On page 76 of the CS owners manual, under the heading 'Starting the Engine', it states 'Be ready to drive immediately ' and also states 'Do not let the engine idle to warm up'. I plan to install a remote starting devicein my CS and use it to allow the car to warm-up during the winter months. Is the owner's book's advice a recommendation to protect our environment by getting the catalytic converter up to temperature quicker, or will this activity inflict some damage to the CS?

It's probably better to warm the car up by driving it, in that all of the drive components will warm up at the same time - which would be a good thing. There's lots of other things besides the motor that should be warmed up before getting your foot seriously into the throttle. That said, the actual act of letting the motor warm up at idle is not bad for the car. I, and lots of other folks I know, warm their cars up this way before taking them out onto the track or an autocross course.



brad

__________________
21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

If you let just the engine warm up then the transmission will still be cold when you drive off. You are likely to cause extra wear and tear if you do this.

I have a 1995 saturn sc2 sport coupe that I've driven for 180,000 miles. Since it does not have heated seats I have always let it idle for 10 minutes or so to warm up in colder weather. The car runs great and I have never had any problems with the manual transmission. Are porsche transmissions less durablethan saturn transmissions?

It could be that if you step into it hard thinking the engine is warm, you could stress something else (i.e., the transmission), because nothing else was warm, except the engine. But if you're aware of this, you can drive the car easy until everything else warms up properly. I could also understand if there are environmental concerns, but I don't know for sure.

__________________
FIEBRU

I appreciate and understand everyones observation about the warming-up of other related components. My question relates directly to the Owner's Book statement 'Do not let the engine idle to warm up'. My concern is due to the manufacturers need to warn the consumer; is this an indication that this practice will have a detrimental affect on sensors, cat converter or etc. Is there a place where technicalquestions like his can be answered?

Nope.

Joseph - If there's a dealer near you, ask to talk with one of the factory-trained techs that work there. The service manager and service writers, may or may not actually know, and the chance that a salesperson (I mean no offense to the sales folks on this board, but I also realize some salesmmen/saleswomen are better technically informed than others) would know could be remote.



You could also join PCA and ask the question in the tech forums on pca.org - but you would need to own a Porsche in order to join PCA.



brad

Edited by - beez on 09/02/2006 09:45:45 AM

__________________
21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

most manufacturers recommend not warming up the car..


well then again... they also recommend 20k mile oil changes... maybe it's because they dun want the cars lasting past the warranty stage so they could make more $

Hi Brad. I'm replying to your post after a search for "warm up".

Last week I spoke about engine warm-up with my service writer, who is specifically a Porsche guy; he isn't a tech, but he is knowledgeable.

He opined that there was a difference between driving right off from a cold start and letting a stone cold engine warm up at idle. He said the goal was to get the various sensors to reach their "closed loop" state, wherein the temperature sensor was warm enough (or something) to let all the sensors talk to each other.

Driving before that state, he said, would 1. account for the surging (hunting for idle speed) that I'd reported to him, and 2. contribute to carbon build-up.

He said he gives his 911 "about two minutes" to warm up from cold, waiting for the fuel (?) pump to stop whining; if he needs to move out from his garage he lets the car roll as much as possible, using gravity while out of gear instead of using the throttle. I tried this technique and my parking situation is such that it worked well for me.

Today I let my CS warm up from stone cold until the idle dropped to about normal, which took about one minute. This will be my new regimen.

Best,

Snaxster

__________________

2008 Boxster Black/Black/Sand Beige, 6-speed, PASM, 18" Boxster S wheels, Preferred Package Plus,
Sport Steering Wheel, Automatic Climate Control, Windstop, Hardtop, Porsche rubber floor mats,
deleted model designation, clear side markers, 3M clear bra, set of winter tires and wheels.

Is your car equipped with a Tiptronic?

No, Gator Bite, it has the 6-speed manual.

The 'hunting for idle'/surging thing really got my attention because I had the 987 Boxster for 7 months/13k miles and it never did it. I attributed it to the CS having a different motor and engine management programming.

__________________

2008 Boxster Black/Black/Sand Beige, 6-speed, PASM, 18" Boxster S wheels, Preferred Package Plus,
Sport Steering Wheel, Automatic Climate Control, Windstop, Hardtop, Porsche rubber floor mats,
deleted model designation, clear side markers, 3M clear bra, set of winter tires and wheels.

Sorry, I was actually asking Joseph. He mentioned he wanted to add a remote starter and of course there aren't many places that will touch a manual shift car when it comes to remote starters.

So what's with the idle hunting issue? I don't have a Cayman yet, but will this summer. Is this something I can look forward to?

On the 'don't idle' thing, it said exactly the same thing in the manual of my 944 Turbo. I assume it's for catalytic reasons. I had a remote starter on that car and never had a problem. (I had the car for 10 years and 66K miles.)