2nd Gen R56 Cooper S How cold is too cold?

That's an interesting question.

At -321°F The nitrogen that makes up ~78% of our air will turn to a liquid. That would cause serious problems to the turbo. However, I'm pretty sure there would be many other issues with the car that manifest themselves before that point.

 

Below 40-45*F, your nice sticky summer tires will start to get slippery. And you should warm the turbo up a little slower by going easy on the pedal. But in general, motors are designed to create heat. It'll get up to temperature eventually, you just have to go easy on it till everything warms up.

 

hehe.......:lol:

 

Not sure if I ever read a study on this but a few things mentioned along with turbo's go in line with this thought.

Colder Temperatures:

Decreases the temperature of the fuel. Good vaporization of the fuel needs heat. The Colder it is the less of the gasoline is vaporized so less energy of the gasoline is available. = less MPG and overall power.

Increases aerodynamic drag.
Will increase the rolling resistance of the tires.
Very Long engine warm up times.

Block heaters are still commonly used in many parts of the US.

 

Cold should not be a problem as long as you wait for the engine & its oil to warm up before flogging your MINI.

 

Chuck....you should be ashamed ....flogging your MINI??? ....and in the cold?

 

She likes it.... :ihih:

 

I think if you use the factory synthetic oil - unless you're down in the many, many degrees below 0 temp range - that warming the engine up slowly isn't necessary - that's the whole point of synthetic oil, isn't it? Free flowing under harsh conditions? And the harder you push it the quicker everything gets warmed up - right?

I know this seems to fly in the face of everything we've ever learned about cars, but like I said unless you're way below 0, I think in a block or two you can just go - without harming it. There are practically no circumstances where you leave your house and you can drive wide open anyway, so what I'm talking about here is jumping on the highway, or even heading out on a spirited run...

However, if it's well below 0 you do need to warm up everything else (including the driver! :biggrin5: ) including the shocks, suspension bushes, transmission oil, grease in the bearings etc, so a couple of miles of easy driving would probably be a good thing - chances are at that temp conditions are too slippery for spirited motoring anyway - caution should be the word.

IMHO, start it up and drive normally - whatever "normally" means to you!