idle less than 30 seconds. spend a minute trying to 3 wheel down my driveway, get onto the freeway 2 miles down to the road and shift at 8k

 

After reading one page I skipped the rest. I too get in, start car, and drive off, taking it easy. being aware that when putting into first there is resistance some days due to temp and it can pop out while taking off from a stop. this happens, maybe 3 times in the cars life cause i am aware and make certain it is in fact in first. i don't get on it till i have traveled about 10 min or a couple of miles and all bars show and then it is to merg onto freeway. so far no oil use in my 04.

 

After reading one page I skipped the rest. I too get in, start car, and drive off, taking it easy. being aware that when putting into first there is resistance some days due to temp and it can pop out while taking off from a stop. this happens, maybe 3 times in the cars life cause i am aware and make certain it is in fact in first. i don't get on it till i have traveled about 10 min or a couple of miles and all bars show and then it is to merg onto freeway. so far no oil use in my 04.

 

As the manual states, about 1 minute is what takes to get the bars to start raising. That means you're within range. I subscribe to this method.

Note that one minute is a lot longer than getting in and peeling out right away

 

Modern cars/engines don't need to be warmed up before you drive them -- on top of the longer it idles the more fuel it consumes.

what you want to be cautious with, though, is letting the fluids in all key mechanical components (engine, transmission, differential) warm up before you cross 3K RPMs.

 

i let my car idle for the first 3-4 minutes until the engine is warmed up. ive always done that with my S, so its out of habit.

 

I let it idle for maybe 30 seconds, then I just stay below 3000 rpm for the first 10 min.

 

I do the same; start, seatbelt, cd, lock doors, then I'm off. It's weird having to lock the doors manually.

I was also wondering if you guys leave your temp settings in cold first to let the engine warm up more. I've notice on the Honda's I've owned (Integra, 08 Si, and s2k) they warm up very slow on my fifteen minute drive to work and some days don't even fully warm up before I arrive. It's even slower if I actually use the heat or just having the knob in the red without the fan being on, so is leaving it on cold helping it warm up quicker?

Sometimes it'll even be fully warmed up, or so it say, but as soon as I put the heat on, it immediately drops a bar or two. Is that not accurate?

 

15 minutes of driving should get you to full operating temps. Are you the original owner? I ask because I almost wonder if you may have some aftermarket cooling mods done. I know that after I did my Mugen tstat/fan switch, my heater on full blast isn't nearly as hot as it used to be. I've heard stories of people that do the Spoon cooling mods and live in cold climates sometimes have trouble reaching full operating temp.

 

Nope, but I don't see any engine mods and I have seen the cooling plate(?) that goes in front of the radiator before. I've always had this experience with Hondas and have all had similar characteristics. The heat is plenty hot, but the temp gauge fluctuates a lot once I turn the heat on or already have the knob in the red zone from the start. I'm just worried about the engine not warming up properly when the temps are in the 20's or below.

Is the engine temp gauge not entirely accurate?