dying) which will keep catalytic converter cleaner and last longer since it does not have to deal with extra burned/unburned fuel.
And before somebody crucifies me for claiming that less gas will be used while driving vs. at the idle, that is not what I am trying to say. While driving throttle will be open more than while at idle which will keep fuel/air ration more toward the lean side in comparison to cold idle which runs rich. That is why less crap will go to the catalytic.

 

One of the few mistakes Honda made - not giving us a temp GAUGE, the cold indicator doesn't cut it..

 

Scangauge 2 will give you an actual number for the coolant temperature but it's $169

 

That's not bad, I'm thinking of picking one up. Especially for the "_____ to Empty" functions

As far as the Temp goes... Anyone whose driven a honda WITH a temp gauge knows it has basically 2 positions anyway: "cold" and "middle"
The Fit "Cold" light seems to go out at the point where a needle would just begin to move.

Don't forget too, the oil temp can lag behind the water temp by 30° or more when a car is warming up.

 

Agree on the temp gauges in Honda. Stays on cold for a few minutes, then moves up to 'middle' in the space of 1-2 minutes, then stays there.

I usually take it easy until 5/10 minutes until after the lignt goes out so the oil gets up to temp too. I really wonder though, how much of a difference this makes with the 5w20 oil the Fit takes?

It makes a HUGE difference on my air cooled Harley, both because air cooled engines take longer to get up to temp (no radiator/theromostat to regulate cooling) , and because it takes 20w50 oil, which is a LOT thicker. It drives like there's molasses in there for the 1st 15 minutes when it's cold outside. But methinks that this is not exactly an apples to apples comparison........