I’ve just bought a new Evoque first edition 180D. Thee is a feature on the app to remotely start the car when it’s cold. I have used it and it’s brilliant. The thing is that I was led to believe that you shouldn’t allow a cold engine to idle and you are supposed to drive off immediately. I have an engineering background and I can’t really see what difference it makes. Can anybody let me know if this is fact or fable.
To the best ofd my knowledge, the "Drive off immediately" is related to emissions issues and regulations in EU countries.
From a mechanical point of view, with any combustion engine, after a cold start, it is always advisable to allow the engine to warm up gradually without load. This will give time for temperatures to equalise gradually and also oil to circulate throughout.
A couple of minutes idling should help a lot. From the environmental side, idling is producing extra pollution, so you should drive off immediately.
As an engineer, driving off on a cold engine is heresy...
It is also a problem for PHEV owners when you tickle the gas pedal a bit too hard at 70mph in electric mode and suddenly a stone cold petrol engine starts up on a high load. I have had a couple of oil leaks cured on mine that are as a result of this happening and now try to pre-war m the petrol engine before giving the car the beans to overtake etc. My Mini PHEV’s throttle is particularly sensitive and if I leave it in Auto eDrive it will switch automatically between Petrol and electric power sources, I have to run in Max eDrive mode to stop the petrol engine cutting in - it’s good for 85moh in pure electric mode but with only 87 electric horses acceleration is a bit sedate 40-70mph but once you let the petrol engine join in it’s a real flyer
Thanks Mickeyf. That was my thinking also. Better not to stress the engine till it’s warmed up a bit at least. I shall continue to use my remote start on these cold mornings