I've noticed that everybody says something to the effect of "just don't drive hard until the car is warm." Could someone clarify that please? I'd really love to know because my 1.8T takes longer than any car I've ever driven to warm up (~5 minutes in 40 degree weather) and I am forced to be in fast moving traffic earlier than that. I have taken the "don't drive hard" to mean < 4k rpm, but I would love to know some real answers. Thanks in advance!<p>--frank

Excellent question,<p>If you use synthetic, which I strongly advise, then you add some safety margin to the warm up. What you are trying to protect are the turbo and engine bearings. These need a layer of oil to "float" moving metal apart. Synthetic gets to those parts substantially faster and may in fact keep some oil between the bearings for several days.<p>The second issue is that the metal parts exposed to combustion gasses need to warm up, which expands the metal slightly to meet tolerances.<p>That said, I NEVER do a full turbo run until the coolant temp gets to top dead center. I would certainly ignore this if there was an emergency.

Just because the coolant is warm does not mean the oil is warm. Check that gage too, and don't do any hard driving until it's up the "normal" range.<p>Greg "S"

nt<br>

My oil guage doesn't get above 170 at below freezing air temps, and never got above 190 in autocross. Seems pretty laggy, the oil/water cooler seems to work really well.

What is harder on the engine, a higher RPM when cold, or very low RPM. I work at the bottom of a hill, so every night the car's first task is getting me over the hill. The options seem to be either 1500 in 3rd or 4000 in 2nd (at the speed that is appropriate on the hill... Of course I could change speeds, but that ignores the question.) So I tend to do the 1500 in 3rd, but the engine definitely is pulling at that speed and that slope... Anyone got opinions on which is better (or less worse)?

Standard gauges for oil and coolant temp are not known for being scientifically accurate. It appears to me that "normal" operating temp for your car's oil is 170-190 on the gauge. If oil is warmed up to "normal" I would say you can "let 'er rip". (On my 2.8, "normal" seems to be between 200&225)<br> As motorcyclist are known to say;<br> "Keep the rubber side down"<p> Greg "S"

I dont really have any facts to back this up, but from what Ive heard from different people and the way I drive my car ('98 A4 Avant T FWD, Mobil1) <p>I would say that 4000rpms just after the car has been started in the morning is TOO high. I never go above 2200rpms unti I at least have a 90C reading on the coolant, and a ~80C oil temp. Also, I try not to go under 1200 flat/downhill, or 1600 uphill. <p>After that, I might take it to 3000-3200 and when I get 90C+ on oil, I go to like 4000. I try not to go higher than that, until Ive done at least 15km, after that, punch it, and go as high as I want. This is how I treat it, and I baby it more and more depending on how cold it gets here, currently we are having a few degrees below zero (C). <br>Taking it easy in the beginning and many oil changes are the best ways to treat a turbo.<p>Joe M

Greg and Jim,<p>I can vouch that the guages are not really accurate but they do seem pretty precise. Like I posted, I don't go romping around on a cold motor regardless. <p>The beauty of synthetic, using 5w30, is that the oil is ALREADY at operating temperature. It has a 5 weight rating at startup (unless it is -10, etc.). It is not comparable to a dino 30 wt. that has to be at 80-90 degrees to flow between really close tolearnces. The 180 deg coolant temp is to burn off water and blowby products that get into the oil (and helps with combustion temperature for emmissions, etc.). The synthetic oil is well within its protective temperature range for the bearings immediately at startup.