a couple of newbie questions

There is no reason to wait once you have put the car into "Ready" mode, in fact the car will start the ICE (internal combustion engine) about 7 seconds after Ready to warm up the engine and catalytic converter.

You can stop the theft deterent (alarm) by either a) selecting IG-ON mode or b) unlocking one of doors (see attached)

 

Don't bother warming up any modern car while stationary, it isn't necessary and is very wasteful. Don't hammer the thing either, just start and drive in a docile manner. This will warm the engine faster and more evenly and it doesn't throw fuel away for nothing.
1. Get in
2. Buckle up
3. Start up
4. Get going in a safe manner at sedate rates of acceleration for a minute
5. Drive normally
The only reason older cars needed warming up was the manual or auto choke needed time to back off and to allow thick stodgy oils of yesteryear to start to circulate a little. None of this applies any more.

 

What they said! Get in and drive.

I don't know of a way to set off the alarm other than by actually breaking into the car, so try not to do that :_> It might possibly by triggered by the 12V battery dying, but I have not read of it actually happening (even though 12V batteries do die/get killed sometimes, and cause weird stuff to happen).

 

I was also wondering whether I needed to warm my car up. It was -5 degrees yesterday so I let it warm up about 15 minutes...living in a cold climate and being a little old school prompted me to do it...but if it doesn't help any then I probably won't.

 

Don't bother. It doesn't help, unless you use a block heater.

Tom

 

I've lived my entire life in upstate NY and some of it in Boston and never heard of such a practice so im really intriuged by this/worried im damagin my car now.

Does anyone have an actual source saying one way or the other or is everyone just going off there experience?

 

The actual source in the case of the Prius is Toyota. Their information clearly states that ICE start with the Prius involves bringing the ICE up to running speed (~1000 RPM), waiting for oil pressure, and then applying fuel and spark. It's not your standard starting cycle. The ICE starts and stops so often it is mandatory to do it in a non-damaging way.

Tom

 

The only thing it helps is your comfort. Warm air is available immediately in that case, so for some, comfort over-rides efficiency. In either case, 15 minutes is way too long. 3-5 minutes is more in line for getting warm air blowing at those temperatures.

I have heard that on standard cars, excessive idling will cause the catalytic converter to wear out sooner because it's not operating at ideal temperatures. Not sure if that's true for the Prius.

Growing up in the 70's and 80's in northern MN, when winter temperatures routinely hit -40 (F or C), we rarely spent any time letting the vehicle warm up. That was seen as a convenience to passengers only. Of course, back then the body would rust out before the engine would fail. It wasn't until I had the '65 VW bug that I heard the advice to let the engine warm up before driving so the oil coats the cylinders, and even there it didn't make sense. What's going to let the oil splash around the components on startup more - idling or gentle driving? And how would idling 5 seconds be any different than idling 5 minutes in warm weather?

 

The OP lives in LA. What is this "warming up" stuff?

Seriously, no, not necessary. Here in MT I use an EBH during the winter months, which run from October through April.

 

My Mazda CX-9 manual states to the effect that...
Wait about 10 seconds after start-up before driving the vehicle.

I think 10 seconds would be a reasonable amount of time after starting up engine so that oil can get to all moving parts of the engine. A warmed up engine (near operating temperature, says, 193F coolant temp) runs more smoothly.

Of ourse, this may not be 100% applicable to Prius.

 

The oil part is not applicable. One of the motor/generators spins up the Prius engine to 1000 RPM so that oil will circulate at pressure before fuel and spark are applied.

 

The Prius engine runs itself as needed to keep everything at operating temperature.