Start-up engine wear is the wear inside an engine that occurs after the engine has been started and before the engine reaches its highest, normal, operating temperature, which usually takes about 2-minutes. It’s widely acknowledged by automotive engineers that most engine wear occurs within this first 2-minutes of driving before the engine has reached its normal operating temperature.
Instead of driving the vehicle when the engine is still cold in this way and suffering the associated engine wear, it is much better to always warm up the vehicle while it’s stationary and let it idle for at least 2-minutes, until at least the minimum mark on the operating temperature gauge is reached.
After the minimum operating temperature is reached, it’s best to drive the vehicle only very gently, keeping the engine RPM (revolutions per minute) below 2,000 until the engine reaches its highest, normal operating temperature. This should take about another one to two minutes. By making a habit of warming your engine up in this way and then driving gently until the highest, normal operating temperature is reached, you avoid much of the engine wear that’s normally associated with the start-up of a cold engine.
