[dimmy32]

SO I've had my 2012 WRX for about 2 months now, and I read most cars now have electronic fuel injection,so you never need to bother "warming it up" in winter when you cold start it.
However I've read the turbo engines do need some warm up time....so which is it ?? and if so, for how long is adequate ? re there negative effects for not warming up an engine ?

Also I have a 4L of engine oil, leftover from my VW GTI - 5W-40 synthetic. I was thinking of using this as a top up for missing oil...? My GTI had to be topped up every month or 2...
Do you guys have to add oil to the WRX that often ?

Thanks !

 

[XJman]

Start the car, get your belt on radio tuned in and drive off. When cold the oil doesn't flow as well so it's important you don't beat on it until the oil is up to operating termpersture. Usually when the coolant temperature hits operating temp it takes about twice that long for oil to be to temp. Or that's just my safe bet. It does take substantially longer to warm than coolant. When you drive sensibly the oil pump will do a better job of circulating the oil and warming it up than idling.

Many use 5w40 rotella t6 is a common choice.

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[irickchad]

You realistically shouldn't have to "top up" your WRX's oil unless it's burning oil at a rapid rate, mostly due to the 3,750 mile change window. 5w40 is a good selection, and a lot of people love Rotella T6.

As for warming up, I always let my coolant get up to temp, whether it's warm or cold out, before I drive off.

 

[XJman]

Wait, no don't top off unless it's the same oil. Sorry totally missed that.



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[dimmy32]

Good to know not to mix 2 diff types..thanks !

 

[dimmy32]

You realistically shouldn't have to "top up" your WRX's oil unless it's burning oil at a rapid rate, mostly due to the 3,750 mile change window. 5w40 is a good selection, and a lot of people love Rotella T6.

As for warming up, I always let my coolant get up to temp, whether it's warm or cold out, before I drive off.

Ok, so how do you know your coolant is up to temp ??

 

[Firefighterjake]

Ok, so how do you know your coolant is up to temp ??

Dashboard gauge?

 

[EJ257]

Both of what you've heard is correct, but for different reasons.

1) You do not need to let your car warm up before driving it. This is 100% true. As XJ pointed out, start the car the moment you get in, then focus on the other items (e.g., seatbelt, radio, cigarette, windows/mirrors, cell phone, etc.). By the time you've gotten those taken care of, it will have been about a minute or so, and the oil is circulating enough to start putting normal cruise loads on it.
2) Turbo engines need some time to warm up. This is one of those ambiguous statements that is sometimes true, sometimes false. You don't want to be subjecting the vehicle to high engine load while the oil is still cold (this is true for ANY car), but F/I makes it even worse than in a N/A vehicle.

The only time I let the vehicle "warm up" at idle is when there is snow/ice on the vehicle. I will get in the vehicle, start it, grab my snow brush/scraper, then clear any accumulation off the vehicle. As soon as it's clear, I hop in and do my regular routine and off I go. The only real advantage to this is that I save my rear window for last, and hope that the rear defroster will make scraping ice back there easier than the other five windows (vs doing everything without the vehicle on).

When you're driving, my recommendation would be to keep RPMs to ~3K and below until your coolant temperature gauge gets into normal operating range. If you don't have a way to monitor oil temperature, the "twice as long as coolant" is a pretty good estimation, so keep a mental ballpark note of how long that took. Until oil is up to temperature, keep the RPMs to ~3.5K and below. Once oil is up to temperature, you're good to go, enjoy the car.

As said, unless you have the same brand oil, even mixing same "weights" could still be bad, as not all oils are equivalent.

 

[dimmy32]

Awesome thanks so much ! I guess I'll try and sell my GTI oil ...I paid around 70$ for it....dang !
As for temp gauges, I only have one temperature gauge for the engine....does that read the coolant temp, the engine temp . or oil temp ?? And it takes quite a bit of driving to get up to normal temps.

..indicated here in yellow circle...

 

[irickchad]

Awesome thanks so much ! I guess I'll try and sell my GTI oil ...I paid around 70$ for it....dang !
As for temp gauges, I only have one temperature gauge for the engine....does that read the coolant temp, the engine temp . or oil temp ?? And it takes quite a bit of driving to get up to normal temps.

..indicated here in yellow circle...

View attachment 284457

That'd be the coolant temp. It'll be right around 180* when fully warmed, and 118* gets the needle moving. It would take around 15 mins idling to get it all the way up to temp.


What kind of oil is your GTI oil? You said 5w40, what brand?

 

[dimmy32]

yup - its this -

 

[irickchad]

yup - its this -
View attachment 284473

Castrol is good oil. You could always hang onto it and use it at your next change.

 

[XJman]

Castrol is good oil. You could always hang onto it and use it at your next change.

This.

Sadly, there isn't an oil temp gauge. It's really as important as coolant temperature and being out of operating temperature range will cause problems. Too hot and it's super thin and will not protect as well, too cold and it won't flow as well.

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